Mazz Madness!: Mallory- 25 & 26 Months

Milestones
- Turned car seats facing forward
- Went on 3rd airplane ride
- Puts at least 5-6 word sentences together
- Knows EVERY animal sound!
- Starting to show interest in watching TV
- Says "Gig'Em Aggies" and puts her thumb up
- Mallory pooped in the potty!
- Started singing songs

Eating
Not much change on the Mallory's eating habits. She is a champ in that she will try anything you put in front of her and take one bite. She always swallows it but most of the time ends up saying "No Like" and refusing anymore. This summer has been great though in that she has started to really like fruit. So strawberries, watermelon and grapes she will consume a lot of. I have also discovered the bribing power of dum dum suckers and she LOVES them. Of course she only ever wants to eat pink ones and she doesn't want to suck on them she wants to bite them and she gets extremely mad if it is too hard to bite. She normally eats no breakfast or one or two handfulls of cheerios or a couple bites of waffles and then doesn't really eat anything substantial until she wakes up from nap. That is when she will sit down and have a 'good' lunch which is mac cheese, black beans, chicken nuggets or fish sticks. Then dinner isn't usually until 7 or 8 and is usually a couple bites of what we are having plus a 'kid' food of her choice. I tell myself again and again I can't worry about how much they eat! We have gotten into a summer habit of eating outside on the picnic table and that has been fun- they have learned they have to pay attention or Mila will grab their food! I am very grateful that she does love her milk though and will drink that all day long :)

Sleeping
Mallory has already gotten into a teenager sleeping schedule! She has been going to bed between 10 and 11 and then we wake her up around 10 every morning. Everynight all 4 of us pile into our bed and we read books and then they drink their milk while watching an episode of Daniel Tiger Neighborhood or Mickey Mouse Club house. Sometimes they both snuggle up and fall asleep during the show and other times they start picking on each other and start jumping on the bed and playing hide and seek underneath the sheets. The rule is after one show of theirs we get to watch one of our taped shows (so that they are hopefully so bored they fall asleep.) Well during the summer is Big Brother so..... we win parent award of the year because the kids watch an episode of Big Brother with us and they call the show "Boy." So as soon as their show is over they both start saying "Watch Boy Watch Boy" hahaha :) Mallory is our little stinker in the middle of the night and gets up a lot yelling for mommy and daddy. Well we are sucker of parents and we go and grab her and bring her into bed with us where she lies smack in between us. She isn't the best person to share a bed with because she talks in her sleep ALOT and also moves around ALOT. Half the time I leave her in bed with Jeff and I go sleep on the couch because I can't sleep with all the racket she causes. The nights that she doesn't wake up screaming our names she wakes up screaming for her paci that she lost and that ends up with her back in bed with us as well. She knows how to work the system :) She is still a champ at nap time though! We tell her it is time for nap and she gathers up all the toys she wants to take in her crib with her. We do the ritual of hugging Miles and then plop her in her crib and put her pink blanket (a neccessity) on top of her. She turns on her "TV" and then twirls the strings from her bumper and we don't hear a peep out of her again until at least 2 hours later. When she wakes up she is ALL smiles and her hair is extra crazy and curly!

Playtime
Mallory Jean.... where do I start...... she is a whole lot of sweet and sassy rolled up into a little little body with lots of curls :) She continues to be the bossy/dominant/loud one of the two and lucky for her Miles usually does whatever she tells him too. Sharing has started getting to be a little more of an issue in that everything is "Mine" but if I ask her to share with Miles she will happily go over and give him some. She also is very very good at saying "Miles No-No" if he is doing something she doesn't like hahaha. We have gone to the pool a lot this summer but she just isn't a huge fan. She rather just stand on the top step and play with water toys. She will jump in off the side several times and float around with us a little before she says "Back Back" because she wants to go back to the stairs. Neither of the nuggets will wear their floaties we bought for them so pool time is still limited to night time when Daddy and Mommy can go. She has all the sudden started showing a great interest in songs and singing. She LOVES when I sing the ABC's or I'm a Little Teapot and everytime I finish she says "Again Again" and prompts me with which song by saying "ABC or Teapot" haha. Sometimes Miles gets sick of the singing so I have one yelling to stop and one yelling to do it again and again. They both for some reason have the word 'you' and 'me' mixed up- which is adorable. So Mallory who LOVES to swing always is saying "Mommy push you swing?" ADORABLE! She continues to do well on the potty training even though we aren't pushing it at all. She will maybe once couple days tell me she wants to sit on the potty and then sure enough she will go pee pee. One miraculous time she told me potty and she went poop- luckily for her I got it on film :) She is always so proud of herself and what makes her happiest for a reward is getting a little piece of toliet paper so she can wipe hahaha. Mallory is just like her mommy in that she wants nothing to do with her hair. I keep putting off getting her 2 year pictures taken because she will not let me get ANYWHERE near her with a bow, headband or barret except for the one time Alexis tried and then she agreed! She is very dramatic/demanding and when she decides she wants something she better get it now or the screaming/freaking out comes out! We all have learned just to hand over what she wants quick :) One of the neatest things about her is how observant she is. She will sit and watch every little move of something we are doing and has just recently started asking TONS of questions such as "What is that mom?" Alexis told me that Mallory likes education because she asks so many questions :) Her favorite toy continues to be her baby dolls- which is just adorable! She pats them while she sways and loves giving them bottles. Every nap/night time she goes to bed with at least 4 of them! Everyday she becomes a little bit more of a mommies' girl and I am OK with that :) She has me like putty in the palm of her hand!