Daph Stats: Two Years

Height: 33.5 in (37%)

Weight: 24.25 lbs (17%)

Head: 18.9 in (63% - yeah! she finally starting to catch up with her head a little!)

My Dearest Daphne Marie,

Two years have gone by since you were born.  TWO years!  It feels like just yesterday I was hobbling back and forth from my hospital room to the NICU to hold your precious little body in a bundle of blankies to my chest, to rock you, caress you and whisper words of encouragement and love in your perfect little ears.  You have grown and changed so much in the 24 months since then, it is simply remarkable, yet much remains them same.  I still feel just as privileged to be your mother and overjoyed that I get to take care of you each day.  You are still such a happy, social, compassionate, high-energy and lovable spirit.  Daddy and I still adore watching you, playing with you and talking about you long after you've gone to bed.  And I still feel an overwhelming wave of love for you that crushes my heart with the intensity of it's depth on a daily basis.  How blessed we are to have you as a daughter!

In early May, we were playing in the play room one morning when I found myself wondering how many letters of the alphabet you could identify.  I had seen you fish a foam letter or two from the tub before, correctly identifying its name as you grasped for it, but I wasn't sure if that was luck or embedded knowledge.  I sat down with your wooden alphabet blocks and began holding up letters at random asking, "Daphne, what letter is this?"  To my surprise you answered without hesitation, "H."  I held up the next block, "What letter is this Daphne?"  Again, no pause as you replied, "R."  We continued on and to my astonishment, you correctly identified 23 out of 26 letters in the alphabet!  You mixed up U for V and D for P and called X the letter K.  Daddy was equally impressed when he came home and after a couple of days working on the problem letters, you could name any uppercase letter I pointed to in a book, on a block, in the bathtub or on the white board!  As usual, I am floored by your bright mind.

Speaking of bright, you can now sign somewhere around 200 sign language signs!  You only use a handful of them regularly, but if I ask, "Hey Daphne, what's the sign for boat (peach/imagination/happy/skunk/family, etc, etc)?" you will quickly form your hands into the correct position and display the sign.  "Signing Time" is still the only show we ever watch with a few clips of Elmo on the computer every now and again.  We also invested in an ipad a few months ago and you are a whiz at the puzzle games and tracing letters with Elmo.  Again, you aren't allowed to play on it very often, so you get very excited (and possessive) when you get your hands on the "I-Pat".  

Daph, fresh from a bath, ran straight to our bed and cuddled up with the "I-Pat"

Yesterday I told our pediatrician I didn't know how to gauge your learning because you are our first child.  I don't ever know if what you are doing is "normal" for your age or unique to you.  Dr. Walker said most 2-year-olds have about a 50-100 word vocabulary and that they don't expect children to know their alphabet until they are 4, while some kindergardeners still don't know their letters by the time they start school.  When I told her you know all your letters, she was impressed and asked how many vocabulary words I thought you might have.  When I thought about, I realized there was no way I could put a number to it as you say hundreds upon hundreds of words now.  You are constantly chattering my ear off and learning new words on a daily basis.

Some of my favorite things you say right now are:

1) "Come on Mama (Daddy/Millie/Grandma, etc)." You always say this with feet facing forward, your hips rotated around as you look back over your shoulder and reach out with your hand, opening and closing your hand in an effort to get me to follow you wherever you are going.

2) In the last few days you have started saying, "Dat's ah-maz-ning!" any time you see something you think is cool (the garbage truck picking up the trash, a bird flying outside) or when you have just performed a trick (jumping an inch off the ground, going down the slide, etc).

3) Whenever you finish singing a song you compliment yourself saying, "Good singin' Daffy!"  Every once in a while you'll say it to me too, "Good singin' Mama!"

4) When you are searching for someone or something you say in a drawn out, sing-song voice, "Oh Maaaaaama.  Where aaaaaaaare you?"

5) "Wet's GO!" (jumping up in the air with excitement and shouting on the 'go')

Stole this picture off Krissy's blog - thanks Kristen!

You absolutely love to read.  We could sit on the couch reading all morning long if I let us.  Usually after reading scriptures, we sit for 20-30 minutes reading through all your library books.  As you attention span lengthens, we've begun checking out less board books and more early readers that are longer and usually have a bit more of a plot.  It's one of my favorite parts of the day as you pick up on new words from the books, laugh and point at the drawings and run back and forth from the shelf to couch with the next selection.  I hope you never lose this addiction to literature.

You are still my social butterfly and adore being around people.  Cousin Millie is by far your favorite friend, but you get giddy with excitement any time we get together with cousins.  You play great with most kids, although on Sunday you got booted out of nursery for a diaper change and the nursery leader told me you had been stealing toys too - uh-oh.  You are generally very polite and will often say "tank you Mama" and "excooose me Mama" without prompting, but you still need a reminder on saying "please" when you are cranky or want something immediately.  It was so tender to hear you and Millie the other day while you were playing and handing toys to each other.  You would say, "Oh, here you go Millie."  To which she would reply, "Tank-you Dat-ney" and you would say sweetly, "You're welcome!"  Well-mannered babies make Mama so happy!

  

You are beginning to play games that display your imagination such as having tea parties with me and Daddy while pretending to eat the plastic food and drinking from your cup.  Sometimes you'll come up to me pretending to hold something and act so pleased with yourself when I pantomime taking it from your hand.  Some other fun things you are do at this age are:

1) Babbling and singing to yourself while running around the playroom lost in your imagination
2) Brushing my hair whenever you get the chance.
3) Singing "Skip to My Lou" while trying to do this hilarious half-skip a step at a time
4) Drawing pictures (always big scribble messes) usually of shapes and then instructing me on what they are, "Dat's trapezoid Mama!"
5) Talking to Millie on the phone without listening for an answer
6) Gasping when you hear something out of the ordinary and whispering, "Dat's scary!"
7) Screaming with rage any time you sees Daddy kissing or hugging me.  You'll run over and try to push us apart yelling, "STOOOOOP! NOOOOOO! STOOOOP!"  It was funny the first few times and now I've had to firmly tell you that I like when Daddy kisses me and you'll just have to deal with it!
8) Climbing on anything and everything
9) Sneaking into the pantry to eat snacks
10) Mimicing our expressions, words, actions, etc.
11) "Helping" me cook (you threw an egg on the floor last week just as Daddy came home from work - I was not very amused)
12) Stripping your clothes off whenever they irritate you.  Most mornings when I come in to your nursery your pants are off.  I'm not sure if you get hot or just like to be naked.
13) Calling for me when you wake up in the morning, "Oh Maaaaaaaama!" And if I don't answer immediately you try, "Oh Emmmmmmmmmiiiiiweeeeeeee"
14) Trying to stall during our bedtime routine with requests for milk, more stories, more songs, etc.
15) Singing your little heart out every night and asking for your favorite songs in this order, 1) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, 2) Grandpa's Song (the lullaby my Dad wrote her), 3) I Am a Child of God, 4) I Love To See the Temple.  Repeat.

I could go on for pages about the many other delightful things you say and do, but the overarching word that consistently describes you is simply HAPPY.  You are still our sunshine baby and an absolute joy to be around!  Not to say that you are perfect, because there are certainly days when you test the boundaries and try my patience, but for the most part you just want to make others happy and do so with your bubbly personality, your fantastic sense of humor and your zest for life.

I hope that as we progress into the coming months with potty training (starting soon! yikes!) and continuing to teach you right from wrong, that we will be able to remain positive and enjoy our time together here at home.  It will be over before either of us even see the end coming.  How grateful I am I still have time with you.  Grow on little one.

Love you forever and always,
Your Mama