2 Years + 3 months

We've got a quickly evolving independent lil' lady.  She is strong, brave, feisty, organized, focused and deeply concerned for those around her.  She is observant.  She is a hugger.

She has this fascination with the movie Frozen.  I'm not sure where she saw it first but she loves it. She loves Olaf and loves to sing to the soundtrack - "Summer", "Let it Go", & "Do you want to build a snowman?".   It's on repeat in my car every day to and from daycare unless she is in one of her moods.  Because of her love of Frozen, I had picked up a super cheap, valentine's clearance Olaf puzzle (33 cents!) at Target.  She loved it and we would do the same puzzle over and over again.  However, it was just made of cardboard and with toddler digits handling it....well, let's just say that it wasn't made to last.  I ended up finding a wood puzzle set that contained 7 different Frozen puzzles.  It was the jackpot of puzzles and she is a natural puzzler.  At first she needed a little guidance.  I put on my teacher hat and I spent some time modeling how I think about putting together a puzzle.  Now, she's pretty good at doing most of them alone....sometimes she'll ask for help.  Much like her Papa, Aunt Deb, and myself - she is a natural born puzzler.

If we thought her vocab really took off around 2 years old, Lucy has been putting together sentences like mad!  She has figured out the differences on how to use between you & me.  She's now remembering to always say "please, thank you and excuse me".  She also likes to tell us that "I tell Bob" (daycare provider) if anything happens.  That means, if she bumps her head, something breaks or she just isn't happy - that's who she plans to tell.  It's very endearing to think

She's all about that....BUCKLING.  If you have something that buckles, she's on her.  Her booster seat, her car seat, her BOB stroller, her pants.

She's all about independence.  She'd changed her own diaper if she could and takes ownership of putting on her clothes in the morning.  She's getting better but sometimes still loses her temper when frustrated.  I can't blame her.  As an adult, sometimes my patience eludes me too (hence where rollerderby came in handy).

She loves to go shopping....really anywhere. It's something she asks to do everyday.  I'm pretty sure it's because she likes to push the cart and help put things in the cart but either way, if we don't go she gets very upset and cries, cries, cries shouting "I want to shop!".  TROUBLE.

I have a lot of favorite things about this stage that I just adore but it's still her loud, belly laugh that I love the most.