Emilia - 2.5 Years

 Our little lady is 2.5 years old today. She's our peanut, and weighs less than Dom did before he turned 1 haha!

Dominic at 2.5 Years

Weight: 27.5 lb (50th percentile)

Height: 36.5 inches (75th percentile)

Likes: 

• Sleep. This girl loves to sleep! She never ever complains about going to bed, and never ever asks to come out of bed before we go get her. She'd lay happily in there all day I'm sure. 
• Arts and crafts.
• Puzzling
• Feeling mature and important/being given a job (like setting the table)

Dislikes:

• Waking up. To go along with her love of sleep, I have to say she is NOT a morning person. She will refuse to speak to you if you wake her up, and will just roll back over like a teenager and pretend to be asleep half the time. 

Notes:

• 2T-3T clothing, size 7C shoes, size 5 diapers (hopefully not for much longer!)
• She has all her teeth for now.
• She's definitely her mother's daughter - rather independent. She's officially created/coined the term "snuggling by myself". She loves to cuddle, but sometimes we will try cuddle her, and she just says, "no no, me cuddle by myself." She just wants her blankets, and to go snuggle on the couch with them. I have never seen something so relatable. I, too, like to cuddle and be cozy, but sometimes I just don't want to cuddle a person. I just want to be alone, but also to cuddle. It's complicated, and I appreciate that Emilia understands haha. 
• She's such a girly girl. Dolls, drawing, painting, babies, animals, playing kitchen, accessorizing, etc. She loves them all and is naturally drawn to these activities - they're what she chooses when Dom is at preschool, and it's just her and I. Having an older brother, however, means her play is well-rounded, and she also likes to pay cars, Star Wars (pew pew pew with blasters and lego ships), garbage truck, dinosaurs, hockey, wrestling, etc. etc. 
• She has a great attention span for puzzles and arts and crafts. She can do a 24 piece puzzle on her own (we just got some from Value Village and I was so shocked how quickly she figured them out - before that she'd been doing 12 piece puzzles). She has a great eye for colour and attention to detail when colouring/painting. 
  
• She can count to 19... sort of. "1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18, 19!" It always goes 1, 2, 8. Not sure why we can't get the 3 in there haha!
• When Dom goes to preschool she is very excited. When you ask her what she'll do, she says, "Dom go preschool with him lunch box, and me eat my snack in my lunch box at home with Mommy!" Apparently it's all about the lunch box.
• She plays with our emotions. She has an EXCELLENT pout face, and is pretty good at holding it even when we know she's full of shit. She'll pout and say, "Me haad" (sad) any time something isn't going 100% her way, or even sometimes when it is and she just wants a little extra attention. 
• She has natural self control when it comes to candy and chocolate and other crap food. On Halloween she picked a mandarin orange out of her bag and left the chocolates behind. (She gets this self control from me, not from her Dad haha!)
• She will often eat only her vegetables/fruit for lunch and dinner, and leave the rest of the stuff, or ask for "no bread". What?! Umm... okay? Over all she's a pretty good eater though. We just try not to worry about how much she eats - she won't starve herself :)
• She's a trooper and a good sport when keeping up to Dom and the rest of us. If we're out walking, she never complains about being tired. She just says, "Just a couple more walking." or "Okay. Let's go! Let's do it!" and trudges along. Though I caught her on Halloween trick or treating and quietly singing to herself, "my feet hurting, my feet tired..."
• She sings all the time. She just makes up her own little songs, "Going home, going hooooome," for example, on the way home from the grocery store. At home walking around you'll often catch her humming the Imperial March from Star Wars too.
• She is very excited about the baby, and insists she also has a baby in her tummy. "My belly getting bigger!," "my bellybutton almost out!" "Me going to check on baby. First, me lift shirt, then, me put on jelly. Then, me turn on machine. Then, me listen for baby. That me heart.... that baby heart. Baby heart fast! Then, me turn off machine. Then, me wipe off jelly. Then, me put down shirt!" (Clearly she understands sequences and has meticulously watched me use the doppler a few times!)
• She is suddenly more attached to me. She has taken to demanding to be on my lap when I'm working from home. This is not ideal for meetings or general productivity. 
• We plan to potty train soon-ish. I have two packs of diapers left and don't plan to buy more. With this quarantine maybe I should just dedicate a few days. I'm lazy, and it's so much easier to go out with kids when I don't have to worry about when/if/where she'll have to pee!
• She is an excellent partner to bring along if you're shopping or have an appointment. She'll be just the right amount of friendly/bashful, and she's quiet and obedient when we're out. (Please don't jinx this, Renee!) Not that we go out much anymore.
• She calls herself "ee-ya", we call her Wheels quite often. (This derived from Dom calling her Wheelia before he could say Emilia).
• Since Dom started going to preschool I feel like Emilia is getting more and more confident and growing into her own personality. It's amazing what a little alone time can do for a person!
• Emilia is still sleeping in her mini crib. She loves her bed so much there's no sense in messing it up! Slash I'm not ready to officially move her into Dom's room yet, and don't feel like setting up the toddler bed in her room haha. 
• She's learning to assert herself against Dom, who can be a little overbearing and bossy when they play. It's a great developmental step, but causes fights which is less fun for me! Haha

We love this little girl more than words can say! I'm so grateful you were brought into our family! I can't wait to see her adapt to being a big sister <3 

Some of the other pics from our photoshoot

The most classic "Cheese" face there ever was.