Motherhood / Primrose

Motherhood Update: Prim at 2 years (!)

Prim’s birthday dinner was the most toddler-ish meal, maybe ever. We let her eat her cake first, which was followed by her eating ketchup… by itself. (We never have ketchup at home, but I had made homemade chicken nuggets and decided to let Prim “live it up” with dip, which apparently means just letting her eat straight ketchup. Mom of the year!) Luckily she ended the meal by devouring a mountain of the green beans I had made, so it didn’t feel like a total mom-fail. And she left her chicken nuggets and roasted potatoes completely untouched, because of course.

Saying: Prim continues to expand her vocabulary and is now speaking in full sentences. She’s still big on commands (“Mama sit right here!”) and I’m so enjoying this phase between language fluency and baby-talk. I always want to remember the way she uses the word “in” — “Prim in the outside,” “Prim in the couch,” and the way she pronounces words like flamingo (“slimma”) and music “zisic.” She also has this uncanny ability to turn single-syllable words into what seems like two syllables (most notably, the sing-songy way she says, “Hiiiii Laaaaaaark!”)

Prim’s Favorite Things: Prim has recently become somewhat attached to a small Jellycat lion. The lion recently came on a walk down the block to the mailbox with us and she held his paw just like I hold her hand. The most hilarious of lion’s adventures, though, has to be the day I walked in on her with lion in the bathroom — he was sitting on top of the closed toilet seat and Prim proudly announced, “Lion poops!”

Reading: The Gruffalo, Flora and the Flamingo, The Gingerbread Man, The Wonderful Things You Will Be, and Whose Nest.

Latest trick: Prim has the funniest little personality, which is all her own, but it’s interesting to see the things she clearly picks up from KC and me. She is regularly throwing out phrases now that I know she’s gotten right out of my mouth. Her go-to words when she drops something (“Shoot!” or “Jeez!”), her exasperated “Come on!” when she’s struggling with something (which usually comes out when I’m having trouble with the zipper on her jacket or sleep sack), and the way she will randomly toss out, “Goodness!” while she’s climbing down the stairs. (I worked hard to clean up my language once Prim started talking, which is good since my new “exclamations” seem to have really made an impression!)

Favorite toys: In addition to the Gruffalo book, Prim received a set of Gruffalo wooden alphabet blocks and a scooter for her birthday from us, and so far both are quite a hit!

Sweetest things: Prim seems to think that the phrase “I miss you” means the same thing as “I love you.” Given that we’re thousands of miles away from our families and tell them we miss them regularly over FaceTime, I can see how she’s made this assumption. At least once a day Prim will come up to me and say, “Miss you, Mama!” to which I will respond, “I love you!” which is followed by Prim saying, “Welcome!” meaning: “You’re welcome.” It’s so silly and sweet, just like Prim.

Favorite thing about this age: We listen to music most of the day, and have done this since Prim was teeny-tiny. Prim has recently started singing along to some of the songs and singing to herself in her crib. Hearing how much of the lyrics she has managed to pick up from the songs we sing is fascinating, and listening to her sing to herself is pretty much the best thing ever.