Janie turned 28 months today and it has been a big month of changes.  The most significant change is that that she started Day Care 2 days per week.  Although it has been hard on both Janie and Mommy, the change is good and commuting with her has been nice.  Another change is that she has become a full-fledged toddler with lots of strong opinions and wants to do everything on her own. She started to fight bedtime and makes up every excuse in the book to stay up longer.  Just the other night, she stood in her bed and screamed “POOPOO IN THE TOILET!!” over and over and over again.  She finally settled down on her own after 45 minutes of protesting.  We also foresee some struggles with GG being detached from the pacifier.  It fell off today and although the nipple has been cut down all the way, she still looks for the green part that remains.  We will see how the next few nights go without it.

Here are some other things that happened this past month:

1. New phrases: I don’t want it. KK do it! Mama go work.  KK go to school.  Better?  I’m scared! Where are you? Good morning! What are you doing?
2. In Spanish, she learned all her colors and I think she’s able to understand the teacher’s Spanish even with her being from Peru.  Mirian is from El Salvador and apparently Spanish around the world varies a bit.
3. Self-care: Janie can put on pants by herself now.  She’s also working on getting toilet trained at school.  The other day, the teacher kept her out of diapers all day and Janie had only one accident!  I think we’re gonna go shopping for underwear this weekend.
4. Gross motor: Janie still loves to climb and jump off of things.  Her biggest accomplishment was learning how to pedal her tricycle.  Now if she would figure out how to steer.  She’s also getting a little better at catching and kicking a ball.
5. Fine motor: Janie can now sign the ABCs on her own.  She’s most proud of her ability to make Y with her fingers.
6. Concepts: She learned about sharing and how to share.  She still doesn’t like it but she’ s gotten better since her trip to Monterey where she had a hard time sharing her toys with Alice.  Janie has also has a better understanding of Mommy and Daddy going to work and that they come back at the end of the day.  I can hear her rehearsing “KK go school.  Mama go work.”
7. Pretend play: Janie imitates and rehearses everything.  I often hear my words and tone of voice coming out of her when she’s playing and reenacting things with Big GG.  She helps him go poopoo on the toilet, helps him jump off the curb, and she pointed out the rain to him at the window.  She’ll even yell “NO” in the same way I do when she’s about to do something she’s not supposed to.
8. Emotions: She has been telling us when she’s happy, mad, or scared.  In Monterey, the whole family was watching Despicable Me 2 and she got scared of the purple minions.  She clung onto Auntie Jia and said “Scared!!”
9. Reading: Daddy taught Janie how to spell her name and she’s recognizing upper and lowercase letters all around her with increasing speed.
10. Counting: Janie is learning 11-20 but she kind of makes it up as she goes along.
11. Big Trips: Monterey and Lake Tahoe.  She went to the beach during both trips and got really comfortable play at the beach by the end of our Tahoe trip.
12. Her shoe size is still between 6 and 7 but we recently retired our favorite black Vans with the cherries on them.  Those were the best hand-me-downs ever.
13. The biggest thing that we’re dealing with now is our ever-increasingly-independent toddler.  She expresses her opinions loudly and wants to do everything herself.  Her stubborn streak has really emerged this past month.

Luckily, this kid is super cute and has enough charm to get us through the tough times.  Happy 24 28 months, Big Girl!!