Look Who Is Two

On January 23rd, Miss Tatum turned two. 

 

 

Pat and I were so sad to miss her birthday, but figured bringing home a new baby brother would more than make up for it!

 

In our absence, there was no shortage of celebrating her birthday. 

 

 

GG and Grandpa showered her with birthday pancakes, balloons, cupcakes and birthday cake and sent lots of pictures our way so we felt like we were there in spirit.

 

 

And it did not take her long for her to learn to say "2" when we asked her how old she was.  For the first week she corrected us and would say "I one", but after a week or so she was sold on being 2. At 2 years old, Tatum is a talker.  Her vocabulary surprises me everyday and she comes up with the funniest things.  Anytime I call her anything like stinker or sweetie or sweet girl, she corrects me and says, "No Mom, I Tatum."

 

 

Last week, she was upset with Bennett for some reason and in a very stern voice she said, "Be -nneeey Hope!" I laughed out loud.  I guess she thinks when you are disciplining someone, you always add Hope after their name.  Maybe she hears Tatum Hope a little too much:)

 

She is not really interested in the same things as Bennett.  She will play ball with him in the kitchen and on occasion steal a car from him just to keep him on his toes; but she would rather play with a puzzle, read a book or play with her dolls.  They still play pretty well together considering they usually want to play different things.  When it comes to picking a show to watch they don't really see eye to eye on that either.  She only wants to watch Dora or Caillou and Bennett would rather watch Chuggington or A Bugs Life.  Its a good lesson in compromise I guess.

Tatum is so loving.  She acts like Christmas Morning when she greets any of us in the morning.  She runs up to the baby's crib and screams ELLIS! with sheer excitement everyday.  It's so sweet to see how excited she gets to be around the people she loves.  She certainly has her two year old moments and when she does, the expression above says it all, but for the most part she is still easily distracted and is quick to cheer up.  She is so tough when it comes to bumps and bruises.  Last week at her two year appointment they had to do a blood draw (finger prick) and she never even noticed the prick.  She was so enamored with the Band-Aid that she completely ignored the fact that they had just pricked her finger.   She kept telling me over and over on the ride home, "That Yady gave me a sti-ter." (Tatum speak for that Lady gave me a sticker).  I thought it was cute that she kept referring to the nurse as that yady.

In some aspects I think Tatum is fearless.  For instance, if I tell them to stop jumping on the couch (which happens about 50 times a day around here), she will quick get in as many jumps as she can and wait for a more stern intervention.  If I did not go over there and remove her from the couch, she would continue to jump and easily be ok with the consequence of timeout as a result.   She likes her "quick hit" and is fine if there is a consequence later....scares me a bit for the future:)  But in other aspects she is very cautious.  She still has a lot of separation anxiety.  We brought her to a birthday party and she started to cry when I took off her coat because she thought I was not going to stay for the party.  She stays close to mom and dad when we go somewhere new.

 



 

She is fiercely independent which I am loving at the moment.  I hear, "I do it myself" a thousand times a day but I am very thankful for that.  The fact that she wants to put on her own hat and coat and boots is perfectly fine by me because getting these three rug rats out of the house is still a challenge for me, especially if we are in a hurry.  See below for an example of how Tatum dresses herself, she loves bright colors I guess.  The other thing she recently learned to do herself was climb out of the crib.  Yup, how is that for timing?!  New baby and a 2 year old roaming the house.  Sleep...what's that?  The first few naps and nights were rough, we would have to re-put her down 5 times or so because she would just keep climbing out.  But I think the excitement of climbing out has worn off because the last few days and nights have gone really well. 

 

 

So that is our 2 year old little girl in a nutshell.  She makes us laugh everyday and she is always a step ahead of us with her smarts.  She is such a treasure and loves so big.  I love that she is not afraid to do her own thing and be her own little self.  She has such a little confidence about her and I hope she always keeps that.  We are so proud of you Tatum Hope and we are so blessed to be your mom and dad.  We love you so so much.