25 months

I know, it's weird to post about Payton's 25 month "birthday", but I feel like she's made a lot of changes in the past month, so I wanted to record things so I remember them.

The biggest thing is the potty training, yep, she is potty trained, she pees and poops in the potty, and seems to be staying dry at nap time!  It's been well over a week and I still put a diaper on her for her naps, but it's quickly dawning n me we may not need to do this for much longer.  Funny how different your kids can be!  Payton really potty trained in one day, Garrett wasn't peeing in the potty until 3, and he wasn't pooping consistently until 4.5 maybe, he drove me crazy with the poops!

She is also quite the talker now, she repeats a lot of what we say, but I've noticed her talking in complete sentences so much more lately.

She doesn't say again or another, she says more.  She'll say things like "more somersault" or "somersault more", instead of again.  of course, now I can't think of the funnier expressions she uses that are all jumbled up, but I'll add them as she says them.

She still loves her shoes, but now she loves taking them off and trying to put them on, her favorite shoes in the house are Garrett's, because they are big enough that she can put them on herself but small enough that she can walk in them and not be tripping all over the place.  She's outgrown almost all of her size 6 shoes, so yesterday at Wal-mart I grabbed a new pair of sneakers for her, and she refused to take them off so she penguin walked in them all the way to the register, she got quite a few laughs in the store.

She HAS to walk everywhere, the stroller isn't really an option unless I'm walking for exercise and going fast, and the shopping cart is  a huge fight, she will demand to walk "I walk, momma".  And she's starting to exhibit her temper when she isn't allowed to walk.

Yes, she is starting to show us her temper more and more.  She's not as bad as Garrett was, but she's still young, so we'll see where it goes.  Usually she's upset that she has to come inside or that she can't play inside my car, for some reason that is her favorite thing to do.

She's playing dress up and puzzles and loves to read and is pretending more and more with her baby dolls and her kitchen.  It's quite precious to watch her, because most everything she does is just mimicking or repeating us, and it's so heart warming to watch her sing to her dolls and rub their backs, because these are the things we do to her.

She is still a great eater, she'll eat most anything you give her, even things I sometimes think she won't touch, she'll gobble up.  Oh, and she loves to eat outside, it's warming up here so we've had lunch outside almost every day for a week, she's starting to understand that it's only lunch we eat outside, but for a few days she asked to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner outside, lol.

She is still not a cuddler, she does like to sit with you to read books, and while she may not always sit on your lap, she will sit right next to you and rest her hand on your leg.  But, forget rocking and singing songs at night, it's just not going to happen!

She's very polite, and it's always "thank you, momma".  And she'll say it for everything you give her.  We are still working on please.  Garrett barely says please without being prompted, it drives me nuts, I don't get why thank you is so easy for my kids but please is so hard.

And she's still a great sleeper, bedtime is later now that it's warmer and we are spending our evenings outside, but she generally sleeps 12 hours at night and naps are 2-3 hours depending on what's going on.  And yes, she stays dry those entire 3 hours!!

She is such a joy to us, she is very loving, she has to kiss everyone for naps and bedtime, and when we drop Garrett off at school she has to kiss and hug him, same for pickup.  She's starting to just randomly come over and kiss us when we are playing or working outside.

Oh, and her hair is still a mess, it's too short still for a pony tail (due to Garrett's handiwork).  The pigtails work, but her hair is so fine even the tiniest ties start slipping out by nap time.  She doesn't love having her hair done but she doesn't like it in her eyes, so she'll let me do it.  But, ties only, no bows, no barrettes, no headbands.  Yes, I have hair envy of some of my friends daughters hair, lol.  I know when it's long we'll fight over combing it, so I'm trying to enjoy it as it is.  It still has curl to it and is very blond, all traces of red a re gone.  Her and Garrett have almost the exact same color hair.  It makes me want to be blond again!!