Someone flipped some switches with Josie here at age 2.5. She’s started the ‘why’ phase, with lots of them, thankfully not usually more than two or three in a row though yet which makes them mostly answerable. She’s also decided that ignoring mommy is a fun game to try out. I’m not so pleased with that one, but it is developmentally appropriate. We’re trying to let the natural consequences stand, such as when she chose not to show up for lunch today, she just didn’t eat and we went on with our routine and she went down for nap. I expect she’ll be hungry later, but she won’t starve in a few hours so it’ll be ok.

She wishes Celia would be awake more often, and doesn’t seem to understand that I can pay more attention to her if Celia is sleeping. That is the time she picks to play quietly by herself. She likes art projects but sometimes seems to be unsure of what to do lately, I’ve probably been structuring them too much for her lately to make some fun decorations, but she likes those too.

She’s very interested in understanding time, days and schedules. Today we worked on making a calendar for her so she can see the days of the week and the different activities we have planned for each one. Hopefully this will also help with the bedtime and naptime routines.

She’s taking her big kid gymnastics class now and she loves it. It’s the only time she’s under the authority of non-family adults at this point and she does well. Although I’ll often see her telling the teacher many random things about her life during class (“I got a shot from my doctor last week”, “I have a new baby!”…) The class is all older kids (3-5) and at this point she mostly watches them to see what to do rather than seeming to follow the teachers directions directly. She is definitely in awe of some of the bigger girls and follows them around to be near them. Thankfully they’ve taken a liking to Josie too.

At this point I’d say Josie is day-time toilet trained, we still have an accident a week or so randomly but mostly because she’s in ‘ignoring mommy’ mood and wants to prove she can ‘hold it’ when she just can’t anymore. We’re doing diapers still for naps and bed time. I can’t wait to ditch those too, but they’re clearly needed still, and I’m already washing diapers, so two extra a day is no biggie.

Basically we spend the day socializing with her friends (and mine) in the morning and then free play in the afternoon after nap. We do lots of reading, but just getting through the basics of the day takes a long time because she is very slow to transition and switch activities. She is very easily distracted and keeps changing her mind as to what she wants. Just trying to focus on reconnecting with her now as she has big big emotions when things go ‘wrong’ in her eyes and is also pushing the limits to see what she can do to us. When she’s happy she continues to be a joy to be around, very silly, funny and affectionate. She’s also very kind to Celia and wants to hold her and help with her too.

She also doesn’t walk much. It’s all running. Even across the room, she runs. Kinda funny!

• Size/weight: 3T and 4T, 30 lbs and 38 inches tall
• Favorite food: breastmilk, cheese, pasta – fairly wide variety, willing to try most things
• Favorite toy: baby dolls, doctors kit, baby toys
• Favorite books: Elephant and Piggie books, Clifford books, Dr Suess, and what do people do all day
• Favorite activity: Acting out scenarios with her dolls
• Sleeping: bedtime ~8:30; 1:30pm ~1.25hr naps; gets up ~7am
• New skill: ignoring mommy, zipping her own jackets
• Teeth: 16. 8 on the top and 8 on bottom
• Vocalizations: Voracious story teller

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 2:36 pm by Jen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.