Sunday, April 3, 2011

30 months! What a WILD Ride

Life with two and a half year old Gwen is like a roller coaster, she is up, down, exciting, thrilling, sometimes scary, but something you want to experience over and over again. Everything she does, she does with her whole being. Our friends Farkas and Malia took us to Great America last weekend and Gwen just loved it! She went on almost every ride in the Kidz Zone. We all took turns going on the roller coaster with her, she went no less than six times. When we first arrived at the park Farkas pointed out that the people on the rides put their hands up and scream because it is so much fun. So the first ride she went on, the instant it took off, both hands shot up in the air and she started screaming, as the red airbus slowly went up and around in a gentle circle. She loved it, and we were all greatly amused. At 2 1/2 Gwen is incredible. She is out of diapers during the day with minimal 'accidents' and dry most nights/naps. She can dress herself (though sometimes goes commando, or wears her pants backwards). She can put her socks on, and sometimes her shoes. She loves brushing her teeth and has started flossing (mainly for fun). She loves long baths, but has recently taken to long luke warm showers (we got something that holds the nozzle to the wall at toddler height). Gwen stayed over at her Grandma's for two nights in a row for the first time a few weeks ago during the week and did amazing (slept through the night 12 hours both nights!). During this time I realized she truly is helpful around the house, picking up things I drop while I am holding Graham, entertaining him while I try and get a few things done around the house, she is such a great big sister! Academically she has been blowing us away. She has known her alphabet and numbers for a while, but can now identify letters out of context or answer correctly when you ask, what letter does duck start with. The mind blower is recently she has started reading letters: "r-u-n-a-w-a-y b-u-n-n-y says little bunny!" She isn't reading, but she totally understand the concept. She has memorized some of her favorite books and 'reads' them to herself (and Graham :-) but she will also make up stories for books she is less familiar with. She is really developing quite an imagination, and I have really enjoyed the pretend play that she has started doing in the last few months. She knows her numbers and counts to 20 skipping 13 (things do get a little muddled around 16). While she counts things up to about five without losing track, I think she only truly understand the numbers 1 and 2 (as in one for me and one for you is two!). Gwen has taken to calling me either Mom, Mama, Mommy, or my favorite, Ambroshera, which she will randomly throw out there. She also sometimes calls her Dad Spencer. I thought we were going to have to cut her hair short, but she has started to let me brush it and pull it back for her into a ponytail. I think it helped when we bought some hairbands that had ribbon on them- she calls them princess ponies. Gwen looks about twice her age with her two ponies! It is hard to believe she is only 2 1/2!


4 comments:

Keri said...

What fun!!!!!!

Sarah Grace Trafton Fonseca said...

Dear Ambrosia & family , sounds like u had a great time ,its funny cuz we almost went last weekend . Maybe we can all go this summer that's when the kids want to go.LOVE Aunty Sarah

Unknown said...

Arin and I just went through the archives- Gwen is such a little lady and Graham reminds us of a wise old man. What a beautiful family you have 'Ambroshera' :)

Much love
Christie

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this. I miss you all since we've been in semi-seclusion and reading this is great. Grant will be two months old this week, so we'll finally be able to play more.