The Simple Life: Emilia - TWO YEARS OLD!

There are officially no more babies in our house. What a strange thought! While it is sad that Emilia is growing up, there is so much fun still to be had! She's a fiercely independent, stubborn little girl, who loves to cuddle her Mommy, and will sit quietly on my lap for long periods of time.

Her birthday looks a little different this year - no big party, no friends, no hugs (from anyone other than us). Last year we had the most fun party for her first birthday!

Dominic at two years

Weight: 26 lb. (60th percentile) - 9 lb less than Dom at two years haha!

Height: 34.5 inches (60th percentile)

Likes:

Animals. I know most kids love animals, but she has a special affinity for dogs especially, and brings animals into all areas of play (similar to Dom bringing cars into all areas of his play and learning).
Singing and dancing.
Minnie Mouse. I love that we have the Disney app on our TV. Their favorite show right now is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Emilia is in love with Minnie and Daisy. Seeing how excited they get about the characters, and watching them laugh until their stomachs hurt at Donald Duck's antics makes me so excited to bring them to Disneyland some day!
Favorite Foods: Tortellini soup, noodles, quesadilla, strawberries, yogurt, peanut-butter noodles, rice, applesauce
Routine. Once she decides something is a part of the routine, Lord help you if you accidentally skip it!
Queen... Like the band. I have an "Oldies" playlist so I can listen to music I like that is also safe for the kids. It starts with "We Will Rock You", so the kids are always asking for the *slap slap clap* song, hitting their legs and clapping. I then realized one day when Bohemian Rhapsody came on, that Emilia started singing along all by herself, "Mamaaaaa, oo-oo-ooooooo". She will randomly break out into that song throughout the day as well.
Babies. She loves her dolls, and playing Playmobil at Opa & Oma's with the little baby in the crib.

Dislikes:

The usual two-year-old things. Not getting what she wants, suggesting she do something she doesn't want to do, etc. etc.
Her shadow. Ever since the winter, she's been terrified of her own shadow. She doesn't mind the idea of shadows, and she's not afraid of ours, just her own. I think it's the fact that if she's walking and it's in front of her, she can't step over it. It's always following her and is always just there. She's slowly starting to accept the fact that it's just going to be there no matter what, but she constantly keeps an eye on it.

Notes:

2T clothing, size 5 diapers and 2T-3T pull-ups, size 5 shoes.
Still has 12 teeth - waiting on those 2-year molars
More words than we could list - every day she has new words. She's a flapper, but thank GOODNESS for Dominic. A lot of the time I cannot understand what on earth she's asking for. Dom seems to understand Emilia-nese and helps us translate.
She has her set bedtime routine, but she occasionally likes to switch it up without telling us. Currently, it is...

7pm - Watch the cowbells & cheer for the frontline workers
Change into diaper jammies (while running around the room hiding from Mom)
Brush teeth in Mom's bathroom, while Dom's toothbrush is stuck to the mirror with the suction cup (I don't know...)
Get zipped into sleep-sack, but MUST have a foot left out of the zipper "One 'oot out". (Took me a while to figure out what she was asking for)
Go to rocking chair and read the "Minnie Book", with both her blankies and her Lady stuffy (Ady) and her teddy bear (ehhy-urr). She will decided whether she wants to sit with me or stand on the floor in front, and does not like if I guess wrong the first time.
After reading the Minnie book, put Lady to bed (aka toss her into the crib).
Go back to the chair to pray.
Turn on sound machine, and then turn it down because "too oud", and close blinds (Emilia must close the second half on her own)
Use her "ehhy-urr" to turn off the light, using his ears, toes, or hands - whatever she thinks is funniest that day.
Go tuck teddy bear in (huck him into the crib)
Have a quick snuggle "uggle", and then lay her down with her two blankies around her.
*I have no idea how it became so complicated! I'm sure she'd switch it up for someone else, but if I want bedtime to go perfectly smoothly, this is how it works. She's a creature of habit, and just keeps adding things on haha

Can count to 11! Well... sort of... it goes, "1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11!!!"
Can do the whole alphabet! Well... sort of... it goes, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, W, X, Y, Z." I actually kind of like the way this flows.
Apparently she is much like I was at this age. Similar interests, temperament and personality quirks.
She will eat most food, unless she decides not to eat at all which happens occasionally, (moreso lately just to exercise her independence), but there is not much she doesn't like.
Sings Happy Birthday, "Appy New You To You" - it all started at New Years when we were practicing saying, "Happy New Year!" a few days after singing "Happy Birthday" to Dom. I guess that led to some confusion!
She loves to pretend its your birthday, and bring the little tray of treats from her tea set over and sing Appy New You to you.
She is very girly and loves to accessorize - purse, sunglasses, fancy shoes, hairstyles, dresses, etc. Other days she likes to just run around naked, so I guess there's some balance.
As mentioned above, she insists on having at least one foot out of her sleepsack/blankets. This is just like me. In the middle of winter I must have at least one foot out or I feel claustrophobic and like I'm overheating.
Sherlock loves her so much. I don't know why, but he is drawn to her. When I get her in the morning he almost always comes upstairs with me and goes in first to poke his nose through the crib bars. Then I'll take her out and sit down with her and Sherlock will come over and snuggle and lick her and love on her. Often during the day I find them sitting on the couch together. Mostly that's just annoying to Emilia because he likes to lay on her blankets and he's too heavy for her to get them out.
Her anterior fontanelle (hole in her skull that all babies have) still hasn't closed all the way. The doctor isn't overly concerned about it because she's meeting/surpassing milestones, but we will have to have a follow-up appointment soon.
She's still an amazing sleeper, both at night and at naps. I can recall one time in the last year (or more) where she woke up in the middle of the night. It was a couple weeks ago, and I think she had a dream we were leaving her out of something because she woke up yelling ,"Da too! Da too!!!! MOMMY!!!! DA TOO!" (translates to "me too" or "Emilia too"). I didn't even know what to do because I've never had to go in after putting her down to bed. (Great problem to have)
She can do a 12 piece puzzle on her own. She has to have done it a few times before hand with support from us, but then she just has it memorized I guess!
A lot of her personality traits I noted in her 18 month post are the same - savoring things, independence, short TV attention span, friendly, etc.
She's not potty-trained, but she is very aware of when she's peeing and pooping. Honestly, I'm just lazy. She could probably potty train quite quickly now if we dedicated the time to it, but it's so much easier to just change her. Especially now that Dom is potty trained, much less diapers to change!
She loves to just sit and flip through her favorite books (mostly Minnie Mouse). She asks me to build her a "house" a tiny fort with pillows and just sit in there and "read"