Halle: 22 Months

It's been a few months since I've done an update on Miss Halle Kay. As of the 17th, she is two months away from TWO!

Here's a glimpse in to what life looks like for her these days.

The silliest facial expressions. Stink eye, side glance, nose crinkle, surprise, huhs? You name it. The girl cracks us up on the regular!

Her other latest trick - fake sleeping. Lying down, pretend snoring included! I blame daddy for that one.

Her pretend play is expanding all around. As an early education teacher it makes my heart beam to watch her play develop! She seems to enjoy kitchen make believe. She serves food, mixes things in cups and washes her hands at her play kitchen sink. It's awesome!

She is the best little mama, too. Always feeding her baby dollies and taking them for walks. Shopping bags on the stroller handles, of course. Sometimes recycled coffee cup in hand ;)

Halle adores her sister and I can't wait for them to be able to play together. For now, her best play mate is probably Loki. Their relationship is very much love / hate but one of them usually enjoys chasing the other around at any given time.

Dog-dog may also be her most said word. Although she is starting to say 'Lok' or 'Loki-dog'. She has family names down like mom, dad, sis-sis, pop-pop and nana. She also enjoys pointing out and labelling body parts like head, eyes, nose and ears.

Most words she says may only be understood by me but her talking is improving day by day! Halle is starting to make sentences like "where is he/she?" And "what is that?" A lot of times she chooses to communicate by pointing to things and saying 'this' or 'that'. We are trying to make an effort to label things and encourage manners like please and thank you. We are also working on not giving in to whining for things she wants. Instead we are encouraging her to talk or asking her questions about what she wants. It can be difficult, (for all of us,) because she becomes easily frustrated not having the words but knowing what she wants.

The other day, she said something particularly funny and sweet. She had gone in the play room and I was following behind her, picking up toys along the way, when I dropped something. It made a noise as it fell on the floor and she popped her head out of the playroom, scrunched up her face and asked "you OK?" It was priceless!! Couldn't help but laugh and at the same time be so proud of her talking and concern.

Speaking of safety... Our little dare devil is still quite the climber. It's been warmer lately so we have been spending more time at the playground again. Most other adults that see her jungle gym navigating skills comment on how brave she is. As nerve wrecking as it can be at times, it is fun to watch her have no fear when it comes to keeping up with the big kids and having a blast climbing and sliding!

I really can't believe she is almost two. It is such a bittersweet stage right now. Sometimes I look at her and she seems so grown up and other times she reminds me how much of a baby she still is...

Physical growth wise, she is still rocking the mullet! Her hair is a few inches in the back but only now thickening up on top. She's a skinny Minnie with long limbs and a cute lil tush. Wearing mostly size 2T clothing but some 18-24 month as well. Her weight is around 24/25 lb which seems crazy to think that she is only 8 pounds heavier than Autumn! [ They come in all shapes & sizes though ;) ]

Speaking of clothes, Halle likes to pick out her own outfits now! Some days she refuses to take off her pyjama tops... She doesn't really like wearing socks... She is obsessed with hoodies and making sure anyone else wearing one has their hood up at all times... Shoes are her favourite too. Not just her own but her sisters or mine and Matthew's. It's cute to see that she doesn't have the concept for size yet and gets frustrated when she is trying to put on something too small. The child sure is determined and will keep trying to find a way to stretch hats or manage to get one leg in her sister's pants.

Halle is still a fairly picky eater but a good eater, as in she eats a lot of what she likes. We have expanded her healthy eating by sneaking greens in to smoothies or mixing veggie bits in with rice. Her favourite foods lately are spaghetti and pizza. The girl also goes crazy for a timbit! Only chocolate or birthday cake ones though ;)

I really love watching her personality grow. She challenges me on an hourly basis but makes me laugh even more!

I think she can best be compared to Curious George. ;) As in "This is Halle. She was a good little monkey and always very curious." I call her 'monkey' all the time. Girl loves to climb and eat bananas and is oh so curious. The stories about George usually involve him getting in to some kind of mischief but by the end of the tale he finds a way to make things better and make those around him happy... All of which is pretty accurate to a day in the life of two months away from TWO Halle :)

Thanks for reading xo