MoreThanWeExpected.com

Gwen welcomed her second birthday with her typical gusto!  We had a party (nothing like her first birthday party, which is more of a celebration for the parents, and was more party than I wanted to tackle at this point) with just family, and Gwen was, of course, in rare form. There was a Carvel cake, Elmo mylar balloons and lots of presents!  Tony's parents gave her a swing set and my parents gave her a play house to add to the endless outdoor play-land adventures; but of course, she'll have to share with her brother and sisters next year.  Her aunts, uncles and cousins bought her numerous toys which she needed, believe it or not; since she loves books so much she has more books than toys and the toys she does have are mostly for babies.  She is having a blast playing with her new dolls, tea party set (she mistakenly got three but we kept two, one for outdoors and one for indoors) and My Little Ponies.  I'm sure we'll look like a daycare center in no time, seeing as how that's practically what we're running here, LOL.  Gwen also got a big girl bed and pretty new mermaid bedding from Mommy and Daddy but isn't quite ready for it yet.  She climbed out of her crib once, prompting us to get her a bed for safety's sake (not to mention that we need her crib for other babies), but she hasn't been a very good girl about going to sleep at bedtime and we fear there would be shenanigans going on all night if she didn't have those boundaries; we'll hold off for now and come back to it when it becomes an issue again.

Other than growing up and being adorable, Gwen has developed quite the bratty streak, um, I mean strong personality.  I’ve heard that girls are nothing at two years old compared to how they are at four years old so I’m starting to think I’m screwed.  (My payback for my own childhood?  No way, I was a sweetheart!)  We’ve been trying to set some boundaries (with tantrums as a result almost every time) but are also careful about picking and choosing our battles.  She’s very independent and strong willed (gee, I wonder where she gets that from? he-he) so we are trying not to crush her spirit but without caving in on our parenting duties.  When she wants to bring a toy to the dinner table we let her otherwise she wouldn’t eat; however, if playing takes president over eating the toys are gone; if she continues to throw a crying/screaming fit and not eat she gets down and goes hungry.  No wonder she’s so thin…  She’s learning to lie and manipulate (crucial social developments they say, but even at two years old??) to get what she wants or to get around our rules, such as pretending the lamp she’s not supposed to touch is a sugar bowl (pretend sugar she sprinkles into her pretend coffee) just so she can touch it without getting yelled at.  While it cracks me up and is wicked cute, we’ve had to become increasingly strict in order to combat her quasi-naughtiness.  I never wanted to be, but am becoming one of those “No!”/“Don’t touch that!” parents.  SIGH…

She loves her brother and sisters and is always playing with them and helping them (giving them toys or pacifiers or talking to them when they cry).  A couple of times now she has brought one of them a toy and demands, “Baby, play, me, now.”  One time she brought the girls blocks and said “Nor (Nora), Teh (Tess), play block?”  Adorable!  She’s going to be quite the control freak/leader of the pack.  (I wonder where she gets that from too?  LOL)

Gwen had her check-up at the doctor and is very healthy.  She is tall and thin, she only weighs 26.5 pounds but is 36" tall, putting her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 94th percentile for height.  She hates going to the doctor now since she remembers the shots but she'll get used to it and the less of a deal we make it out to be the more quickly she'll come to think it's no big deal.  She only got one shot today and won’t have any more until she’s 4 so that’ll help too.

I’m not typically one of those parents that brags about how “advanced” their child is but our pediatrician told us that Gwen is very smart and is understanding and applying complex reading and mathematical skills for her age.  Apparently, it’s not typical for a two year old to not only count to 15, but to understand that each item she’s counting has a separate value (I didn’t realize there was a difference?!  LOL).  Also, Gwen not only knows her ABC’s but also the phonetic sound each letter makes (with a few exceptions), which is also very advanced.  We were a little worried about her speech (while she knows and uses hundreds of words she tends to shorten longer ones down so that she only has to say them in one syllable – ie banana becomes “nan” and monkey becomes “mon”) but were reassured that her vocabulary is also advanced and that she probably wouldn’t know so many words if she spent time learning how to correctly pronounce each one.  The pediatrician said at this point it’s more just habit for her and gave us some tips on breaking her of it; by next year she expects Gwen to be able to carry on a conversation like two adults would.  I’m so proud that she’s so smart and self-sufficient already.  I am a little surprised at it all because I have the mind-set that kids should be kids while they can, and while we point out learning opportunities we never make them our priority or focus our time together on them.  This kid is just a sponge!

Enough bragging, right?  LOL  Here are some pictures showcasing her birthday and highlighting the last few months.  She’s such a big girl now…

Birthday Party Pictures!:

The next morning Gwen went straight for her new dolls, Gisselle and Nadia (aka Fairy), and commanded me to take pictures of them.  She got quite a kick out of seeing the pictures afterward and talked about Nadia’s pretty hair.  They now do everything with her (there’s even pasta mashed into Nadia’s hair from where Gwen was making her “eat” dinner off her plate).  She loves those dolls!  Good job, Aunt Maureen, Uncle Joe and Meagan!

From a lot of these pictures it’s easy to see that Gwen desperately needed a haircut.  In an effort to avoid the “baby mullet” I’ve been trimming the back all along while it fills out, while trying not to cut in bangs.  I figured at some point I’d just be able to pin the front out of her eyes with a barrette.  HAHAHA!  Gwen is more me than I expected and barrettes make it a mere 10 minutes before being ripped out and thrown to the floor.  I admitted defeat and after trimming up the length I cut in some bangs.  It’s not too shabby.