Juliet 2.5/2.75 year snapshot

Whew! I am not good at keeping up with the blog these days. I think I have just deferred to Instagram stories to keep family in the loop, but I personally like to keep a more detailed record here to look back upon for my own personal nostalgia. Juliet turned 2.5 three months ago and has hit lots of milestones/developmental leaps in the first few quarters of being 2 year old. Here is a brief rundown of what's she's up to these days.

Stats: 39 inches inches (97%) and 32 lbs (86%). Her growth is slowing a bit and she's definitely slimming down everywhere but her cheeks. She's right between 3T/4T for clothes and size 9 for shoes. 

Teeth: She's got them all! 

Schedule: Generally the same as when she turned 2. We have occasional nap strikes which are currently an issue. I am bracing myself that she will drop them completely before she turns 3, which stinks because she is a superb napper! It is like feast or famine with her. It's a 2.5 hour nap or nothing. But also, she's having some trouble falling asleep at night if her nap is too long. 

6:30/7 wake

1-3/3:30 nap

8 bedtime

Jonathan has also started to work in the office on a hybrid schedule so some days I'm forced to wake her at 2:40 to pick Forest up from school. On those days we do a 7:30 bedtime. 

Extracurriculars: Juliet goes to preschool MWF mornings and it's her most favorite thing! We've been intermittently doing Little Explorers hiking class and she goes with me to bible study on Tuesdays. She recently started swim lessons once a week which she loves. 

She continues to be our social butterfly extrovert and is not a homebody like her mom and brother. It's exhausting but she will tear the house to pieces and get into so much mischief if we try to just chill at home. I'm so glad she has preschool to meet some of her over-the-top social needs! We've actually registered her for 2 different preschools next year since she's old enough to start of F's school. She loves the school she goes to now and they have longer hours and are much more relaxed about masks/potty training so we plan to keep her there MWF and do T/TH at our church preschool if it works out that way. At the moment, she's doing great with potty training and masks aren't currently required, but we are hesitant to put all our eggs in the church preschool basket in case things change.

Eating: Eating has leveled out so much. She used to eat like she was ravenous or else be on a hunger strike. Now that all of her teeth are in and she's not having such frequent growth spurts, she tends to eat ok on most days. Her appetite can still fluctuate but not in such an extreme way and we try to just trust that she's eating her fill. She's gotten much better at trying new foods and at least eating a little bit of everything on her plate. She's a typical toddler in that a food she loves one day will be absolutely disgusting the next day. 

We also carefully manage her diet to make it poop friendly. We limit foods that can be constipating or binding (bananas, apple sauce, cheese, etc) and have intentionally added in more fats and fiber (avocado, chia/hemp/flax, nuts, leafy greens, coconut). She was already on a healthy diet but we do have to be more cognizant these days. Like she loves applesauce so we have to make sure her applesauce is balanced by adding chia seeds and maybe some prune puree. She loves banana milkshakes so we add in coconut milk, peanut butter, avocados and a chia/hemp/flax powder to round it out. One day I (hopefully) won't have to think of foods in terms of their poop friendliness but today is not that day! 

Favorite Book: This definitely changes on a daily basis and we are frequent library visitors so she's constantly reading new things. I will say that she's slowly turning into a book worm. She loves to read through her books and sometimes will even let me read to her for 20 minutes or so before she hands me a book and says 'ok you read that one and I will go read to myself'. Some of her most often requested titles are Duck & Goose series and the Little Blue Truck series. She also loves her poop themed books! 

Favorite toy: Juliet is also finally getting into toys! If I had to pick a favorite I'd say her dolls and their accessories (stroller, highchair, cradle, etc), but she also loves duplos, trains, puzzles, and anything arts related. I think a big difference between her and Forest at this age was that he had very focused interests (trains) whereas Juliet wants to play with alllllllll the things. She appears to have a shorter attention span versus his hyper focused play, but she has a wider range of interests as well. She also wants to play with someone so her independent play skills need some developing! 

Language: Juliet seems to have a good grasp on language. Speaking in full sentences, conversational, etc. She has a few articulation issues but nothing atypical for her age. Forest had very crisp enunciation so sometimes I worry about her in comparison but I think he was just typical first born. She's just as verbal as he was, just a little less precise with enunciation at this point. Her preschool says her speech is really great for her age so I'm trusting they know what they are talking about! Her doctor said the same thing when I asked about it at her 2.5 year well check. 

New skills: Pee potty trained for a few months and does this completely independently.  In the past few weeks she has really turned a corner with pooping on the potty too so I am close to saying she is *potty trained* vs potty training, but we don't talk about fight club. She's so good on her balance bike and very athletic in general. 

She's got amazing dexterity and hand strength. She opens her own juice boxes and snack bags. She dresses herself everyday. She's just very independent and takes initiative on everything, so she seems very grown up in many ways. 

Favorite show: Cocomelon is still up there but we also rotate through Frozen (and all the Frozen spin offs), Moana, and Encanto. She just loves music so definitely drawn to that aspect of those shows. We are personally pushing Daniel Tiger pretty hard. Ha!

Other observations: Juliet is very friendly and outgoing. She's confident. She still has exuberant energy but it's leveling out as she gets older. She's not nearly as wild as Forest was at this age. She goes through short silly bursts but it's not insatiable energy. We've been actually trying to build up her stamina for hiking but 1 mile is about her limit! Then she just lays down prone on the trail and asks to go in the carrier for snacks.

J's hair in southern humidity. Ha! We can never leave California ;)

 She's still really destructive and a huge mess maker. She will snap crayons in half, pull everything out of every drawer, break her play jewelry, write on tables, etc. I just have to keep a close eye on her because her entertaining herself quietly generally ends in her bodily harm or destruction of property. But hey, at least she's starting to entertain herself so I will choose my battles! The other day she spent an entire hour putting balls in our fountain and then getting them back out. She was soaking wet with freezing water and likely killed all of the plants surrounding the fountain in the process, but the hour of peace was worth it! 

She's a stinker, but adorably sweet. She loves her brother so much. Yesterday she chose a poop prize after pooping on the potty. She got a 2 pack of starburst and saved the second one for Forest for when he got home from school. She's always thinking of other people and wanting to share her toys or treats with them. Very sweet. And of course, she still has the very best hair on the planet.

That's it for today but I really really hope to start writing more soon.