25 months old

Yesterday my Taylor-tot turned 25 months old, and while I was iffy on continuing with my monthly milestone posts past the two year mark, I realized that we just had such an exciting month that I had to document it. Because THIS is my baby book, and if I wasn’t recording all of her firsts on this blog we would have to rely solely on my brain for remembering all of these things. And, no offense to my Brain and all, but I just don’t trust it to keep all of these important, toddler benchmarks on file without blog-backup. So here we are, Taylor’s monthly milestones, version 2.0.

We welcomed the transition into Life with a Two year old at a steady pace, keeping ourselves occupied with parties, festivals and lots and lots of time at the park. Lucky for us, we have a little girl who thrives on being outside and running around, and everyday I try to find some sort of a new adventure for us to explore and keep us away from the television. After such a long winter, we are all taking a much needed break from Miss Dora and Mickey Mouse, and T couldn’t be happier to run through the sprinkler for two hours straight or play in the yard until her whole body stinks like feet. It’s heavenly.

And a few weeks ago we took our little peanut to her first-ever PGA golf tournament. Chris scored two passes to the fancy-shmancy, executive tent on the 18th green at Quail Hollow last month, and we decided to make a last-minute daytrip to Charlotte to check out the action. Taylor did as well as could be expected. She didn’t care at all about seeing all the golfers play through, but the tent had an unlimited supply of water bottles and chips, so she was a happy camper. It was a great setup for Chris and I as well, as we were able to get primo seats to watch the action, free cocktails and whenever T felt like squealing during a backswing, I was able to take her inside the tent and let her shriek to her hearts delight. By the end of the day, we had seen almost all the golfers we had wanted to, and Taylor had become the Wells Fargo tent mascot, with every single person there feeding her snacks and squeezing her cheeks for good luck. It was a great day.

Another milestone we hit this past month was letting T participate in a YMCA’s Parent’s Night Out. The age requirement is two, and since we already know almost all the girls and guys that work in the Child Watch program, we decided to test our luck, take advantage of the cheap babysitting and let her spend an evening of fun with them. It’s a really great program, and they feed the kids snacks, do crafts, swim and let them go through a gigantic inflatable obstacle course. I brought along a big bag a snacks, her blankie and her jammies, just in case she needed any comfort items from home, but she did just awesome and was so excited to show us all of her crafts and toys she played with when we picked her up. So it was not only a fun-time for her, but Chris and I were able to get out and play golf together for the first time in three years. And that was fantastic. And she slept until 8.30 the next morning. So I’m thinking we’re gonna be taking advantage of the Y’s semi-monthly PNO from here on out.

Taylor has also become quite the Chatty-Kathy this past month. She can pretty much say and repeat anything we say, which has gotten us in trouble a few times. Me while driving, and Chris while watching the nightly news. We have moved to spelling things we don’t want her to understand, but with as fast as she’s evolving, I’m not sure how much time we have left with that either. My favorite thing about her talking has to be the way she narrates everything anything is doing. Momma tie her shoe, or Ruby lick the floor, or Daddy go outside, or TeeTee read her book. Sometimes she’ll run into kitchen at full speed to rehash something that just went down on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and be all, Goofy fell down, Momma! GOOFY. FELL. DOWN. And then she’ll realize she’s missing the outcome of the cartoon and – Poof! – like a ninja, she’ll be gone. Well, a ninja that stomps on the hardwood and sings at the top of her lungs while running.

And while her language skills have peaked this month, so have her stubbornness and fierce independence. One of her most used phrases is still, I DO IT! And don’t even try helping her to put on her shoes or walk up and down the stairs, as she will scream bloody murder and collapse in a sobbing mess on the floor. She has to DO everything. Or at least try to DO for twenty minutes until she gets so frustrated the only thing that can pull her out of her tantrum are Dora gummie snacks or sprinkler time. And I blame all of this bullheadedness on her father. I used to think Chris was the most stubborn person I knew, until I met his spawn. I’m flashforwarding about 15 years from now, both T and her Dad in the car, trying to direct themselves around somewhere, both fuming at the other for suggesting an alternate route. Both clenching their jaws and squinting out the front window, knowing inside that THEY are right. Oh, and we don’t even have to wait 15 years, I saw the both of them do that dance the other night over picking out a book to read at bedtime.

Something else she has obviously inherited from her Dad is her brainiac skills. We have been practicing her counting for the past few months, and the other night while goofing around she counted all the way up to fifteen. FIFTEEN. I was ready to stop at ten, and then she pulled out the, Eh-leh-ben, and just went with it. I was flabbergasted. And after we put her to bed that night, Chris got a silly grin on his face and said, She’s MY brain in YOUR body. She’s gonna rule the world.

Like there was ever any doubt.