Kerigan, my sweet little dolly. How did I blink and you have become this beautiful, smart, adorable and funny little girl who has completely stolen my heart?
With each passing day, and as you grow more and more my sweet daughter, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you and how I love spending girly time with you! You are so fun to "hang out" with, even at 2. You communicate like a 3 year old, and you can easily carry on a conversation with me.
You say such funny things, speaking so clearly and in complete 6+ word sentences. You pretty much speak in paragraphs! Ha! Sometimes you never stop talking!
At your 2 year check up you were 35" tall (86%) and 26 lb (52%). You wear mostly 2T clothes although I am only buying 3T now, size 6 shoe and size 5 diaper. But I have a feeling you won't be in diapers much longer because you are pretty much potty training yourself!
Mommy isn't really ready yet. And I was holding off until we moved to really dive in and try something new with so much transition in your life right now, but you are handling the move like a champ. You have been taking your pants and diaper off at nap time and once went potty (#2!) in your bed. I had to laugh because when I came to get you, you were on the opposite end of the crib and looked totally disgusted, where your brother would have dug right in and smeared it everywhere! Ha!
I think I am holding you back from doing it because your brother was the worst experience I've ever had in potty training! Ha! I am hoping you can prove to me that it isn't so hard! We are going to move forward with it when Bubba goes to school in a couple of weeks. I think you will be very happy to pull out your princess panties I got you!
Speaking of princesses, you are in love with them. You absolutely are the girly-girl I have always dreamed about and while you will happily run around outside and play in the dirt, you want to do it wearing your dress up high heels and jewelry!
You know almost every princess by name and most of their movies. You will sit mostly through Tangled and Cinderella, you also love Beauty and the Beast and Ariel. You love playing in your room with your dress up clothes and shoes and jewelry. It's probably your favorite thing to do right now.
You also love books and puzzles and playing with your baby. You are a little mother and will sit in the chair and rock your dolls and baby.
I love to watch you interact with your dolls because you are just so sweet and gentle. You also love your princess castle and you will put the princesses on to make the songs play and you will dance around and around the family room.
You put your hands over your mouth and act so surprised every time the song comes on. Your favorite song is "I See the Light" from Tangled. You know a lot of the words and love to sing along and dance to it. This video is worth the watch! (I always try to keep them short- this was over 5 minutes but I cut it down so it would entice you to at least get through the first minute, trust me you won't be able to stop watching!) My favorite part is Andrew giggling, and when the princess says "My name is Rapunzel" you say "My name is Kerigan!" Ha! Be sure and pause the music on the blog at the bottom.
Speaking of growing up- you surprised mommy by completely getting rid of your paci earlier this summer before you even turned 2. You were so addicted to that thing, I thought we would never get it away from you. My goal was going to be when you turned 2 I would try it. But I had read somewhere to just not make a big deal of it and just say it is all gone so that is what I did when you would ask for it.
You mostly cried in the car but one time in the car I really didn't have one so I couldn't give it to you. That was when I realized you didn't really need it because you eventually stopped crying and forgot about it. I still always gave it to you at night but it got to where you weren't even asking for it, I was just giving it to you, so one night I didn't.
And you didn't ask! You went right to sleep and slept through the night perfectly. So the next night we did it again. You might have taken it some nights and not others at first, and it was a gradual weaning- but after a couple of weeks you never asked for it again. I was so shocked and thrilled! It was so easy!
Once again you just proved to mommy what a big girl you are, all on your own.
You have such a funny little personality. You are stubborn and feisty and very sassy! This is what you did when I was trying to make you smile! Ha!
And my favorite picture ever! You were rocking your photo shoot and Bubba jumped in and you were not happy. You adore your brother, but you also love the attention you get (because seriously? Look how cute you are!) You normally want to do whatever Andrew is doing. I have learned I can no longer give him something without you noticing and wanting it too, whether it's food, a toy, etc. Nothing gets by you!
I love moments like these! Most of the time, you and Andrew play nicely together. He loves it when you are in the "mood" to wrestle and play! You will run up to him and throw your arms around his neck and he falls back on the floor and you just giggle and laugh so hard.
Sometimes Andrew will pull you down in a choke hold, which normally you think is fun, but other times you will scream and cry and shove him away! We never know what mood you will be in. He was trying to hold your hand and be sweet to you in these pictures and you were not having it!
It was so funny the other day you were grouching at him and pushing him away and he wanted to play with you. I had to tell him you weren't in the mood. A little while later, you were giving him hugs and playing and Andrew said "NOW she's in the mood for love!" Ha!
Let's just say you're a girl who knows what you want!
I think one of my favorite things about you being two are the little friends you have made in your Ladybug class at "school." I think it is so precious how you talk about your friends at home, and when I drop you off at school they all run to you and say "Hi Kerigan!"
You were all standing here so cute on the playground having a little chat! Ha! This is Kenna and Isabelle, two of your best friends.
I have been so nervous and apprehensive about moving you away from your home and your sweet little friends at school. I always pray that as you grow up you will make special life long friendships and that you choose your friends wisely. Friendships are so important for girls and I always pray that you will have a group of special friends circling around you someday.
Kerigan, people say there's no such thing as "perfect." But you are perfect to me! I never expect you to be perfect because I know you will make mistakes and that's okay.
But no matter what, you will always be my perfect little baby girl. You came into our lives at the perfect time, and you have filled our lives with more happiness than we ever thought was possible.
Our favorite saying of yours is that when we ask you a question like "Kerigan, are you _______?" Your response is always "I'm not ______, I'm just a big girl!" For example when we say
"Kerigan, are you a princess?" You say...
"I'm not a princess... I'm just a big girl!"
And you couldn't be more right. We love you to the moon and back baby girl! You'll always be our baby, no matter what!
And just for fun...
Look what a difference a year makes! The past two years have been the best in my life because of you, sweet girl! How blessed we are!
