Amelia is TWO

It's finally starting to sink in.  Our baby girl is two.  She is the first-born of two first-borns and is growing into a smart, sassy, and silly little girl.

What is Amelia like at two?

She gives the best hugs and kisses.

She is a sponge. Like most two year olds, Amelia picks up concepts so quickly. It just amazes me!

Amelia has mastered all the upper and lower case letters and their sounds. (Although, she has trouble distinguishing the lowercase letter l with the number 1.) With assistance, she can identify the first letter of words she hears. During mealtimes we practice letter sounds. We pick a letter and then try to come up with as many words as we can that begin with it.

We have also been working on sight words. She can now recognize about 30 words. Some examples are: cat, tiger, dog, arm, elephant, eyes, etc. Amelia can also recognize and spell her name.

She knows her shapes and colors. It's very cute, if you ask her what color she is, she says she's beige. I think her favorite colors are peach, brown, and black because those crayons are worn down to little nubs. If you look at most of her coloring projects, those are the dominant colors.

We pick out shapes and colors when we go out. She constantly talks about how many sides each shape has, which is super cute. "Octagon has eight sides. Triangle has three sides."

She loves to pretend.  She is starting to have more elaborate tea parties, that now include food, and specific place settings.  Dress up has also become a popular activity for her.  She is obsessed with shoes, especially now that she can get them on and off herself.  Amelia is also starting to pretend with her dolls- not just playing "mommy" but other, new scenarios. 

She loves to sing and dance.  Amelia knows a bunch of nursery rhymes and songs and loves to sing them.  She has a surprisingly low singing voice, so it makes Jimmy and I laugh.  Her signature dance move is running around in circles and dropping it low.

She loves books and being read to.  Honestly, I've had to hide some of her favorite books for a few days because I get tired of reading them 30 times a day!  She has memorized some of her favorites and insists that she read those on her own.  Then there are other books that must be read to her.  She's very particular.  Sometimes bedtime is difficult because she doesn't want to go to bed and just piles more and more books for us to read to her.

She loves to count.  She can count to 20 on her own and recognize the numbers.  With a little assistance, she can count to 30.  She loves loves loves to count.  This morning, she had a waffle for breakfast and I heard her counting all the little squares left after each bite.

Amelia's Favorites...

Catch Phrases:
Oh my goodness!
Careful
It's a mess!
What are you doing?
Oh no! Fix it!
Where is _______? There it is!  I found_____!
Look at that!

Songs:
Twinkle Twinkle
If You're Happy and You Know it
Wheels on the Bus
ABC Song

Animals:
Elephants
Monkeys

Outfit:
ABC Pajamas

Foods:
Rice
Oranges
Apples
Chips
Carrots

Stuffed Friends:
Ellie
Froggy
Diva

Books:
Monster at the End of This Book
If You're Happy and You Know it
Olivia
Brown Bear, Brown Bear

TV Shows:
Sesame Street
Wiggles