Gwen at 2 Years & 1 Month

Gwen loves to “help” Mom prepare food in the kitchen by standing on a chair so she is able to reach the counter and do things. If Mom is standing at the counter, Gwen automatically assumes Mom is making something and says, while pulling a chair from the table, “Ah-make! Ah-make!” She likes to pour things into bowls, stir things, and help measure things. If Mom is cutting up vegetables, Gwen is sure to grab a few and stuff them in her mouth. Once Mom picked up a tomato that was sitting on the counter only to find Gwen had already taken a bite out of it!

Gwen says “NO!” A LOT! She has many ways of saying “No”, and some even sound so sweet! Gwen is really into coloring lately. As might be expected, she a very delicate colorer and makes many small marks on her paper as opposed to lots of scribbles. She’ll lean close to her paper as if she is taking great care as she makes each mark.

Gwen’s newest phrase is “Ah-hold.” She makes her lips into a little “o” shape and furrows her brow a bit when she says “hold,” and she keeps her face like that as she repeats herself and waits to be held. She uses this phrase for a couple different reasons. She says it when she gets hurt or is sad and wants to be held and comforted. That’s normal enough. However, she also says this when she is corrected. For example, Dad will say, “Gwen, you need to put the book back where you got it.” When she doesn’t follow the direction and Dad comes over to make it happen, she’ll quickly say, “Ah-hold! Ah-hold!” and reach for Dad to hold her. The next is to get out of something she doesn’t want to do. When she is sitting in her high chair and doesn’t want whatever food is in front of her, she’ll reach for Mom and say, “Ah-hold. Ah-hold.” She thinks that if Mom will hold her the food will go away. And finally, if she doesn’t have her parents’ full and undivided attention, she’ll come up to Mom and Dad and say, “Ah-hold! Ah-hold!” We hear that phrase A LOT!

Gwen really likes to drink the “juice” out of her bowl that was left behind by whatever food was in there. It started when she had some canned fruit and a little juice would be left behind. After she ate the juice she took a spoonful of juice, and then she just picked up the whole bowl and slurped whatever was left. Now she will take all of the food out of the bowl, drink whatever juice might be there, and then put the food back in the bowl to eat it. It gets messy.

Gwen loves being naked and always wants her clothes taken off. Since she’s working on potty training, she often gets to run around without a diaper on, but she’ll tug at her undershirt and say, “Nake, nake!” She wants to take it off to be naked. She also has some crayons that some of the wrappers kind of slipped of off. She says they are “nake” and she brings Mom or Dad the crayons that still have the wrappers on because she wants the wrappers off so all of her crayons can be “nake”.

Gwen is talking more and more. She says a lot of two word phrases and will even repeat some sentences. She got a book from Grandma Earnshaw called Kiss Goodnight. It is about a mother bear putting a little bear named Sam to bed. She gives him a drink, they read a book, she tucks him in, and after each thing she asks if he’s ready for bed. He always says, “Oh no, I’m waiting!” because he’s waiting for a goodnight kiss. Gwen used to always say, “I’m waiting” in her own really cute way. Recently she’s begun saying the whole phrase, “Oh no, I’m waiting!” It is so cute and she loves to help “read” the book.

Gwen can swing on a regular swing now. She holds on very tightly with her hands, so her arms are probably getting a pretty good workout, but she is proud of herself when she does it.Gwen likes to blow bubbles and it quite good at it. She’s been carrying around a little bubble tumbler that is just her size and doesn’t spill easily. She brought it on a walk around the block the other day and liked to take a break here and there to blow bubbles.

Gwen has multiple names for Dad. Historically he’s been called “Davvy,” but she sometimes calls him “Bobby” or “Bubby”, and most recently, “Davia.”