Love, bubs and life on our little farm

I can't believe its been two years but at the same time I can barely remember life without her little shadow beside me. I haven't done an update on Elka in ages so its definitely about time.

She is so much fun and great company. She constantly has Jase and I laughing or amazed by the things that she says and picks up. Her language is very impressive for a 2yr old - daycare is constantly commenting on it, they love having her around as she chatters in full sentences all day long keeping the carers company. She was so far ahead of her peers at daycare that they have already moved her out of the toddler room and into the Pre-Kindy room. Her vocab is pretty impressive, she is using first person really well and can count to 13, her abc's need work but she can pick out E, A and M on a computer keyboard when asked and she can also spell her own name out aloud. She understands a lot of abstract concepts and is even learning time and days. She understands left and right when applied to her feet. She loves to play pretend games - she goes "shopping" with a handbag or a basket, she loves to host tea parties and charges us $2 for her coffees and we pretend to drive a car together. One of her favorite games is Hide and Seek with us, she will learn against the wall with her eyes closed and count and then search for us. However in reverse, she is terrible at staying hidden and will shout out which room she is in.

She has discovered television with a passion and loves to be a couch potato on her little lounge. I have to drag her outside somedays. She adores In the Night Garden and Play School and Sesame Street are becoming popular also.

She has little quirks that I just love - she wears her sunglasses in the car all the time and demands to wear them at nigth to block the headlights of oncoming cars. Makes me laugh every time I see her in the dark sitting there with the glasses on - a total diva! She fetches her little broom to push things out from under the lounge with the handle - we didnt teach her that, she picked it up herself. She is very good at running - I have read that this is a later milestone? but she is a very fast little runner and has become very good at climbing park equipment too. Her memory is amazing - we can mention something once and she will always remember and bring it
up at the relevant time.

Her swimming is coming along really well - she can swim underwater for the whole width of the teaching pool, she is learning to kick and paddle at the same time and she can go down, touch the bottom of the pool and swim to the surface to either Jase or the swim step.

She is a doting sister who loves to hold Bronte and kiss (and poke) her. She does however like to wake Bronte up for fun. I thought she would resent the new baby and I have been blown away by her love and excitement for Bronte.

As much as she is a happy little soul, the terrible twos have kicked in. She can be very defiant and she loves to get in trouble. She loves the attention that doing something naughty gets her unfortunately. The most worrying of her behaviour has become deliberate running away - particularly at the shops (out of shop doors) or in car parks (away from our car). Since I am now juggling a newborn, this behaviour does really worry me as I would hate for her to get hurt, lost or hit by a car :(
We are struggling with discipline - she loves timeout so it doesn't really work. She is currently getting warnings and then losing something she loves as punishment. We are also trying to simply ignore some behaviour, since it is often attention seeking, withdrawing any attention seems to be the best punishment in itself.

I am very excited for her birthday - we have bought her a swing and slide set. Swings are her absolute favorite thing so she is going to be so overwhelmed. I have cooked two of the three cakes required for all of her different celebrations (daycare, her actual bday and her party). We are taking her to Seaworld for the day on her bday as she loves the animals and the toddler rides. She is excitedly counting down until her Bday party which is a shared bday with three of her friends - we have booked out a play centre. She is having a butterfly theme so Mum has sewn her a gorgeous dress and I am making a cupcake cake in the shape of a butterfly. She chose the theme weeks ago and is very much looking forward to her cake!

I keep thinking "this time 2 years ago", I think the memories have been freshened by Bronte's recent birth. When she talks to me in long sentences about things that have happened in her day, I find myself blinking and thinking where did my baby go! I love how a little person has grown out of the snuggly bub. Its the most amazing thing.

Happy Birthday Chicken. Heres to many more together xoxo