23 Months

If I had to sum up Isla this month in a few words or phrases I would say she is definitely a morning person. She likes everything "just right." She loves the outdoors and swimming. She has very few fears. She is funny and loves the spotlight. She is a great mommy to all her babies and animals (and has perfected her diaper changing skills!) She is testing her boundaries.

Isla's vocabulary continues to go nuts. She says the most random things and I have no idea where she hears them. Often times she'll repeat the last word of your sentence and that's how you can tell she was listening. The other day, we were driving in the car and she blurted out "Up a hill, down a hill!" And I don't recall ever discussing hills with her...Oh and then we were on our way to some friends' house when she passed some major gas. She followed it up by saying "Scuse me. Isla toot in new van!" Or there was the time we were gathered around the dinner table and she was looking rather suspicious as if she was hiding something in her mouth. I asked her what she had in her mouth and she looked at me with this "No duh!" look and said "FOOD!" It's the little things that just crack me up!

She learned a new phrase this week: "Whazzat?" (What's that?) It's her favorite thing to say. Enough said.

Isla can now sing pretty much all the lyrics to the ABCs, Jesus Loves Me and Happy Birthday. She tends to make up a few words here and there but almost has it all down.

She is really testing us in the area of discipline. She now associates the words "obey" and "naughty" with time outs. The other day we were shopping in the grocery car and she kept standing up in the cart after I told her to sit on her bottom. Finally she looked at me and said "Isla sit bottom. Isla TIME OUT!" with huge emphasis on the time out part. :) It's too bad time outs are no longer doing the trick. She has started leaving the corner or telling us "No!" when we ask her to go to time out.

Despite the testing, Isla is so sweet. She'll randomly look up at us and say "Hug!" and coming running at us, throwing her arms around our neck. Earlier in the week, she asked me to hold her. I put her on my lap but she wanted me to really hold her close, basically hugging her to my chest. I was busy talking to someone else so finally she grabbed my cheeks with both of her hands and said "This way!" in a sing-song voice while turning my head to look her in the eye. It totally melted my heart and she continued to do it any time I tried to look elsewhere. I love that girl!

Isla is beginning to figure out how to dress herself. She loves to try to put on her own pants or socks and shoes. Occasionally she'll show up with a pair of tights around her neck and tell me proudly "Isla dressed!" She usually can take her shoes off and is starting to be able to fetch her shoes or put them away on her own if we leave the closet door cracked. Anyone who is showing bare skin to her is "Nakey"--I find that so endearing.

She's in the process of cutting her two top incisors. I thought she got them awhile back but it turns out those were the outer 2 of her top 4 teeth. She got them in a really weird order that made it hard to tell.

Isla loves sleeping with a blanket now, even despite the occasional warm day we are having here in the NW. Sometimes she'll wake up soaked in sweat but she refuses to go to bed without being covered. She is rather particular about how she is covered and often asks me to "fix it." Usually I have no idea what she wants me to do but if I tweak the blanket a couple times, usually she'll find it satisfactory. :)

It is just within the past month or two that Isla has begun to climb. She just recently figured out how to get up on the couch by herself and she can climb into the new van with ease (I can open the door remotely while inside and she can load herself while I grab my purse--love it!) Then yesterday we were eating a family breakfast and she showed us (repeatedly) that she can climb in and out of her highchair all by herself and even buckle herself in. Who knew!? I think it's time to transition to a big girl chair and get rid of that kitchen-real-estate-stealing high chair!

Isla continues to have a little bit of a harder time with separation. She always cries now when we drop her off at the church nursery but we're told she's able to calm down pretty quickly.

Isla's bedtime has moved to between 7 and 7:30 PM. She sleeps through the night and wakes between 6:30 and 7 AM. She goes down for a nap usually around 1 PM, sometimes 2 if we push her, and sleeps for ~2-3 hr. I am totally ok with this sleeping routine!

A few have alluded to the fact that they think we have the perfect eater. Well, we don't. She's definitely a good eater but we've hit our fair share of food jags and battles, particularly surrounding vegetables as of late. She's pretty good at picking around them and eating everything else on her plate. Her current favorite foods include cherry tomatoes, pasta, pancakes, berries, hummus, mushrooms (love that!), Cheerios & Raisin Bran, crackers and cheese. She goes in phases where she'll drink a lot of milk and then there are days when she hardly drinks a cup. She rarely drinks water unless it comes in a cup with a straw. I love asking her what she wants to eat. It doesn't matter what meals it is but she'll usually respond with something like: "Ummmmmmm, pancakes and rice (pause) and pasta and applesauce (pause) and yogurt and milk (pause) and Raisin Bran...." And it just keeps going.

That's our girl at 23 months!