Two and A Half!

Today marks 30 months for Samantha! It used to be that when reading her bedtime stories I could skip a few pages if it was getting late and she wouldn't be the wiser. She is on to my tricks now. Last night I flipped ahead a few pages and she went crazy turning the pages back saying "you missed this page". The real problem is that she likes to say that I missed a page even when I've read every single word! She asks a lot of questions when we are reading and wants to know what everything on a page is. Tonight I actually said "if you let me read the story then maybe you will find out!" When Chris is home we both put Samantha to bed and we each read her one story before putting her in her crib. For whatever reason, she likes when we read our books out loud at the same time. I am sure some day she will catch on that if Mommy and Daddy read their books at separate times then she can stay up longer.

Samantha uses jumping as her main mode of transport lately. She jumps on the ground, on the couch, on the bed, on the trampoline in the basement. I don't know where she gets the energy. I get tired just watching her jump. She especially likes if you are sitting on the couch with her to try to jump over you. Lately she says things like "I jump over you, then you cry" or "I take off your shoe, then you cry". She seems amused by the fact that her actions could cause someone to cry, but I guess hasn't put together what things specifically might actually make someone cry and things that don't usually make people cry.

Samantha is doing really well without her pacifier at night, however, nap time has proved a little challenging. She has been crying herself to sleep for a few minutes, and has been waking up a half hour or 45 minutes later crying. Hopefully it won't take her too long to get back to settling down for nap without crying and waking up and reading her books in her bed. The good things is that she is doing really well at night (I know I am jinxing myself but I DON'T CARE!) We thought about doing toilet training and I even bought a bunch of big girl undies, but we just haven't jumped off that bridge yet.

I am really enjoying this age of both kids. Samantha is such a happy girl and really just loves to help out and do whatever I am doing. She likes the time when Jake takes his morning nap to do things we don't really do with him like play dough. Samantha loves her brother so much and tries to help him to do things and plays really well with him. They love to play tag and Jake just gets such a kick out of being chased by Samantha and vice-versa. What an amazing 2 and a half years!