A Two Year Old

We are a month into being a two year old.  There was a night where Jolynn spent the night at the Desvousges house.  It was spur of the moment, Erin was going to babysit the following day so we just decided to leave Jolynn there Thursday night.  Well, we didn't bring any sleeping stuff with us - including her BLANKEY.  She didn't ask for it and slept fine without it.  So we didn't mention it the next night and she didn't either.  Then the next, and the next.  We are up to 2 weeks now since she has had it and I think it is over.  She switched briefly to sucking her fingers, which I was okay with because it was easier to wash her hands than wash that stinky blanket.

The Potty Training Train has pretty much left the station.  She has not shown any interest in trying to go on the potty, wear underpants, or even wear the pull ups.  I'm okay with this, because I want HER to be ready as much as us.  I'm not going to force the issue.  We still ask all the time, before bed and when she wakes up.  She still has no interest.  The only time she has shown interest is when she sees an older child (not an adult) going too.  If Shirley needs to go, so does Jolynn.  If the older girl at daycare has to go, so does Jolynn.

Jolynn's vocabulary has grown significantly in the last month.  Almost putting sentences (although choppy) together.  Singing songs to the point where you can recognize what she is singing.  And the politeness scale is off the charts.  Please, thank you, bless you (didn't see that one coming when I sneezed!).  She can go into the fridge and get what she wants if you put it on the lower shelf where she can reach.  We put her milk there so she can get and put away her milk whenever she wants it.  She also helps clean up by putting her dishes in the sink.  We are still working on picking up toys on command.  She does well helping you clean them up, but not so good at picking them up by herself.

We went through a few weeks of sleeping in our bed at night.  We were having monster issues in her room.  It's not that she takes up a ton of room, but it is much nicer knowing you can spread out and not smother your child accidentally.  So Jon and I have traded off nights putting her to bed now.  We're down to 30-45 min to get her to sleep.  Jon is really good at this and I couldn't figure out what he was doing that worked so well.  He is consistent and firm.  He sits in the rocking chair which he moved right next to her bed.  She has to lay in her bed while he reads a few books.  When she starts to yawn and say "me tired too", that's when we know she's ready for sleeping.  We turn off the lights but stay next to her bed until she is completely asleep. We also purchased a Dora night light that shines a picture of Dora on the ceiling.  All of these steps seem to be working.  We (I) just have to keep it up.

There's our monthly update (as far as Jolynn is concerned).  I will try to post more about the goings on this month.  It has been a busy summer and I just haven't had the time to blog about everything, let alone take pictures of everything to go along with the posts.