Little Miss is TWO!

Yep, she's already TWO! Can't believe how fast they grow in two years. Here's a break down of a few developmental areas:

Physically: We call her our gross-motor girl! She loves to climb, jump, and especially dance. Put on some music with a beat and the girl will start dancing. She can hang with some pretty tough 3 year old boys and hold her own. She doesn't easily get hurt and is afraid of little. It's a crazy combo on a play ground made for bigger kids :)
Verbally: This is the area we've seen the most growth. She seems to be talking more and more every day. It's so fun to hear what she is thinking and often it's funny. For example, she's started shaking our hands, and other peoples, and introducing herself. She shakes our hands and says, "Nice to meet you!" When people leave our house she often says, "Thanks for coming!"

Emotionally: She's started identifying emotions and we are working on communicating of her feelings. She's very expressive, whether she's overjoyed, frustrated, scared, etc. Scared is a new emotion she just started sharing. For example, we bought a video monitor for the kids room this week. We can talk to her through the monitor without going into her room. I tried this the other day and she was ok, but last night Clay told her to get back in bed through the monitor and she freaked out! She was so scared and was terrified of us leaving the room we thought we might have ruined sleeping in her room forever. Fortunately, we let her play with the monitor until she was comfortable with it and she went to sleep.

Socially: She loves to be around people of all ages. She knows all her friends and family by name, and loves to be with all of them. Daddy continues to be her favorite person, which is how it should be. They have so much fun together too! The other day Clay was talking in a British accent and wearing a hat while playing tea party with her. This is not unusual in our house.

We love our tenacious, active, social, fearless, bright little girl!

 

As a side note, all kids develop at different rates in the different developmental areas. Gem's development is not a reflection of what is normal for other children her age. I've only highlighted her strengths above in a few developmental areas. The normal range for toddler development is really wide. If you have any concerns about your child's development your pediatrician is a good resource.