{"id":9060,"date":"2011-06-19T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=9060"},"modified":"2011-06-18T14:38:59","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T22:38:59","slug":"two-year-update-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=9060","title":{"rendered":"Two-year (!) update"},"content":{"rendered":"

After I spent time with a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s newborn recently, Q asked me if I was feeling sad \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or yearning for a baby. My surprising (and refreshing) answer was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While I can appreciate the specialness of caring for an infant, the truth is that in many ways, having an older child is much more rewarding and fun. And though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still sentimental about my second baby growing up, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also loving this phase. (How can I not<\/em> go nuts over this face?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Avery, for the most part, is terribly fun to be around. She loves to smile and laugh (she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll often look up at me, half-asleep, and smile as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m singing to her at bedtime), and she always wants to be around people. She can be very considerate and helpful: If her sister is crying, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll come over with a concerned look and ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What happened?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Numerous times during the day she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll run up to me with my phone, because she thinks I need it. She reminds me to get my coat (and sometimes gets it for me) as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re leaving in the morning, and she likes to hand me my towel when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m stepping out of the shower. (I remember Zoe doing the same thing, too.) Just the other day she accidentally drew on a chair; without any instruction she ran to her room, got a wipe and returned to the chair to start cleaning it. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy to report that the pen came out.)<\/p>\n

She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking more and more \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always telling elaborate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stories.” Her vocabulary is growing at a fast clip; the exciting thing is that she says words now that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say just one month ago. And she is using more sentences: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hold my hand, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dckay?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she instructed Zoe the other morning as they walked into Elena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. She asks \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d constantly, and as Zoe did at this age<\/a>, she likes to point out when something is hers (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153mine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) or her sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s milk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). Her recognition skills are also getting better: She can identify many more objects in her books, though she still calls many fruits \u00e2\u20ac\u0153apple.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And if you ask her the color of something, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll almost always answer \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yellow.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A funny story related to talking: I recently did an exercise where I had her repeat things I say. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can you say Mommy?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked, and she answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mommy!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can you say Daddy?,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked, and she answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Daddy!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can you say Zoe?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked, and she answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sister!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That’s still what she calls Zoe.<\/p>\n

She loves music \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often singing (Happy Birthday is still her favorite; she’s going to be really confused today when we sing it for real) and clapping when she hears a song. As I type this, with music in the background, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually running in circles, dancing, squealing and clapping – having a blast. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to the amusement park to celebrate today, and I commented to Q that we don’t even need to. This<\/em> is the stuff that makes her most happy!<\/p>\n

As for the less fun stuff: Avery is known to throw a small fit if she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get her way, and she still uses a very high-pitched squeal for things as minor as her sister trying to kiss her. (Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just say her dramatic squeak continues.) There is also a downside to her wanting to be around people all the time: She can be very clingy, whining if Q or I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pick her up, and crying when one of us leaves the room. <\/p>\n

Lastly, her growth spurt continues: At her two-year check-up on Friday, we were told she was close to 32 pounds and 35.75 inches tall. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about the size of a 3-year-old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After I spent time with a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s newborn recently, Q asked me if I was feeling sad \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or yearning for a baby. My surprising (and refreshing) answer was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While I can appreciate the specialness of caring for an infant, the truth is that in many ways, having an older child is much more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59-two-kids-june-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9060"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9072,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060\/revisions\/9072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}