at two and a half (...almost).

I'm not quite willing to say that Rowan's two and a half yet. That's still a month away, and it's so...old. So little girl. So preschooler. And as much as I'd love to pretend that my baby is none of those things...she totally, totally is. 

(I felt compelled to catch her shadow in a picture the other day, since it reminded me so much of this series. Apparently she looks more like me than I realize.)

Last week, I posted a picture of her on Facebook wearing nothing but wings and underwear, having a playroom picnic with her Frozen dolls...

...and my sister commented that the picture was "the essence of two." Right?! And I realized I haven't taken time to document her lately - the way I did when she was sixteen months and eighteen months - and I don't want to forget the way she is right now, because she's as hilarious and amazing as ever (you know, 94% of the time). So: here's Rowan, at (almost) two and a half years old.


:: She's majorly into playing pretend. She uses her Frozen dolls (any of the roughly 57 of them we have around), her baby dolls, her Daniel Tiger figures, her Fisher-Price figures, trucks, or just about anything to act out various scenarios. Usually, someone is getting a boo-boo and needs a kiss, but another favorite storyline is that someone has a baby in their belly ("actually, in her uterus," Rowan will clarify, pretentiously) and goes to the hospital to get the baby out. She uses different voices for each character and always picks up right where she left off after taking a break. Oh, and all of her pretend friends have now gotten their flu shots:

I walked in to see this the other day - she had unrolled some paper, just
like the paper at the doctor's office, and Elsa was getting her vaccination. :)

Had to give Mama a quick check-up before sledding one day.

:: Other favorite activities: hide and seek, twirling, dance parties ("Mama, I want 'Shake it off hoo hoo HOO!'"), singing, reading together, yoga, and sledding. She's fearless on a sled, insisting on going down the biggest hill all by herself, and she loves tipping over at the bottom and rolling in the snow. 

:: She loves being outside in general lately, which is great, except that I'm definitely getting tired of getting both of us completely suited up and then undressed again. Not exactly sure how I used to do this every single day with 21 kids her age.

Post-sledding Thin Mints. Maybe THAT'S why she loves sledding so much?

:: Rowan's favorite class right now is gymnastics. It's stupid expensive, but she's absolutely obsessed. Her progress is swift and noticeable - she does something new at every session, and it's been so cool to watch her conquer some of her fears (like the rock wall and jumping from a tall block into the pit). At home, she sets up obstacle courses with pillows, stools, cushions, and ottomans, and leaps from surface to surface. Her primary mode of transportation around the house is somersaulting, closely followed by twirling, and typically she's wearing her pink tutu.

:: Her language is still the most incredible thing for me to watch develop. She speaks in full, complex sentences now, sprinkling in words like especially and miracle, spouting out phrases like, "What do you think about that?" and "I just had an idea!" and "Maybe we can do that two weeks ago." She's getting to the question phase ("Where is Gramma right now?" "Why did he do that?" "What's this part of my apple called?"), but it's still cute and endearing, not constant and annoying (yet).

:: She loves Sunday mornings with her daddy, when they go out to breakfast together, ride bikes along the river (even when it's 20 degrees out), and then play at the bookstore. She found a Deadpool figure there recently and pretends that he's the daddy giving his "babies" kisses good night:

:: I'm waiting until warmer weather to officially potty train Rowan (because I'm laaaazy and really enjoy the convenience of diapers), but she definitely gets the concept. Well, for peeing, at least. She's never had a pee accident during the times when she tests out her underwear or is just naked around the house. Poop is...another story. Two other stories, actually.

:: Every day when she wakes up from nap, she asks if she can go to Gramma's house. She loves being with her grandma and usually cries if I tell her it's not a Gramma day. Rowan has roughly a million toys at Gramma's house, and the two of them love to bake, read, and watch Daniel Tiger together. On Wednesday nights, Gramma comes over to our house for a "date" with Rowie so J.J. and I can go on our own date.

:: Favorite books right now are Little Critter books, Berenstain Bear books, the Froggy series (ugh), Please, Puppy, Please, and really any book that anyone will sit and read with her. She wants to be reading all the time, unless she's singing or somersaulting.

:: Favorite foods of the moment: cheese sandwiches, chocolate kisses, and green or red peppers - preferably eaten whole or using her toes:

Eats them like apples.

And then wears them.

:: She's latched on to yellow as her favorite color, and she gasps whenever she spots it: "Mama! There's my favorite color lellow! And here's YOUR favorite color blue!" She wants to know everyone's favorite color, so if you're a regular fixture in our lives, chances are we've either asked you directly what your favorite color is, or we've guessed it in your absence. According to Rowan, a lot of you like purple.

:: Sleep is kind of funky right now. Her nighttime sleep got messed up when we took her pacifiers away before Christmas, and then she got a cold after New Year's that had her up and coughing during the night, and then...I don't know. She just started waking up once or twice a night and wanting to snuggle. I love snuggling as much as the next person, but nope, not at three in the morning. Once I started breaking her of that habit (gently, since crying it out doesn't work with her anymore), she started staying up later and later at night, just singing and laughing and playing in her crib. All of which is generally fine, but NOT until 10:00 p.m. Hell, no. Plus, it was getting harder to put her down for a nap every day, and she actually skipped her nap a couple times. (Also hell, no.) I subscribe to the idea that toddlers each have a certain number of hours that they tend to sleep in any given 24-hour period, and for Rowan, that number is dwindling (which is appropriate for her age). Rather than sleeping 12 hours at night and taking a two- or three-hour nap (gahhhh those were the days!), she's more likely to need 12 hours of sleep total. So we've been trying to wake her up around 6:30, which is when we adults should really be getting up anyway to avoid our morning rush, and I've been waking her up from nap after an hour and a half or so. Seems to be helping, but I also told her one night (out of desperation! without forethought! at 9freaking30!) that I was going to take her stuffed friends out of her crib if she couldn't stop playing with them. It was an empty threat, because she'd lose her marbles and never sleep again if I took her friends away, but it worked. And I've used it a couple times since then. Note to self: not a good long-term plan, cut it out.

:: She's loving fine motor activities lately, especially building peg towers and these Melissa & Doug pattern boards. She likes to practice using scissors, which is great, but also mind-numbing for me and makes an enormous mess of teeny-tiny cut-up paper pieces all over the kitchen.

It was her idea to get the stool so she could reach higher. Love it.

:: Also, adorably, she asks almost every day to "do a painting like you, Mama." I have a hard time saying no.

All in all, Rowan cracks us up daily, keeps us on our meltdown-avoiding toes constantly, and is becoming quite the negotiator. She's scarily cued into our emotions ("Mama, you feeling sad?" "Dada, you have low blood sugar?"). Her imagination astounds us, and we just love her to bits and pieces. 

So much and every day and all the time.

Negotiator pose: "But Mama. How 'bout..."