I keep telling myself that I will not write another blog post with a cliche in it. Even though you know time flies, right? Right. Ok. Although I feel like I was just writing Hailey’s two year update, I am sitting here today with a party prep list to attend to as we celebrate our baby turning TWO this weekend. With Hailey I felt like I always rounded up with age, telling people she was almost two. With Kaitlyn, I’m clinging to calling her one and will probably do so until 2:04 pm on May 16th.

Despite how I deny it, my baby is a full fledged toddler and though I miss aspects of the true baby phase, it really does keep getting more fun. So I hope you are good with letting me go all mom-mode on you today and share some of my favorite traits of my one year old. …ok, ok, one year, 11 months and 26 day old…

When I think of Kaitlyn, I think of sugar and spice. She is such a sweet little thing, yet is fiercely independent. It’s a pretty amazing combo. She often wants me to hold and snuggle her (“up peeze”) especially when she wakes up, but also wants to do all the things all by herself.

From getting dressed, to buckling herself in the car to peeling oranges and bananas, you’d better not try and do it for her.

She is such a determined little girl.

Her talking has really taken off and a lot of her speech is now in short, choppy, adorable sentences. “Mor wahwah peeze.” Melt my heart.

She is a bit of a mama’s girl, which I totally eat up. She alternates between calling me mama and mommy (which comes out “mAH-mee”). She is possessive and if Hailey tries to come over while we are snuggling, she will throw both her arms over me and very boldly say “my mama.’

Speaking of, she has a firm understanding of the word mine, whether she is declaring it (MIne!) or questioning (my? my?).

She also still calls her self Kay-Kay, which may be because we call her Kate Kate quite often. She’ll answer to Kate-Kate, Kaitlyn and Goose.

Food wise, she really eats well. She will try everything and eats most things. Unlike Hailey though, she will spit something out it she isn’t digging it. Drives me bonkers some days. Her favorite foods currently are roasted sweet potatoes, raisins, bananas, spaghetti, oranges, chocolate, broccoli, hummus and peanut butter. She eats more slowly than Hailey too so I have to make sure we all stay at the table until she is done because if she is distracted, forget it, the meal is over. She’d always rather play than eat.

We are still nursing, one time a day before nap, but I can tell we are nearing the end. I think we may stop on her birthday or the day after because I’m a sentimental like that and I think a defining end point will help me let go of this special time we’ve had. She still asks for “mama milk” at other times but isn’t as upset about not getting it anymore, which gives me hope that she’s finally getting ready to stop herself.

Speaking on sentimental, I finally broke down and got her hair cut for the first time.  For some reason, this is such an emotional milestone for me (it was with Hailey too). Kaitlyn did great, getting about an inch off the ends, and letting them blow dry her wispy hair. I took no less than 50 pictures.

Kaitlyn loves playing with her big sis. and imitates almost everything she does. I feel really lucky that they play well together about 90% of the time. The other 10% is full of hair pulling and crying, but the majority of the time I love hearing them giggle together, run around with their baby dolls and build forts. Hailey really has taken on the big sister roll and is almost like a second mom, always looking out for Kaitlyn and helping her. Nothing makes me more proud than sneaking a peek at the two of them helping each other out.

One of my favorite things is that she demands songs before bedtime. She always asks for “uppa buh” (twinkle twinkle little star) and a new favorite, Hallelujah, that she sings along to with dad when he rocks her at night.

She is fearless in the water. This actually scares me some, but all the more reason we are in swim lessons. She’ll jump into the water, just assuming I’ll grab her once she is in, then comes up giggling. She loves the water and I’m looking forward to a fun summer.

She watches her big sis and now loves to sing and dance. Current favorites songs are happy birthday (hap be be Do Dooo) and let it go (leh goooooo).

She is getting really close to potty-training. We’ve switched to pull-ups full time because she won’t wear a diaper anymore. She asks to go potty and has had a few successful attempts. If I would truly hop on board, I think we could get there, but I’m dragging my feet because potty training sucks. Ha. Maybe during our next nice weekend at home!

She loves to say the blessing before we eat (gaw ah fahdah = God our father) and her ahhh-meh is just the cutest.

Her 2 year appointment is in the next couple of weeks and I’m curious to see her height and weight percentages. She is still a little thing, but I think she’s growing. She wears 18-24 month clothes and size 4 pull ups. Her shoe size is 5-6.

Update: At two years old Kaitlyn weighs 21.8 lbs (1.8 percentile) and is 35 inches long (87 percentile). Doc laughs and says she is long and lean!

She goes to bed at 7:00 pm, same as her sister, and wakes up around 7:30 am. She is napping once a day, usually going down at 1:00 pm and waking up around 3:15 pm. Except yesterday she boycotted nap altogether. Hope that isn’t the new normal!

I could not love my Kaitlyn any more than I do. I’m so honored to be her mom and love her sweet and feisty spirit, squenchy nose smile and big bear hugs.

May things only continue to get more fun!

If I missed anything (doubtful ;)), ask away!