+At age 2, she is now 26 pounds and 33 inches tall.
+She's still an incredibly energetic kid, who never sits still (except maybe to eat, but even that is going by the wayside these days). The flip side of that is that she is pretty much a good sleeper. She'll usually sleep about 11-12 hours at night, and take a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon. And even when she wants to stay up, she never really fights bedtime or naptime. She may try to stall, but once we're reading books, singing songs, praying, and laying down she's fine and doesn't complain. It's the one area we've never had trouble with her from 3 1/2 months old till now!
+Since Barack Obama has been all over the media from the time he started his campaign, and especially now that he's president, Kylan surprised us by knowing who he is. She sees him on TV and says "Barack Obama! President. Pretty he is." (She must think he's cute or something, haha.) She also told me she likes his hair. To go along with that, whenever she sees a flag she yells "Barack Obama's flag!" We figured out that every time he's speaking to the nation or giving an interview, there's usually a flag in the background- hence the reason she thinks the flag is his. She now knows that it's the American flag and will sometimes remember to say that instead. She also can recognize Michelle Obama anywhere she sees her and says "Michelle, wife. Married."
+Awhile back she couldn't say "candy" and called it "doody". It was hilarious. She'd go to someone's house and see a candy dish and say "Doody, please?" She now, within the last couple of months, can say "candy" correctly. Not as funny though.
+Also around the same she was pronouncing "candy" as "doody" she was also singing "Happy doo doo" for "Happy birthday to you". Again, cute and funny. But now, after all her own birthday celebrations, she's got the real words down pat.
+She says "okay" very dramatically. Either really drawn out or with a huge emphasis on the "kay". She does it all the time and it makes me laugh every time. She also uses "okay" as her way of talking us into what she wants. She'll say "Move? Yeah- okay! Okay!" It's apparently the power of positive thinking. She thinks that if she says what she wants us to answer with, then we'll do it. Smart girl. It's usually cute enough and emphatic enough that we want to give in.
+Has been referring to herself as "Kylan" a lot instead of "me/my". "Kylan do it" is a common phrase around this house. Though she does know how to use "me/my" and sometimes will. But a lot of times it's still in third person.
+She's still confused sometimes by the difference between "me" and "you". She doesn't understand that if I say "you" to her, I mean Kylan. But if she says "you" to me, it means Mommy. So some common phrases she says are "Help you!" when she wants help or "Mommy hold her!" when she wants picked up.
+Says "mines" or "owns" if she's trying to say something is "mine" or she wants her "own" of anything.
+Though she'll still try almost any food (a few of the latest being hummus, guacamole, and lentils- all of which she liked) she's not eating quite as much as she used to. Mostly due to the fact that she moves around too much and tries to stand up in her chair, turn around and get herself stuck, etc. But when she can pick she'll always say she wants a turkey sandwich and yogurt. For some reason those are two of her favorite things. For breakfast we usually have lots of fresh fruit and maybe some toast. For lunch it's usually half a turkey sandwich, yogurt, and cherry tomatoes. For snacks we do a lot of string cheese and maybe some cheerios. And for dinner, she eats whatever we eat.
+She's good with matching. She knows when two things are the same and are "a match!" Or sometimes she'll say "Same as!" She gets very excited when she finds two or more of the same things and recognizes that they match. She also knows that if her shirt has purple in it, she can wear her purple pants with it because it matches. I thought that was kind of impressive. She's obsessed with matching games (she has a Blue's Clues one and a Finding Nemo one that we made out of leftover Valentines). She doesn't like to turn them all upside down and look for them that way though. She puts them all face-up and then searches for the matches and puts them together in a stack.
+After every bath, when I wrap her in her towel, she wants me to stand in front of the bathroom mirror so she can watch and has me sing "Rockabye Baby" with her all snuggled in her towel.
+Really likes Play Doh and thinks its so much fun to play with. She has a set that Aunt Trisha, Uncle Nate and Macy got her for Christmas that has a bunch of animal cookie cutters in it so that she can make animals out of her Play Doh.
+Remembers names/faces really well. Also remembers who gave her what- she knows what toys came from who and on what occasion. For example, she'll put on her clothes for the day and say "Jess got" or "Jess gave" if it's one of the many outfits Jess Crawford has gotten her. Or she'll ask for "bear from Gigi" when trying to tell me the specific stuffed animal she's looking for.
+Wants to know who everyone and everything is. She's constantly saying "Who's that?" or "What's that?" She wants to know who every single character on every single page of her books are, even if they're just in the background. Sometimes she'll point to a character and say "Point- who is?". And she wants to know who every person is on every commercial on TV, asking "Who's that? What's name?" On one page of a book she has, there was a sky full of stars and she said "Mommy, who's that? What's stars names?" She thinks every object has a name and that I should know what it is and tell her.
+She knows a couple Spanish words. She can say "open", "stop", and "Let's go!" in Spanish. She learned these from Dora and then some reinforcement from me when we use those words. Sometimes she says other words that I'm sure are Spanish, but that I don't recognize because I wasn't paying close enough attention to her Dora episode as she was watching it.
+Still uses some signs (alongside her words, obviously). She'll use "please", "thank you", "milk", "game", "friend", and "more" still.
+She can count to 20 on her own (sometimes she needs a bit of help in the high teens, but she's usually got it down pat).
+She can recite the whole alphabet (and sing the whole alphabet song).
+She LOOOOOVES to sing. Her favorites are "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus Loves the Little Children", "The B-I-B-L-E", lots of Christmas carols, some of Mommy & Daddy's music (like "Baby's A Red" by House of Heroes) and much, much more. She loves any/all music. As of late, she has an Ariel CD, Strawberry Shortcake CD, a few Veggie Tales CDs, and a Dora's World Adventure CD that are all from the library. She could listen to these on rotation all day long. There's a song called "Jambo" (which is how you say "hello" in Swahili) that she sings on her own and wants to listen to on repeat. And one of her Veggie Tales CDs is the characters singing "Christian Hits". Her favorites of those are Relient K's "Sadie Hawkins Dance", Switchfoot's "Meant to Live" done by the French Peas, Audio Adrenaline's "Big House", and Amy Grant's "Baby, Baby". She sings along with them all. Its hysterical. She's also just realized that we have some music where "Daddy's singing". I put a few of Ryan's old Detour songs and a few of the newer things he's written on the iPod and she immediately recognized it was her Dad's voice and thinks that is so cool.
+She knows her first and last name (and sometimes will throw in her middle). It comes out "Ky-in Saw-wi-day". So cute. She has a shirt from Grandma Patty & Papa that says "Property of SOLIDA" and when she saw it she recognized that it said Solida and she always asks to wear it. She also recognizes her first name when she sees it written.
+One day I walked into the room and she was like "What's up?" I died laughing. She also started saying "Hey guys" when multiple people walk near her. I don't know why, but it's so funny to hear her little voice say the same phrases that we use.
+She knows the difference in the sexes. She's really into pointing out who are "boys" and who are "girls". She even gives her stuffed animals genders. She told me her monkey is a boy, and Tinkerbell is a girl, but that they are friends anyways. Haha. That makes me think she thinks that maybe girls are only supposed to be friends with girls and boys are only supposed to be friends with boys. But she wanted her boy monkey and girl Tinkerbell to "be friends" anyways.
+When she says "Kick Thunder" it comes out "Kackunder". And she's started to boss Kicker around a bit over the last couple of months. She's very concerned if Kick Thunder is near her toys. She'll just be sniffing them and Kylan yells "NO Kackunder! NO!" She tells me she thinks the cat is putting the toys in her mouth and eating it, haha. In reality she's just walking past and sniffing it. We've told her now that Kicker won't hurt her toys, so she's a little better with it lately. Sometimes they act like siblings who are vying for our attention and not wanting each other to come too close to the other's space.
+She's doing well with potty training. She still wears diapers most of the time, but when we are home for a few hours at a time, she can wear "big girl underwear" (either Dora or Tinkerbell) and she has really been keeping them dry lately! She can usually tell me when she needs to go (if she's not too deep into whatever she's playing) and she has started using a little potty seat on top of the big toilet instead of her little potty that sits on the floor. She thinks she more grown up this way. Whatever works. We give her raisins, stamps or stickers when she pees and a cookie, stamps or stickers when she poops. Hopefully soon we'll get this down pat.
+Her imagination is taking off. Just can take an object and within seconds she's telling me what it's become- and then it keeps changing as her imagination keeps going. So fun to watch.
+A few months ago she was still saying "hehaw" for "thank you", but ever since before Christmas she's been able to say it clearly now. Same goes for Macy's name. When she was first born in November Kylan called her "May-me". Now, though, she can say "Macy" perfectly clear.
+She knows what Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald's are. They must do a great job marketing, because we don't frequent any of those places much. A couple months ago in the grocery store I was looking through my coupons and talking outloud to Kylan saying "I've just got to find this one coupon because it will save us money", and she says "Walmart. Walmart save you money. Saw on TV." She apparently picked up on a Walmart commercial that said they'd save us money and she remembered it. Then one time when we walked into Target, she pointed to her left and said "Starbucks!" and I looked over and realized they had just put a Starbucks into the front of our Target. She recognized the word "Starbucks" and their symbol. She does the same with McDonald's when we drive by one. She tells me "See McDonald's!" She does this with the YMCA symbol (which is just a "Y") as well. If she sees that letter somewhere she says "Mommy, the Y!" Now, that I can understand, because we're at our local Y 2-3 times a week. The others just make me laugh and realize what good marketing they must do!
+She's pretty good with knowing her location. We can be between a mile to half mile from home and she says "almost home". Or we can be 2 or 3 minutes away from Grandma and Grandpa's house and she says "Grandma Grandpa house". Same goes for the Y or the library. She knows we are nearing these places by the things she sees out her window, and she remembers them.
+She has an uncanny knack for recognizing music. She can name any song that she knows before I even know what it is- within the first couple of notes. It's crazy. Also, she knows what an iPod is and asks for me to play the iPod the second we get in the car each time.
+Kylan has been attending Story Time at our library for the last 2 months and has really enjoyed it. She's still not real good at sitting still during the stories, but LOVES the songs and the finger puppet plays and games. Aside from Story Time, she just loves the library in general. Picking books, movies and CDs is so fun for her and she also has fun playing with the toys they have there in the children's department.
+She also has been in the Y's toddler gymnastics class for the last 12 weeks. She has so much fun, but is still a little apprehensive about some things which surprises me since she's so energetic and outgoing.
+Loves the "car cart" at Acme. Acme is one of our grocery stores, and they have carts that have a car on the front of them that kids can ride in to make shopping more fun. She loves it and asks for it by name. She's as good as gold when I'm shopping if she's in "car cart".
+When her birthday was approaching, she wanted it to be Jesus' birthday again since it was her birthday now. She didn't understand that Jesus' birthday (Christmas) was over and that now it was just her birthday. She also thought it might be Mommy or Daddy's birthday too since it was her's.
+As of late, I've found her teaching and/or disciplining her stuffed animals. One day she was teaching her Care Bear and monkey to pray like she does (specifically to pray for Lou, our Compassion child). Another day I found her putting her lamb in time-out and her going through the whole routine with him that I do with her. She also uses her stuffed animals to tell things to. She'll find a toy she was looking for and run to her Dora doll and say "Dora! Found toy!"
+She learning we have to buy things and can't just take them. In the grocery store she'll ask me if we can buy the Dora yogurt packs or the string cheese, whereas she used to just think we took them home. She knows she can't eat or play with anything we buy until we take it to the check out counter and pay for it with money. Funny story: a month or so ago we were in Marc's and passed by an entire wall of toys. They were all things that caught her eye. She looked at all the toys, then looked at me, made a gesture as if she was circling the entire wall unit with her finger in the air and said "Mommy buy!" Also, for her birthday and Valentine's day she got a little bit of cash in a couple cards and I said "Kylan, the next time we go to a store, you can pick something out to buy with your money." She excitedly yelled "Yogurt! Buy yogurt!" I, of course, did not make her spend her special money on yogurt, but I thought it was funny that she knew we had to buy it and that she loved it so much that's what she wanted to get.
+For the first couple of months that we started to talk about our adoption (more on that later) Kylan kept telling us she wanted "two babies- sister baby, brother baby". It was so cute. She wanted one of each. Eventually we were able to make her understand that it was only going to be one baby, but that we knew that he/she would be from Ethiopia. Now she says "One baby, from Opia".
+Loves characters. Almost any. As much as we thought we weren't going to let her get too obsessed with any characters and cartoons, she is. These companies sure do know what they are doing- she sees a character ONCE and it's embedded in her memory forever. Here are some of the ones she knows/recognizes/loves: princesses (Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty/Aurora), Dora (and every single other character from her show that she can name by heart), Sesame Street characters, Tinkerbell, Strawberry Shortcake (whom she sometimes calls "Ba Ba Strawberry Shortcake because of one of the songs that goes that way), Care Bears (can name most of them), My Little Ponies, Elmo, Nemo, Diego, Cars, Spongebob, Backyardigans, Curious George, Blues Clues characters, Boz, Baby Einstein, Little Einsteins, etc etc etc. My question still is- How in the world does she know who all these characters are by name when she hasn't ever seen 3/4 of these shows/movies?!?!?! Still boggles my mind.
+She knows the different emotions, and can make correlating faces to go along with most of them. She made up her own "ornery face" which is so cute/funny.
+She puts her backpack on and wants to "go to school"- especially if she can go on the school bus.
+She's having a blast playing with her new dollhouse and all the little people/animals that are in it. It's fun to watch her come up with ideas to play out with the sets of things she has in there.
Well, I'm sure that is certainly not all there is to Kylan, as usual. But that is MORE than enough for the moment. She continues to be such a fun/funny child and is what I like to call "my little best friend". Mommy and Kylan do everything together and try to make the most of these years we have together! It is MORE than tiring, but so worth it. Her little heart and personality is more than I could have ever dreamed. We are so blessed to have this little 2-year-old in our lives!
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