At 27 & 28 months...

• her mommy is getting behind in her posts as Avi is growing up so fast and her mommy can't keep up!
• She talks non stop.  She has a comment or question about every noise, thing, unusual or common, whether she knows the answer to it or not.  "what's that?" "what avi doing?" "mommy driving?"
• She uses pronouns! He, she, you, I  !
• Completely 24/7 potty trained!!  After 1.5 months with poop accidents every other day I got so frustrated with her because it seemed like she knew exactly what she was doing...and after that day, it was a breaking point and she hasn't had an accident since.  We also stopped night diapers starting April even though she was really ready several weeks earlier.  You would think after 12 hours of not peeing, she'd be rushing to the potty in the morning but nope, not with her super-bladder!  She usually wants to eat breakfast first and then go pee.  
• I'm trying to grow out her bangs so that I don't have to worry about trimming them all the time.  Its easier now that she let's me tie back her bangs  
• She likes saying hi to everyone she sees.  This does not necessarily mean she's outgoing though because she still gets all shy and clingy initially when we are in certain crowds (like to my aunts house).  Her outgoing-ness is quite unpredictable and I can't figure it out yet!  She has a school graduation performance coming up in May and all the teachers are raving about what a great dancer she is and how she's  really into the singing and dancing but I'm unsure how she's going to be on the big day being in front of an audience of strangers  
• Her teacher, Ms. Netasha told me her smile is so infectious.  "It just makes you happy when you see her smile".  That is one of the nicest comments a mom could ever hear.  She's also said 
• Avi is really easy.  I.e. Easy to sleep, easy to eat, easy with work time.  When Avi comes to school she thinks "yay Avi is here!"  Whereas some kids she thinks, "oh...."  Her words, not mine!
• I would say she's easy too.  Minus the tantrums here and there (which aren't that often anymore) and the disobedience (acts like she doesn't hear me) I'm thankful that she's a good eater and isn't too picky, that she sleeps on her own and doesn't wake up til 730/8 and usually just rolls around in her crib til I come get her, and that she now plays on her own well
• She can put on her own shoes and occasionally can get on a sock
• She can put on pants and underwear if you set it in the right direction for her
• I think she is a little OCD and her teacher sees it too. She likes to wash her hands at school a lot. Dirtiness bothers her. I took her to HEB's Easter egg hunt and after much convincing, she let them face paint her but after a few minutes of the paint on her face, she became kinda panicky wanting to "wipe off".  I put a play tattoo in her arm and a few hours later she insisted on removing it.  She freaked out when she walked in sand at the beach in her flip flops.  Open drawers bother her so much, she will walk past one, turn back and shut it. 
• She is much more in tune with her senses--complains if the water is too hot or too cold, complains of smells being "stinky"

At 26 months...

• My baby is practically potty trained (number 1 only) without a whole lot of effort!! *knock on wood*.  After having her potty sitting in the bathroom for months unused, she started to be more interested, especially going when I'm also going...whatever works!  Then this past weekend she just figured it out. She only wet her diaper after her naps.  (She also had to go in the middle of the super bowl Katy Perry half time show...interruptions like that is the reason why I'm not all that eager to potty train).  It also helps that she can hold her pee for-EVER which is becoming a problem at school because she refuses to use the potty at school if her teacher takes her and she only wets her diaper either after her nap or sometimes not til 5pm when she absolutely can't hold it anymore.  That's 8+ hours without peeing!!! This can't be good for her bladder.  I'm also afraid she's going to hold in her poops too because so far she seems more comfortable going in her diaper (one successful poop in potty) and if she won't pee at school there's no way she's going to want to poop there!
• *update* starting feb 9th, she's been going to school in underwear...and she's okay with using the potty at school, in fact she actually likes it so much she's asking to go all the time even when she doesn't need to!  She's had a few accidents at home but for the most part she is pee-trained but not poop trained (argh) and only wears diapers at night.
• After four weeks of crying and resistance in her new class, she finally had a break through. She still pines for "shell tina" (ms. Michelle and ms Katrina) but no crying or screaming!
• She's been very resistant to going to bed. Bed time routine is getting drawn out and she cries/whines when I'm about to leave the room.

• She seems to be thriving in her new class. She's repeating a lot of what she learns at home. She can sing most letters of the alphabet song. She's learning some letter sounds.   
• She's using "I" more often and saying more complex phrases/sentences like "no snack, eat dinner soon" or used the word "yesterday"
• She likes strawberries now. 
• She likes cereal with milk and eats it fairly neatly 
• She likes to sing " happy birthday Isabella!"  Apparently everyday is her classmate Isabella's birthday!
• In addition to counting 1-10 she also knows 11,12,13
• She can articulate words in songs she's been hearing all two years of her life now.  She can sing Twinkle Little Star in its entirety and the Alphabet song up to the part that says "now I know my abcs...".  She likes singing Five Little Monkeys.
• She loves playing with her cousins Kate and Max and can finally somewhat communicate with Kate. 
• She enjoys bounce houses now which makes her mommy nervous.
• After 7 weeks being in Ms. Netasha's class, she can happily walk into her class. 

At 25 months...

• So I guess when a toddler turns 2, is when most people stop counting the months cuz for the first time, we completely missed her "month" birthday!  It went by for a few days before I realized it. Does this officially make her not a baby anymore? Does this mean I should discontinue these "at __ months" posts? 
• She moved up to the next class with Ms. Netasha after the winter holidays!  She's rolling with the big kids now! The classroom has a potty and a lot of kids in there are potty trained so I'm hoping she will be more interested in using it.  She's been showing signs that she's ready--telling me her diaper is wet, not wanting to sit down if she has poop in her diaper, trying to take off her pants, occasionally sitting on the potty for minutes at a time. *update* she successfully peed twice in the potty!!
• It's been over a week in Ms. Natasha's class and she still cries dramatically when I drop her off.   (But only for a minute says the teacher. The rest of the day she's great)
• She's obsessed with acorn, pecans, and sticks (tree branches). She picks them and hangs on to them. She insisted on bringing them to school one day and gets upset if she can't find them. 
• She can count from 1-10 in English and Vietnamese!  How did she learn the vietnamese you ask? Every night when it's bath time, I always make a big hoopla about marching upstairs and I march her upstairs counting "mot, hai, ba...all the way to muoi". It's been going on for a few months now without much response from her but her speech has become a lot better lately so everything she's heard for a long time now is starting to click.  She likes to count things, not comprehending that when you count, you're not supposed to count the same thing over and over again until you reach ten.  Now if only I can be repetitive about everything else I know in Vietnamese, then she can be Vietnamese proficient! 
• After months of trying so hard to jump off the ground, we finally have lift off--a whole two inches off the ground!
• She really loves to get her groove on. Anytime she hears some catchy music she is up stomping her feet and shaking side to side. 
• I didn't think she was adept enough to try chopsticks yet but after seeing a video of her friend Audrey do it, I figured I'd let her try and sure enough, she did it surprisingly well!

At 24 months...

• she says some broken sentences. "Cat, bite, feet" (a black cat she was smitten with at the nature discovery center tried to bite her and then coincidentally she also got a blister on her foot from her shoe and ever since then, the scab that formed from the blister is where the cat bit her)
• I heard her use "I" and "me" once. Otherwise, she still doesn't realize what "you" means and says "mama feed you" when she means for me to feed her. 
• An update on what she eats now: 5oz 1%milk at each meal, still pack her 3 snacks to schools which sometimes she eats all of it and sometimes not. Vegetables that she likes now is broccoli, cauliflower and zuchini. She loves avocado. 
• Her Auntie Boogie gave her a doll for her bday and she loves it. She insisted on taking "Baby" to school a couple of times. The baby's pacifier keeps falling out and she gets frustrated when she can't put it back in. 
• She also enjoys her cutting fruit toy from her Auntie JoJo
• We got her a tricycle/bike but it's a little too tall for her so she rides it occasionally on her tippy toes but since it's uncomfortable, doesn't enjoy it for long 
• She can pretty much feed herself now so during breakfast I can usually get some things done while she's eating. 
• She can count from 1-10!! It's not consistent but she's done it a few times.  She also recognizes the number zero. 
• She's learning some letter sounds in school. When I say "m-m-m-momma". She says "m-m-m-Avi".  She's so hilarious. 
• Her preference for me over daddy has become very dramatic. While it does make it harder on me (I have to bathe her, feed her, change her, play with her...etc), I do feel bad for Daddy. Sometimes he can't even look at her without her whining "daddy" (in a tattling manner).  

2nd birthday disaster

I spent weeks of planning her awesome elmo birthday party and she spent the majority of the party crying.  The night started out well. We got some cute pictures of her and she was playing with her cousins. I don't remember exactly when the fussiness started but it just escalated. We ended up spending half the party outside walking with her. I even walked all the way to the nature center to see her favorite bunnies. On the way back she refused to sit in her car or walk so I had to carry 29 lbs and push the car with my hip.  Every time we tried to take her back in the house she would cry and scream again.  The singing happy birthday and blowing out candle part that I tried to prep her and get her excited about for the last several days was like ripping off a bandaid--did it quick and as painless as possible.  It wasn't until some people started leaving and I took her upstairs for a bath to just calm her down and get her away from the chaos that she became more like my sweet baby. We went back downstairs afterwards and she happily opened her presents but we did it oh so slowly to not overwhelm her.  So it took a failed birthday party for me to realize she doesn't like crowds and attention.  I would never have guessed it considering she likes to say hi to random strangers and strangers are always saying "she's so friendly!"  *sigh* I hope this is just a phase.

At 23 months...

• I cannot believe I have an almost 2 year old (!?!)
• She is saying LOTS of two word phrases such as "daddy car", "more cheese".  Everything is "right there" even if it's not.  She also said "teddy I love you" once and just this morning randomly said "I love elmo" (elmo wasn't anywhere in sight) but I'm glad she said this because little does she know, her birthday party is going to be elmo-themed!
• Had my second parent teacher conference this morning. Her teacher, Ms. Michelle is an amazing teacher and caretaker. Avi loves her so I love her too!  Ms. Michelle tells me how wonderful, intelligent, and sweet Avi is.  She's mastered everything that's been taught in her Orientation 1 class.  I learned that she knows all her shapes including obscure ones like hexagon and pentagon. She may not be able to say the word but she can recognize and match. She, along with Matthew and 4-5 other kids will be moving up to the next class in January!!
• Oh a very annoying thing she's been doing is she "beeps" you if you're in her way.  Yes, literally, pushes you with her hand and says "beeep!"  One time, I wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine so I did a hand in her face "beeeeeep!!" But I realize, I should not encourage this behavior...  #beingamatureadult. 
• She went to Chuck E. Cheeses for the first time for her aunt Justine's 5th birthday.  She was so afraid of Chuck E. that we had to sit as far away from the stage as possible. 
• She was Hello Kitty for Halloween.  I was Keroppi and dad was Batdz Maru.  Because of her fear of ppl in costumes, I was worried she would think Halloween a huge nightmare. It turned  out the night went smoothly. She  enjoyed roaming our street and grabbing candy (even though I don't think she knows what candy is yet, and I intend to keep her innocence for as long as possible!  There was a close call when she unwrapped a Dum-Dum but I got to it in time). She also liked to push her way into ppl's houses. 
• She loves animals. 
• After months and months of trying to get her to say "bird" and thinking it would be her first word, she finally says it instead of just "chirp chirp".  She also can say "elephant" instead of "boom boom".  
• Some conundrum phrases that only a parent could decipher: "dote side" = "it's dark outside", "like it" = "i don't like it"
• She loves eggs and will eat 3 eggs scrambled and likely more if we let her for breakfast. 
• When we go for walks in her red car, she always wants to go to the Nature Center to see thebunnies and turtle. The other option is to go see the train at the dead end of our street. 
• She refers to intangible things. For example, she may ask for the iPad even if she doesn't see it.
• She tries to sing along to songs. I was singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and she sang the "all around the town" part.  A few days after her birthday, she kept saying "appie to you". It took me two days to realize she was singing the happy birthday song!

At 22 months

• We went to Greece and left bambino at home with my parents for 9 days!  She was perfectly behaved (no surprise) but woke up around 4 or 5 every morning!  (Edit: turns out she refused to nap or sleep at night.  My mom didn't want to tell me this but I found out from my sister!  Every nap time and bedtime was a struggle.  She's been fighting with naps lately but surprisingly doesn't get too cranky when she doesn't nap.)  We missed her a lot and talked about her everyday. We would imitate words she says and laugh about how silly she sounds.  We meant to FaceTime everyday but the time difference made it difficult to arrange. When she saw us again, she stared at us for a good 5 sec before slowly smiling and came to give me a hug. Phew! I thought she didn't recognize us but now I think she was just shocked to see us.  After that she was attached to me and didn't want me to leave her side =\ poor baby, I think we traumatized her.  I'm not sure if I'll ever do that again--at least not at this age when they don't understand the concept of "I'll be back in a week".  Since we've been back, her tantrums have worsened and are a lot more defiant.  I feel like I have to walk on egg shells around her because I don't know if my next move or next response will cause madness.  I believe this is pay back for leaving her. 
• She stopped pooping (in her diaper) at school. She saves it all for home. Thanks Avi. Remember this when I'm old and incontinent. 
• She is imitating words really well and pronouncing words that she used to mispronounce a lot better. (She actually says "more" instead of "neh", "watuh" instead of "wa- wa", "milk" instead of "nelk")
• Every now and then she'll throw out a phrase like "green ball" or "right there"
• She only wants daddy in the morning (which would be great for me if only Daddy was still home when she wakes up). However in the evening she flips and only wants mommy. She screams and cries if daddy even looks like he might be taking her upstairs for a bath. 
• She feeds herself fairly well now and dinner time seems to go a lot more smoothly
• She plays well by herself. I was able to do dinner prepping for over an hour without her requiring much attention!  
• She plays with Violet, Panda, and Tigger all the time --puts them to sleep, puts them in her high  chair or sitting on the window sill, holds Violet pats her soothingly like she's a baby