as I write this, you've actually been two for several weeks! your special day concluded our crazy string of birthdays (three birthdays in three weeks!). you are most definitely two, with your rapidly expanding vocabulary, your sense of humor, your strong opinions, and your (thankfully rare) falling on the ground, kicking your feet temper tantrums. you love to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", the ABCs, "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" and "The Wheels on the Bus". you are obsessed with Cocomelon and have a few singing Cocomelon toys that are on heavy rotation in the car and diaper bag.
you were thrilled to try on Cece's cheerleading hair bow
updates from daycare... they're continually impressed by how much you love yogurt!
baby in a basket
playing piano with Cece and Daddy
you frequently melt our hearts by telling us "I lush you". you can say the names of everyone in the family including yourself ("Ellie"), Greta ("Gaga"), and Victoria ("Towia" or "Toto" or just "baby"). you get into everything and we've had to put latches on almost every cupboard and drawer downstairs to keep you out of mischief. the salt and pepper shakers can no longer stay on the dining room table, and wallets and phones are no longer safe on the kitchen counters. you have a knack for sneaking completely silently into your sisters' rooms to stick your fingers into Greta's lip gloss and move the dolls around Cece's dollhouse. it's a good thing you're so cute!
I was standing in the kitchen just around the corner and out of sight while you helped yourself to washable paint that was in one of Cece's bags, unbeknownst to me. five minutes later when I checked on you, you held up your hands and said "gloves!" and your feet and said "socks!".
kisses for baby sister
you love playing with baby dolls and frequently parrot phrases you hear all day: "it's okay, baby! shhhh. oh, honey, it's okay. you drop it? oh, goodness. oh goodness gracious. hurry up! oh, you fell down. kaboom! no worries. I wipe your bum. all clean!" and when you're frustrated: "oh, come on!!"
this incredible wool coat set was a hand-me-down from your Auntie Amelia.
you strutted down the street to church
when I knelt to get your picture, you knelt too. if a little Victorian girl had a beatific vision, I'm pretty sure this is what it would look like.
for your birthday dinner, we had chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, with cupcakes for dessert. you were absolutely thrilled with your new lunchbox and water bottle, with a straw spout just like the big girls have. in typical Murphy's law fashion, you were sporting a brand new black eye for your birthday, the result of falling and hitting your cheek on a wooden chair leg. poor baby!
after dinner, you absconded with a hardboiled egg from the pile I was peeling for the older girls' school lunches
Oh she is so adorable :) And toddlers are just the best!! That was so sweet that she kneeled down like you, they are always watching and listening and you are obviously a very sweet family based on how she acts and what she says :)
it's about time for a good old airing of the grievances. while we have ever so much for which to give thanks, sometimes we need the catharsis of enumerating our woes, big and small. (you can read the 2023 edition here.) _________________________________________ first up, potty training. I buckled down and trained Greta and Cecilia both around age 2 1/2, and it went fairly well (I'm a big fan of waiting until the kid is practically ready to train themselves). Elizabeth turned 2 1/2 near the end of the school year, and logically it seemed like a great time to buckle down -- we wouldn't be driving around to after school sports and activities and we'd have more time at home. I kept waiting for the day when I'd wake up full of excitement and motivation to strip off the diaper and chase a naked toddler around the house. and ... shockingly ... that day never came. then we were preparing for our trip to Seattle in July and it definitely didn't seem like the right time
dear Victoria, sometimes I scoop you up and can't stop myself from squishing your little body right into my chest, and nuzzling my face into your neck until you squeal with giggles. you are just so darn cute! you can spend up to an hour scooting around the family room playing with various toys -- recently you've started to be interested in baby dolls and the Fisher Price doll house. you mostly army crawl, but sometimes you pull yourself forward when you're sitting, too, and a few times you've been able to launch forward an inch or so from a bona fide crawling position. you can stand supported for a little while, but you're not close to pulling up by yourself yet. we had another wonderful report from the orthopedic surgeon this month. both hips remain in place. your left hip has what they call a "delayed ossification center", meaning that it's still primarily cartilage since the hip socket didn't form properly to begin with, but the doctor said tha
sitting outside the new independent coffee shop that opened in the neighborhood this summer as a physician assistant with an undergraduate minor in psychology, I've always been fascinated by the connection between the mind and the body. that interest serves me well in my chosen specialty of primary care/internal medicine, as mental health comes to bear so frequently on physical, or somatic, complaints like fatigue, upset stomach, and dizziness. in any given day, I'll typically have one or two appointments that are scheduled specifically so someone can address their anxiety or depression, and it often comes up as a subject of conversation during routine physicals. I have probably recommended therapy to my patients literally thousands of times, whether it's to deal with an isolated situational stress or grief, or more pervasive issues like OCD, chronic insomnia, bipolar disorder, depression, or borderline personality disorder. when we're discussing starting antidepressant
Oh she is so adorable :) And toddlers are just the best!! That was so sweet that she kneeled down like you, they are always watching and listening and you are obviously a very sweet family based on how she acts and what she says :)
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