Vera is 2!

Vera's officially 2 years old now.  She's been telling us for the last week or so that her birthday is coming up and she's going to be 2. 

Throughout the day on Vera's birthday (and the day before), I found myself thinking about what I was doing and feeling two years ago around that time.  Giving birth is something that a mom will never forget.  God has been so good to us.  Vera is a healthy, sweet, and inquisitive little girl.  She brings a smile to our face and joy to our lives every single day.

Right now Vera can carry on a conversation with us.  She doesn't miss anything and doesn't forget anything.  Adam and I still look at each other and say, "How does she know that?"  Amazing.  Some funny phrases that she's said lately include:
"Here my go!" (She means "here I go!")
"My hold you."  (Will you hold me?")
"Don't forget about me!"
"Let's catch up with mom/dad." (As we're leaving in the morning.)
"I have just the thing!"
"I have very important announcement!"  (No idea where she got this!)
"Take you time.  Concentrate."  (When she's playing golf.  I bet you can't guess who taught her those phrases!)
"You're my bestest friend in the whole wide world!"  (Aww!  Sweetest girl!)

Vera's become a better eater within the last few months.  She will eat meat now, but she has to be in the right mood for it.  She really likes ham and cold meat.  Mac and cheese is still the #1 favorite.  Jello is a newfound favorite.  I finally was able to get her to eat applesauce...but it has to come from the squeezable pouches, and it can't be plain apple.  What a pain.  She calls it sauce.  A few weeks before her birthday we started giving her 2% milk.  We were having trouble using up the Vitamin D milk before it expired.  I appreciate only buying one kind of milk.  She's still not the best at using a fork and spoon.  She uses her "pinchers" to eat most everything, unless we insist on using silverware. 

We're maintaining on the potty training.  Vera still doesn't really tell us she has to go potty, but if we put her on every 2 hours or so, she keeps her pants dry.  Some mornings she even wakes up dry.  It's often a fight to get her to sit on the potty.  She'll cry and whine, but she almost always goes right away when we put her on the potty.  We've tried the panties a few times on the weekends and she's done ok.  Patty says she stays dry at her house almost every single day.  My goal is to have her completely trained by the end of summer. 

Vera's starting to pretend a lot when she plays.  She makes up stories and games to play.  It's fun to listen to her "read" books.  She re-reads them after we read, and tries to remember the story.  There are some books that she has completely memorized, such as the Super Duper Underwear book, as Vera calls it.  Her favorite toys right now are her Doc McStuffins doctor kit and Mr. Potatoehead.  She still loves to color, and I must say she's getting better at coloring.  She tries to color the picture a little more instead of randomly scribbling.  Vera loves to watch Toy Story, and she asks to watch it nightly.  She also still really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc McStuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Peppa Pig.  Vera can say some of her prayers all by herself now, and she knows how to make the Sign of the Cross. 

In the car, we've been listening to a kids' CD of music.  Vera can sing many of the songs from the CD like "Wheels on the Bus," "One, Two Buckle My Shoe" "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," and the tongue twister "She sells seashells..."  When she sings, sometimes she pretends to have a microphone and she'll say "And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three..." and then she'll start singing.

Vera still twirls her hair when she's tired or trying to fall asleep.  Patty always laughs about how she twirls her ponytail.  She has her mom to thank for this habit.

Recently, Vera's learned that her dad works at Midmark (she says MooMark.  MooMART is the name of a store on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.)  Over Easter break, Vera woke up one morning that I didn't have school but Adam had to work and she said, "Sorry dad.  You have to go to MooMark."  haha  She also knows that her mom works at Ansonia, but she has a little trouble saying that.  Vera knows that her mom's name is Kim, her dad's name is Adam and her name is Vera Louise Pearson.  She remembers that Blake's mom and dad are Mandy & Jeff and she knows that Bailey's mom is Mindy.  She can count to about 14.  The sequence goes something like 11, 12, 14, 19, 18, and then jibberish.  She can count to 30 if you help her.  She knows all of her shapes including the diamond, oval, pentagon and hexagon.  I don't know how she knows these.

Vera is not always the innocent little girl that she looks like.  She's become quite bossy too.  We often hear phrases like
"I don't like/want..."
"Give it back!"
"No!"
"I have it."
"My turn!"
and to Papaw Otte, "You not eat smarties!  Those grandma's smarties!"  With a pointing finger and all.

We're so lucky to have Miss Vera in our lives.  She's the best thing and we love her so much!  Here's to a safe, and enjoyable year filled with many milestones and memories!