23 Months

Weight: 26.2 pounds

Length: 34.5 inches 

Favorite activity: coloring, cutting up her play food, climbing up and down the stairs, pushing her animals around in a laundry basket, helping mama cook

Favorite food: tangerines, cheese, Goldfish crackers, cookies

Favorite spot: On the stairs

Cutest moment: Cuddling with her grampa

Important milestones: starting to put clothes on by herself (with lots of help)

Teeth: 15-16

Words: 88 - dada, mama, woof, yes, dis (this), kack (quack), hi, thank you, uh oh, bye, wa (water), pees (please), goat, puppy, ah duh (all done), no, shoe, socks, bawll (ball, but sounds like a southern belle when she says it!), Poppy, BeeBee, Tigee, truck, airplane, cat, cheese, spoo(n), eye, nose, Gamma, book, apple, pear, dip, fork, I do, fly (butterfly), star, circle, triangle, heart, Susan, Sissa (Melissa), Dogan (Logan), Jeshka (Jessica), mik (milk), shirt, pants, pee pee, poo poo, boo boo, fire, potty, Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie, Ernie, car, bus, duck, cow, horse, house, sheep, baa, moo, nee (neigh), woof, meow, oh der (oh dear), up up, tights, lights, Oscar, Grover, Zoe, Red, purple, gee (green), lellow (yellow), hello, bye bye, Lala (Lorelei), Fi (Fin), Ummer (Bummer), boots, sharp (knife), grampa

Phrases: I do, Mama shirt/pants/boots/fork, Daddy shirt/pants/boots/fork, Lala shirt/fork/pants, sheep baa

Signs: 12 (more, all done, dog, please, berry, cheese, grape, water, milk, help, thank you, cat)

How Mom's Feeling: Someone needs to tell Lorelei that she is not two yet, so she does not need to start the terrible twos. I have one more month! Where last month she was starting to assert her independence, she has now claimed it. While she has always been a good eater (and still is), she is now being more particular about her food--and more generous to the dogs! I have convinced her that the apple-cinnamon whole wheat muffins I give her is cake, and she generally likes those. She will only wear her purple shoes, and if possible, her purple pants. In fact, she would be pretty happy if everything was purple. Or yellow. Now, unfortunately, if what you have is not in the correct color scheme, or just what she does not wish to do, we have meltdown. We've had a lot of meltdowns lately.