Today is Allison's second birthday, which is as good a time as any for a little reflection. Here follows some stream-of-consciousness.
Allison is a happy little girl Her range of emotions is pretty moderate, though, but increasing as time passes. She gets sad and frustrated, but full-blown tantrums are rare. Likewise, she gets happy, but doesn't get really super pumped up and giddy, either. Pretty even keel.
She's talking more and more every day, and opening up to strangers. Yesterday, Diana's friend Megan came over to visit. We told Allison that Megan was coming over, and when the door opened, Allison greeted her with "Hi Megan!" The rest of the time she was over, Allison would bring her toys, and say "Megan, look!" while she did a somersault or jumped up and down.
Her favorite things these days are Elmo, dinosaurs, cars, and her tea set. She also loves "Tickle Sheep", a little sheep puppet, and still sleeps with Mommy and Daddy sheep (two sheep stuffed animals from New Zealand). She loves the water, both pools and at the beach, and spends most of the time at the latter picking up sand from the beach and throwing it into the water. The waves don't scare her, in fact if she gets knocked down she sputters and cackles with glee (as we save her from drowning). She generally prefers to play with other people, but is getting more and more self-sufficient as time passes.
She also loves music and dancing. We have some (super cheesy thrice-damned) kids music on CD at home, and she likes those. We have a futon mattress on our living room floor, and much of her free time is spent jumping, dancing, and playing on that. There is a local kids music duo called "Hullaballoo" that we've gone to see in concert, and she likes their YouTube videos. She'll play along with the parts that involve clapping hands and stomping feet and blinking eyes, etc. In the car, I'll put on the radio and she'll imitate me rocking out, wiggling in her chair or (my favorite) pumping her fist in the air. Sometimes we nod our heads, like "yes, yes, yes!" and sometimes we shake it, like "No, no, don't stop the rock!"
She's definitely learning about what she wants and doesn't want, what she can and can't do, and consequences for misbehavior. Surprisingly to me, she is very self-aware of when she's "being yucky". If she gets whiney or starts purposely testing boundaries, we can ask "Allison, are you being yucky?" and she'll say yes. Depending on the situation, she either gets a full-on timeout, or sometimes just a reminder that it's ok to be yucky, but you have to do it alone in your room. When she's really upset, she'll go into a weird kind of zone and try to lash out and hit us. This is pretty rare, and definitely not OK.
I don't have a whole lot of relative experience, but she strikes me as very physically able. She loves to jump and climb and run. We play "So Strong", a game where I lie on my back with her standing on my stomach. She puts her hands on my hands, and lifts herself off the ground, sticking her legs out so her body is in an L shape. I can then push forward with my hands and lift her up into the air. She recently started hanging off things, too, supporting her weight and lifting her legs off the ground and swinging.
She'll give us hugs and kisses when asked, but she's not "cuddly" by any stretch. We can sometimes lie with her if she's watching Sesame Street, but otherwise she doesn't really sit still long enough. She's starting to do things for positive attention, though, which is fun. "Mommy, watch!" and do some trick or make a funny face.
She's generally potty-trained, but needs help getting her clothes on and off. It's a bit of an adjustment for me, though, as I'm used to be reactive, and changing diapers when needed. Now, I need to be proactive and predict when she needs to go to avoid accidents. So far, so good, though. She still sleeps in a diaper, but generally spends her days in underwear and shorts.
She can count to 10 with no problem, and sometimes up to twenty (though some of the middle teens get muddled). Functionally, though, I don't think she can actually count objects more than three or four. If you show her a picture of 8 objects, for example, she'll imitate counting by counting "one, two, three…" and point to the objects, but in a random order, missing some and counting others twice. She knows the alphabet, can recognize each letter and the sound each makes.
All in all, this has been a great couple years. Diana and a wonderful mom, and really deserves any credit that may come our way. I'm doing the best I can as a dad. We're incredibly proud of her, every day recounting some new thing she said or did. This last year was big in terms of her development, and I'm sure that the next one will be even more so.
Happy birthday, Allison! We love you.