Elsa is Twenty-Three Months

Elsa turned twenty-three months old on Saturday. Just a month until she is a big two-year-old. Whoa. We celebrated this weekend by having a two-night sleepover with Kate and James over at their house. Jarrett decided to make somewhat of a last-minute trip up to the North Carolina mountains with Tim, so Kate had the brilliant idea of hanging out together at one of our houses for most of the weekend. It was a great way to beat the blues of being home all weekend alone. Elsa did not sleep the greatest while over there, at least nap-wise, but she did pretty well at night. However, since we were in the same room, I had the opportunity of finding out that she is either dreaming very healthily, or just simply talks in her sleep. And, as a result, I did not sleep so well either. But, hey, it was entertaining. I am pretty sure she was having a bad dream the first night, as she cried out quite a few times, but each time I just said, "Shhh...," and she seemed to calm back down until the next round. And, in between, she cried out, "Nooo...," a couple of times. So it was a little sad to think she might be having a bad dream, but she seemed okay. Then the next night, not too long after I crawled into bed, she started laughing, but I could tell she was still asleep. Then she said, "Funny...." She did this a couple of more times until she fell silent. I had to smile and giggle to myself.

Elsa continues to talk and talk and talk. Jarrett even said it seemed to him that she was saying more words just since he left town a couple of days ago. She definitely enjoys learning new words, and will often ask, "What is that?," when she is not sure of a certain object. She is also becoming more physical too. Aside from the things we don't want her to do (such as hitting, pinching, or scratching others!), she is showing the desire to climb more. She likes climbing on top of a little ottoman we have in our back room, and is also now able to climb up onto our couches without too much trouble. Of course, then she wants to stand up on them and run around, which frightens me to no end, seeing as I broke my collarbone by falling off the couch and hitting a table when I was around two years old myself. Climbing stairs is coming a little more smoothly for her, either by holding onto a rail or just going at it on all fours. She even descends them okay, but I'm probably holding her back by being a paranoid mother. If she is holding onto the rail, she does fairly well, but usually she waits to take a hand of an adult to help her down.

The pretend play is really developing, and I love watching her when it emerges. We have an old cell phone that is now known as "Elsa's phone," and she really enjoys turning it on and off (although she prefers we turn it off for her even though I've seen her do it herself), announcing, "Here it comes!," as the lights and noise come back to life. She has pretend conversations on that phone, either obviously pretending to be me by saying, "Hi Christi... nanananana... bye." Or she carries on conversations with Daddy or Grandma or whomever else comes to life in that little mind. She is also big into pretending to lay down and go to sleep or having her stuffed toys lay down and sleep.

She still loves her music and enjoys playing the guitar with Daddy or listening to the iPod through our stereo or in the car (and, yes, she definitively knows the difference between the iPod, the iPad, the computer, the television, and the cell phone... it is quite frightening). Her current album preference is "Hot Potatoes" by The Wiggles, the album we purchased on our trip out in California. She still acts a little weird if we mention The Wiggles or start singing their songs when the music is not actually playing, but I still have not quite figured out why. I am currently trying to decide whether to enroll her in Kindermusik this fall. I am hesitating because not only is the next class up more expensive (she would be graduating to the next level of class), but also because I don't know if I want to throw one more scheduled event into the week with her going to Ms. Gabriela's twice a week beginning next week. I would be there with her in the music class, which makes a bit of difference, but it will still make it more difficult to be flexible in doing other activities with friends, etc.

Elsa does not seem to be quite as interested in her books as she has been leading up until now (which makes me a little sad), though she still does enjoy them -- especially Mother Goose rhymes. And she loves the ones that I also know as songs and can therefore sing to her. Those and Humpty Dumpty. She is crazy about Humpty Dumpty, and calls any book the rhyme is in a "Humpty Dumpty book." She also has a wall hanging with Humpty Dumpty on it, which her great grandmother made for her, so I am sure that has something to do with it. I think it is more that she has lost interest in us reading books to her. She wants to turn the pages and try to read some herself. Or she just wants to hold the book and turn the pages while we are reading, and then we can't keep up with her page-turning skills. And often she won't want to get through the entire book, and will instead ask to get "down and walk" (the phrase that I hear about 5,000 times a day). So basically reading has become a little frustrating, but my hope is that it will all come together once again later on. I am counting on reading chapters of the Little House on the Prairie series to her in years to come.

So Elsa turns two next month, and I have been trying to figure out how to celebrate. I don't want to do anything extravagant, but I still want to do a little something fun and special. I guess I need to figure it out soon!