Buster

Sure is hard to get any computer time around here.

Twenty

Well, the livelihood of this blog is not promising. It's not my fault - I try and play on mom's computer all day long, but she's all, "Lu, don't push buttons!" Lame.

In the alternative, I enjoy playing on her phone. And leaving her eleventy billion Lu-selfies to enjoy (or face-calling all of her contacts). She should know by now if she hears me saying "cheese" it's for a reason. 

Since last we spoke, I turned twenty. Whoa. Thankfully, my hair is curly and brown - not going gray yet. It's still pretty short though. I'm up to fifteen teeth. One more pokey tooth to go and then I'll just be waiting on my two year molars. Lucky for everyone, I have no desire to bite people, because I am pretty toothy. Not sure my stats but I seem to be about the same size as I was when I was nineteen. Probably a little taller. Definitely a bit awesomer.

I'm pretty chatty these days. I talk or sing all day long. I would say 80% is unintelligable to everyone but mom and dad and Juj, but whatever, I know what I'm saying. I've lost count of all my words but there are a lot, which a couple phrases once in a while, like "ma tats" (more tattoos). Most often you can hear me asking to watch "Muh-muh" (Mickey), color with "Muh-muhs" (markers) or eat a "Muh-muh" (muffin). I can't figure out what's unclear about that. I've gotten pretty good at reading - I can complete a bunch of my favorite books. And I can say numbers and letters when prompted. If you ask me how old I am, I'll tell you I'm six.

I'll pretty much eat anything. I tried shrimp and loved it. And I've discovered sauce, which might be ketchup, BBQ sauce or syrup. All delicious. I still think milk is poison. I love "bops" (pouches) and "shishies" (fishy crackers) and berries and bread and pasta and anything that requires sauce.

I love getting to help feed sissy dog. I carry a cup of food to her mat. And I give her treats all day long. I love helping with everything, especially if it's something that Juj is doing. And I'm still a great sleeper. Naps have been about two hours and at night I'm sleeping about 8 pm until 7-7:30 am. When I wake up I just hang out until Juj comes in, and then I go on the potty and then find dad to snorgle. 

(If mom says "look at me" this is what I do. I'm funny.)

I'm starting school this week so I got to work on my first homework. It involved markers. I love coloring. Sometimes mom judges me for coloring on my face or the table. She's all, "Juj never colored on tables," and I'm all, "Juj is a square." I also love going for walks to feed the ducks, riding my bike, collecting rocks, and running around the house like a lunatic. And I love sneaking upstairs to get my guck and Herbie out of my crib.

Well, I can't say I'm not trying to keep this blog alive. But a toddler-peep can only do so much. Plus, I'm going to be busy soon. I'll be upgraded to big sister next week and then I'll either be too busy to blog, or mom will be too busy to notice me on the computer and I'll be blogging constantly. 

Nineteen

Time flies when you're an old lady. I'm nineteen!

Nineteen seems to be a lot like eighteen. My days are filled with playing and coloring and begging for snacks and coloring. And wandering upstairs for find Herbie and guck because mom makes me leave them in my room. Mega-lame.

I had my eighteen appointment mid-month. I was 22 lbs 8 oz and 31 inches (35th percentile!). Yep, that's right, I'm practically super-model tall. I am still in 5 diapers (but 4s fit too) and I'm still in mostly 18 month clothes. Shirts I can wear bigger, pants I can wear smaller. My fluff is still curly. I have two more teeth now and they are pointy sharp! That puts my total at 8 on top and 6 on the bottom. 

I like to spend my days coloring. I love markers and crayons and I'm pretty excellent at getting the tops on and off myself. And it's not too often that I try out the markers on my own hands. I also love reading books. I still read my baby board books but I really love picture books these days. Clifford is a major favorite. So are Baby Beluga and my Truck book and all of Juj's library books. I also like to play doctor kit and give people check ups. And anything else Juj is doing I love to do.

I love Sissy Dog and she's remarkably tolerant about my love. I give her lots of treats, that helps. And Juj and I feed her breakfast and dinner. We are super helpful. Speaking of food, I'm still an excellent eater most of the time. I'll try anything, especially things that other people are eating. I'm really loving carrots right now. Ask me what I want for lunch and I'll always say bread and cheese and berries. Mom doesn't always comply. Lame. I still don't really care for milk. Not my fault. I didn't take away my delicious bottles, mom did.

Juj is still my most favorite person so I try and do everything she does. I wasn't so sure about nail polish but she wanted her nails done so I was all, "Okay, let's paint my finnies too." But I draw the line at tattoos. I just don't want any tats no matter how many Juj has.

My chatters are coming along. I don't have a good count on words anymore. I'll try and say almost anything but I'm comically terrible at repeating a lot of things. 90% of what I say can only be understood by mom and dad and Juj. But I like it that way, it's like a built-in privacy policy. Some things are becoming more clear. For example, I now say Elmo and up clearly (formerly mama and bup). I can complete some of my favorite books and songs. I still have a ways to go before I'll be ready to give speeches but I'm coming along.

My snoozing skills are still solid. I go to sleep around 8 pm and wake around 7 am. I am always happy when I wake. I just lay in bed and growl and snorgle my guys until Juj comes in. She will give me books and turn on my music and then I hang out in my crib a while longer. After that mom will come in and get me and help me use the potty (I go a couple times a day on the potty) and then I get dressed. It's a pretty good morning routine. I nap about 1.5-2 hours a day.

I LOVE Mickey. I ask for Mickey ("muh-muh") a lot. Mom is pretty lame but dad will totally let me and Juj watch in the morning while he's getting dressed. Obviously he loves me more than mom does. I also love to play iPhone. I am an expert. I like to play games, look at pictures, call people, and take billions of selfies. 

Nineteen is going to be a good one. My last month before my upgrade to middle child! I can't wait. Juj is my very best friend and now I'm getting another best friend. I hope Buster is as awesome as Juj.

Tired

Sometimes eating is exhausting.

Besties

I've heard from other toddler-peeps that sometimes they have trouble at home.

I'm not talking about mom being all, "No you don't need to eat fishy crackers all day long," (lame) or dad being all, "You can only watch one Mickey in the morning before mom catches us." I'm pretty sure those are just a given. 

I'm talking about big brothers and sisters.

I can hardly believe it's true, but I've heard some can be bossy, non-sharers, pushers, kickers and even, get this, toy takers!

Hard to believe, I know.

I may not get to have my guck in my face all day long, and I may not be allowed to climb onto the table to reach the markers, but when it comes to my big sissy, she's the greatest and my very best friend.

We play together all day long. 

Sissy Juj is an excellent sharer and she's taught me well. We really never fight over things because we take turns. Sharing is caring you know.

And Juj teaches me all of her best tricks, like spinning in circles until we fall over, coloring pictures, and climbing the slide even after mom requests we go up the right (boring) way.

She makes me laugh and giggle.

In the morning when I wake up she brings me books to read in my crib and even reads some of them to me.

She takes good care of me if I fall down or get damaged and always makes sure to hug me before she goes anywhere.

Sometimes I make her feel frustrated but (save for one small hair pulling incident) she never hits me or pushes me or does anything hurtful. She's kind and asks for mom's help when I'm needing a little reminder about how it's hard to read a book if I'm sitting on it.

I want to be just like Juj. So naturally I copy everything she does. 

I love my big sissy the most in the whole world. 

Actress

I'm pretty into putting on shows and dancing and singing so guess what Peeps, I just finished a week of theatre camp!

I had the best time! It was all about the Ladybug Girl books.

I learned about actor tools like imagination, voice and body. I got to do art projects and learn songs and dances. And I got to skip resting time for a whole week. WIN!

At the end of the week, we did a show for all the moms and dads. We got to pick who to be for the show. I was a mermaid. 

In the show we sang a couple songs and did a little play. Contrary to what mom and dad predicted, I actually participated and looked moderately happy the entire time. Perhaps they shouldn't judge me.

I was probably cutest mermaid in the show. Just a guess.

My friends Lizie and Linnea were in my camp too, which made it billions more fun.

I can't wait until next summer. I definitely want to go back to theatre camp!

Hopefully my friends will come back to camp with me!

For those of you (Grandmas K and P) that might actually want to see me in action, here's a snippet of the Ugly Bug Ball song!

*Sorry my pictures are clearly unedited and the red eye runs rampant. If I wait for mom to edit pictures, blog posts never happen. She's lazy.

Eighteen

Happy half birthday to me! (And yes, I failed to do a seventeen update, I know. I'm a busy toddler-peep!)

Since I missed my seventeen update I'll try and cover the last two months. I am getting to be a very opinionated toddler-peep. I like to pick my own outfits and accessories. Especially the accessories. My favorite pajamas are my cookie jamas. And I love all shirts with puppies. Really I'm pretty particular about all things. I'm not sure where I get that. *cough, daddy, cough*

I love eating, especially if someone else is eating, even if they happen to be a stranger. I like to feed myself my yogurt now. Thankfully I'm not the least bit messy. I am obsessed with bananas and ask for one all day long. I also love fishy crackers and cheese and watermelon. And pretty much everything else. Sometimes I boycott meat, just for fun, but usually I'll eat anything on my plate and definitely anything on anyone else's plate. I love water. Milk in a sippy cup or a straw cup is poison. Chocolate milk is poison too. But get this, mom took away my milk bottles. Horrifying. And, if that's not bad enough, Juj still had bottles at nineteen months. I'm filing an official complaint. Just watch. I'll bring bottles back yet.

I'm growing pretty tall. I'll get my official stats in a couple weeks but I wear lots of 18 month shirts. I'm a bit skinny so pants I wear smaller. I wear 5 diapers but I could probably go back to 4s. My shoes are a 5 or 5.5. I have 12 teeth and a couple more that are getting close. My fluff is still pretty short but I have excellent curls.

I have lots of excellent skills. I can put my shoes on myself (sandals) and somehow I always get them on the right feet. I can climb any chair or couch. I'm a pretty great tooth-brusher and hair comber. I am capable of (but don't always choose to) following directions and getting things for mom and dad and cleaning up toys. I use the potty a couple times a day and I'm getting better about telling mom when I need to go or when I just went.

My sleep skills are still excellent. I usually go to sleep around 8 pm. Sometimes bedtime is earlier and that gives me a chance to flop and growl for a while first. I sleep until about 7:30 am. I nap once a day, usually from about 1:30 pm until 3:30 or 4 pm. I never fuss about resting. I love my time with Herbie and Herbie blanket and guck. Speaking of, also on my list of grievances, mom is making me leave my beloved Herb and guck in my crib. LAME. Thankfully I am quick and smart so I'm able to sneak upstairs eleventy times a day to find them. I don't know why she's trying to ruin my life.

The biggest development in the past two months is probably related to my chatter-skills. In that I have some now. I'm talking a lot and there are at least 2.5 people on this planet that can understand me. Things I say a lot: mom, dad, Juj, Buster, Sissy, Papa, Grandma, fish (animal), fishies (the food), cracker, nana (banana), cookie, cupcake, more, cloth, help, wah-wah (water), guck, pup, up, bye-bye, hello, chalk, ball, slide, swing, car, uh-oh, all done (grunted with special intonation), Mickey, cheers, wash, Elmo, hat, duck, baah, moooo, ruff, roar, tweet, shoes, cheese, bread, Anna, Sarah, etc. There are more. I also will try and say anything but most of the time it comes out unintelligibly, kind of like the words listed above. I'll also help sing songs, like the words high, sky and are in Twinkle Twinkle, or the tick tock part of a Frozen song. I know lots of body parts to point to, like ears, eyes, hair, nose, tongue, teeth, belly, baby pits, toes, fingers. 

I spend my days playing and trying to scale the walls. I love to climb anything. I also love books - my favorite is Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors. I like to play tea party too. And I love doing anything that Juj is doing because she's my best friend. We love the playground (I go on all the big kid equipment because baby stuff is lame) and we love swimming. I like to take walks riding in my red car. I also love playing games on mom's phone. I probably run the thing better than she does.

Well, that should mostly cover eighteen and catch us up!