Two-and-a-half!!!!

Last week Josie hit the two-and-a-half mark. It's so hard to believe that the march to three has begun. This is likely one of those "more for us than for you" posts, but I wanted to get down some of her development milestones since this blog doubles as a babybook/journal/scrapbook/etc.

At 2 1/2...

• Her favorite things to play with are: puppets, dolls, playkitchen, tricycle, Rody, and books!
• Her favorite things to do are: cutting and pasting, stamping and stickering, painting and coloring and "making masterpieces".
• She likes to pretend: to go to the zoo, to comfort her dolls and animals, to prepare meals in her kitchen, to go on adventures with her toys.
• She loves: dancing, singing, and more dancing!
• Her favorite things to eat are: PINEAPPLES and watermelon, sunbutter & crackers, pasta & broccoli, bagels with cream cheese, poached eggs, dried fruit, ham and cheese.
• Her favorite treats are: lollipops, candycanes and gumdrops.

Developmentally, she can...

• Name words that start with certain letters (i.e. if you ask her what words start with "z", she'll say "zoo, zebra, zipper...")
• Read common words she sees like zoo, cat, dog, mommy, daddy, Josie, Sisis, up, and.
• Break down words into parts to "sound them out" like b-u-g to figure out it says "bug."
• Draw circles and lines and attempts to draw letters.
• Identify the initial sounds in words. (She started doing this on her own.  For example, the other night she said "bath" starts with "buh-buh-buh, bath starts with a b". Tonight it was "pineapples has lots of p's".)
• Ride her tricycle (all over the condo at quite a fast clip...)
• Make-up and tell stories with a pretty good beginning, middle and end.
• Run, jump, almost-skip and do quite a few yoga poses.
• "Reads" back books that she has memorized or make-up her own stories based on the pictures in a book.
• Make up her own songs and play along on the piano, drum, etc. with the lyrics.
• Compare and contrast things - which is bigger? higher? wider? more? less? etc.
• Make lists of rhyming words.
• Identify opposites.

Things we love about Josie at this age:

• How polite she is (please, thank you, etc.)
• Her creativity and her imagination (must get video of some of her songs and stories soon!)
• Her ability to barter and compromise (a future diplomat for sure)
• How cuddly and affectionate she is (best hugs ever!)
• Her growing confidence and independence
• The fact that she can fully communicate her wants and needs with us.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but that's what comes to mind so that will have to do. :)