Two Years Old - Nolin Leigh

My baby girl is two years old!  Where has the time gone?!

April 26,2013 - Two Years Old

Nolin continues to amaze me daily!  She has always seemed to be such a talker - like mother, like daughter, huh? ;)  But, I would have never imagined that she would be able to have such good conversations with me at such a young age.  It is so much fun to have conversations with her!  The girl can really tell a story.  & oh my goodness, I absolutely love her sweet little voice!!

Some of my favorite little things that Nolin says/does:

• Instead of just saying one or the other, Nolin has always said - all, finished, done, except she has had her own creative way of saying it - "alllllllllllll, sheshe, done".  I have a recording of the cuteness on this blog post.  Of course, Nolin just recently started saying finished correctly - it's actually a little heartbreaking!
• Nolin loves to talk on the phone & I love how she says, "hewwoooo".  It's also super cute when she says, "bye-bye, see you ater" & then walks out the door.  Seconds later, she usually knocks on the door & says, "hewwoooo?".  
• She refers to herself as Nolin when she talks now.  :)
• Nolin has learned to sing the clean-up song so well now - "clean up, clean up, errybody errywhere".
• When she gets up from her nap, Nolin says, "Momma, I wake-up-up".  Although it has recently turned into, "Nolin wake-up-up".  
• Whenever she asks a question she will follow it up with an answer herself.  Like if she is asking for a snack she will say, "Momma, nack, okay" & nods her head matter-of-factly.
• Nolin has counted up to 10 by herself (I even heard her count to 12 once).  She doesn't know one-to-one correspondence yet, but the girl is learning to count.  
• She calls boo-boos, boobies! LOL
• She calls putting make-up on, painting.  Hehe!
• She loves to sing.  Some of her favorites are: "jinle bells, jinle bells", "errybody talks, errybody talks", "carry on, carry on", "sbody used to know", & "rock ya momma wheel".  I could go on & on.  :)  Here she is singing a little...

Nolin is still using a lot of the signs she learned from Baby Signing Time.  That was one of the best things we purchased for her.  It's really cute because now Nolin tries to take Harris' hands & help him do some of the signs.

For the majority of her life, the only thing Nolin could watch on TV was Signing Time.  Recently I ler her watch Dora the Explorer & she is hooked!  She asks to "watch Doiya" now!

I thought Nolin was independent before - boy did I have something coming?!  She wants to do absolutely everything on her own now.  When we try to help her do something, she yells says, "Nolin do it!"  With this independence, we have to make sure we have plenty of time to do everything now!

Little Miss Independent also pretty much potty trained herself!  (No complaints from this Momma!)  Around 21 months, she was very curious about the potty, so we put a portable potty in the kitchen.  She would randomly go sit on it.  After a few days, she actually used it & after that it didn't take long.  Nolin has been daytime potty trained for a few months now.  She still sleeps in a diaper (we're too cheap for pull-ups!) at night, but a lot of mornings she will wake up dry.  So, maybe it won't be long until she is completely diaper free. :)

For the most part, Nolin has been really good to her baby brother, Harris.  She loves to kiss on him & hold him.  Every night when I am rocking Harris to sleep, she comes in to give us both a kiss when Paul puts her to bed.  She always opens the door & says, "shhhh".  But, she is still young, so she is learning that she isn't supposed to hit/squeeze Harris.  She has also learned that she can't just roll him off of her lap when she is finished holding him! Eeek!  I think these two are going to be best buds though...

Not only is Nolin good to her baby brother, she is also such a good little Momma.  She loves to take care of her baby dolls & stuffed animals like she sees me taking care of Harris.  She loves to wear her babies in the ring sling that Dacia made her.  She also loves to feed her babies.  She thinks that she should nurse them, like I nurse Harris.  :)  One day recently, she was actually determined that she was going to nurse Harris herself.  Hehe!

Just recently Nolin has decided to boycot naps.  Her new name is "No-Nap Nolin".  When we moved to Seattle, it took a few weeks to get her back on track with naps, but she was doing great.  Then after a month or so, she would sporadically start getting out of bed & wouldn't fall asleep.  I could spend an hour or more putting her back in bed, but nothing seemed to work.  So, I have come to the realization that I cannot count on having a nap-time break anymore.  :(  I know that Nolin should still be taking naps, but she actually won't go to bed until closer to 10 pm when she does nap.  So, Paul & I have opted for the 8 pm bedtime & aren't pushing the nap on her anymore.  If she needs one, she will take it, if not, then she won't.  I have started having some midday playdates, so sometimes she will fall asleep & take a short nap in the car on the way home.  This gives her a little rest, but doesn't allow her to sleep for two hours & not want to go to bed at night.

Speaking of bedtime - sometime around 19 months, Nolin started sleeping in a big girl bed.  One night she did not want to get in her crib.  She threw an absolute fit, so I thought maybe she just wanted me to rock her again.  After rocking her to sleep, I tried to put her in the crib & she immediately woke up crying.  I have never been one for letting my babies cry much, so from then on she started sleeping in a big girl bed with bed rails.

While Nolin is sleeping in a big girl bed, she has still used a pacifier at night.  We used to give her three pacifiers - one for her mouth & one for each hand.  :)  We haven't bought new pacifiers in ages, so as she has started biting through them, we have had to throw several away.  She is now down to one pacifier & when it is broken, there will be no more.  I sure hope she takes it okay!

One of Nolin's favorite things to do still, is "drive the car".  She loves to sit in the driver's seat, pretend she is driving, & play with all the controls.  This has come in very handy when Harris needs to nurse.  It is often easier to nurse him in the car before/after we go somewhere, so I don't have to worry about Nolin running off in public.  Letting her "drive the car" keeps her occupied while Harris nurses.

Nolin loves going to parks & playgrounds.  She isn't afraid to climb & try new things.

As far as I know (because she won't let me look in her mouth very well!), Nolin has all of her teeth but her two year molars.  I don't think those are trying to come through yet.  I sure hope they aren't too bad when the do pop through!

Nolin, I think, is sometimes an odd toddler - she likes coffee, medicine, & having the bulb syringe used on her nose when she has a cold!  LOL :)  Of course, Paul has only given her decaffeinated coffee.  Whenever she sees Starbucks now, she asks for coffee.  She also asks for "a pill, a pill" every morning - no worries, they are only vitamins!  & when she has a cold, we have no trouble giving her medicine.  She will ask for it!  I wonder if we should be worried?!

Nolin is finally getting enough hair to work with.  Most days we will put a clip in it to hold her bangs back to the side, but we have also tried a ponytail & pigtails.  She is too cute!

Dress-up fun has already begun also...

There is just so much that Nolin is doing - I know I haven't remembered it all.  It is just crazy how fast my baby girl is growing up!

I'll leave with this, Nolin's new word - LOL



She heard Momma talking about Harris!  Oooopps!  :)