Sanguine

What an enormous year 2008 was. Aside from all the many things that happened to us, like my Golden Birthday (25 on November 25th!) Finally getting my driver's license, having several members of our 'family' move back to town, and the election of Barack Obama, the most "stuff" really did happen to Ro.

Going from one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half is a pretty big deal, lots of milestones and growth to watch happen. She now uses full sentences, no longer demanding of us with one word commands. Her English is by no means perfectly constructed- for example, if she'd like me to get up and get her a cup of milk she pats me on the shoulder insistently and says, "Move sofa! Go milky!" ("Get off the sofa and get some milk!") She still really loves to make up her own words, so having a conversation with her usually involves picking apart her sentences to excavate the words I recognize and then piecing them back together in context.

She's done so much this year, we spent two months in New York at the beginning of the summer where she attended so many of her firsts: a wedding, an SCA event, a Tulip Festival, a family reunion, a baby shower, a fourth of July picnic, slept in a big-kid bed, ate a Happy Meal, and drew with crayons. That's a lot, crammed into two little months before you're even two!

Now she's a veteran at sleeping in her big-kid bed, draws almost every day (even has her own desk just full of art supplies- all of which she refers to as 'paper'.)

She plays every day with her little kitchen (which has a little 'window' overlooking 'Tuscany',) because Mommy watches SO MANY cooking shows during the day, it must be all she ever thinks about. This holiday season I finally got her into the kitchen with me and we successfully made cookies and ornaments, and even a huge mixing bowl full of "soup", which she "cooked" very diligently while I did dishes. The ice cream sprinkles and wild rice monstrosity got put down the sink long after bedtime.

She's suddenly way more interested in being read to, she didn't used to have the patience, but now will ferry you books and sit through the whole story, every time. I think it's had a real effect on her language comprehension. She talks a mile a minute, and many of the new things she's saying include: "Oops, sorry Mommy!" "Watch out!" "Delicious!" "Morning!" "Cook in the kitchen?" "When wake up, have food?" She calls Zack "Sack", as she's picked up on what his name is from me. The biggest addition to her vocabulary has been the word 'please'. That was refreshing.

Again, her pronunciation leaves something to be desired, of course, being two. She refers to her cat, whose name is Sandwich, as "Natches." The real cats, Loki and Raisin, are "Wocky" and "Ray-zeen".

She's packing quite a head of hair, which is hilarious, considering she was bald for the first year of her life. She has these beautiful red-brown curls that I'm somewhat envious of, and I'm so glad that her eyes settled into that beautiful shade of velvet brown, just like my mother's, and never changed.

I think her biggest change is that we've completely left cups with lids behind. She's been doing so well with not spilling that I haven't even looked back. She's getting to be so big, and it's been incredible to watch. I'm so excited to see what 2009, and subsequently two-and-a-half through three-and-a-half bring us.