Thirty-One Months Old

Pearl has been very physically active this month. She runs faster and steadier, and bravely jumps from one piece of furniture to another. Her jumping on the bed approaches acrobatics and all this combined with hard floors in the new house has led to several bumps and bruises.

She's also sustained several scratches from pushing our cats to their limit - but it is nice to see her with other people's kitties as she tries to be very gentle and nice with them.



She enjoys doing some household chores like putting the dishes away and sorting laundry. I can get her to help me pick up her toys if I entice her with a game of counting them as she puts them back in their place.

Pottying is great - I can only think of one time in the past few weeks that she's peed in her pants at home, I'm sure she's had wet diapers out and about but we've been taking the potty along with us to places and have had success getting her to go at other people's houses, so that is pretty neat! Still working on pooping...

Christmas with Pearl was a lot of fun this year as this is the first time she's gotten the whole presents thing. I didn't have a whole lot of seasonal spirit going on this year and didn't do much beyond hanging the stockings, buying a bouquet of local evergreens, and taking Pearl to see the lights on the town square - along with buying some nice presents for her and Mr. Peach, and sewing/embroidering a Christmas dress for Pearl and cooking glorious mountains of fudge and toffee for all our loved ones.



I told her all about presents as she went with us to buy and then wrap a gift for her cousin the day before Christmas Eve, and she found it very exciting and just couldn't wait so she got started with her cousin's present! We explained again that that one wasn't for her, but that she would get to open some presents very soon. She kept saying, "There will be presents for me, too!"



I made an effort not to go overboard with presents and thought I did quite well but between what everyone else got her, she was tired of opening presents on Christmas morning and refused to open the last two we'd gotten her, so she opened those at Grandma's later on. For a few days afterwards, she said, "Merry Christmas!" a lot and enjoyed playing with boxes as if opening presents.

One of the gifts we got her was a boxed set of classic Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It is one book broken up into little books by chapter. They are a bit much for her at this point but she sure loves taking them out of their box and putting them back in, quoting their titles, lining them up, etc.



Pearl still loves to read! She recites entire books, and every morning after we get out of bed (at the blissful time of around 8! I used to think she'd never sleep that late.) she sits in the big chair or on the couch with a quilt and a big stack of books while I wake up and start fixing our breakfast.




She is nursing less these days, and I say that with great relief. She's down to about three times a day, more if she's bored. Going to sleep and waking up still always include milkies and that's okay for now. She's eating a lot and must be growing like a weed - her arms and legs recently shot out of all her clothes and now we're buying (& soon making!) her some new 3t clothes.

She is generally easy going and cheerful, though there have definitely been some very two-and-a-half moments here and there. Even so I am so often amazed at how well she handles things, how quickly she learns, and in general how bright and beautiful she is.