-The words that Gwen says most clearly and most often are “Mommy” and “Davvy.” (Jared used to try to get her to say “DaDDy,” but Gwen would always respond with “Davvy”, so Davvy it is!) Gwen calls for Mommy or Davvy when she wakes up in the morning. Whoever goes to get her gets asked where the other parent is. She’ll often just be babbling and say, “Mommy, Davvy, Mommy, Davvy…” When we’re in the car she’ll randomly call out, “Mommy?” Mom will say, “Gwen!” Then she’ll say, “Davvy?” and Dad will have to say her name. She’ll do this over and over again and thinks it is a fun game.
-Gwen will repeat everything she hears, but she’ll usually only repeat the first syllable of the word. She says “pill” for pillow, “blank” for blanket, “fi” for fish, and “Gwe” for Gwen. Many words are just one syllable, so this isn’t always a problem. Words she can say pretty clearly include: cat, car, tray, poo, pee, milk, bear, peas, please, fork, bowl, cup, play, and lots more. Sometimes she will say whole words like bread, giraffe, and baby. The other funny thing Gwen often does is say “ah” before she says a word. If she’s asking to be held, she’ll say, “ah-hold.” If she wants a snuggle it’s “ah-snug.” If she wants milk she’ll say, “ah-milk.” It’s Gwenese!
-Gwen does something funny. She’ll say a word to you, but what she really wants is for you to ask her a question with that word. For example, at dinner Mom will give her her food which is just the right temperature for her to eat. She’ll say, “Hot?” and Mom will say, “Is it hot?” Gwen will smile and say, “NO!” Then Gwen will say, “Cold?” and Mom will say, “Is it cold?” Gwen will smile and say, “NO!” Then Mom will ask, “Is it just right?” and Gwen will say, “Righ!” for right. If Mom doesn’t play along and says, “It’s not hot” when Gwen asks, “Hot?” Gwen will keep asking “Hot?....Hot?” until Mom asks her “Is it hot?” She’ll do this at other times too, like when she gets a diaper change. She’ll say, “Poo?” and Mom will say, “Did you go poo?” Gwen will smile really big and say, “NO!” It must just be her way of making conversation!
-Gwen always requests Jesus songs when she goes to bed. This started around Christmas time and the song she meant when she said “Je” was “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus.” However, now she knows more Jesus songs and Mom has to guess which one she wants by listing them all off. She’ll usually say no to all of the songs Mom says, but still insists on a Jesus song. Because Mom knows Gwen is stalling, Mom will just pick one and start singing, even though Gwen insists, “NO! NO!” for the first few lines. One Jesus song Gwen likes, even though it is out of season, is “Away in a Manger.” Gwen always gets worried when Mom sings, “No crib for his bed” and she says urgently, “BED! BED! BED!” while patting her bed. Mom has to stop singing and say, “Baby Jesus didn’t have a bed, so he slept in the manger, but its okay.” Then Gwen will relax for the rest of the song. (Gwen never does he Jesus song shenanigans with Dad. She always just listens to whatever he sings.) She may also request “God” which means “I am a Child of God” or “tem” which means “I Love to See the Temple.”
-Gwen likes to sing songs with actions and catches on quickly. Favorites include “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider,” “Popcorn Popping,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” She also likes to do the following little nursery rhyme with her hands that Grammie taught her: “Open, shut them, Open, shut them, Give a little clap. Open, shut them, Open, shut them, Put them in your lap.”
-Gwen has one other bed time stall tactic that we could do without. Gwen will lay down when she gets put in bed and whoever is putting her to bed will cover her up and then sing a few songs. Almost immediately after being covered up, Gwen will sit up, knocking the blankets off of her, and say, “Cold!” She means “I’m cold, cover me up!” Dad or Mom says, “Lay down, and I’ll cover you up.” So she does, only to pop up again a few seconds later while saying, “Cold!” Now Dad or Mom says, “Gwen, if you don’t stay lying down, I’m all done singing” and this seems to help keep her warm under her covers!
-Gwen loves nursery at church and always gets positive comments from her nursery leaders.
-Gwen sometimes makes Dad feel sad because she says, “Away! Away!” when he comes in the door or comes into the same room she is in. We’ve begun to pretend she is saying, “Hooray!” and we run up to dad to give him a hug. This hasn’t worked as well as we had hoped, but perhaps it will in the long run.
-For quite a few months, Gwen was obsessed with her Little People Fisher Price house and putting the little people around the table in their chairs. At the library there is a large doll house and her favorite thing to do was gather the people and put them all in chairs around a table. More recently she has moved on to playing with baby dolls. She likes to put a doll in her high chair, buckle it in, put a bib on it, and “feed” it with a little bowl and spoon. She also likes to diaper and cloth dolls with her own diapers and clothing. She makes sure her dolls go for walks around the house in their stroller. There is one doll that doesn’t have any clothes and Gwen insists that it is cold and always wants to find a blanket for it. Sometimes she is very tender and kisses and hugs her dolls, but sometimes she throws them around and isn’t so good at pretending they’re real babies!
-Gwen loves to read books. She is maturing in her book choice and likes books that have more than just a word or two per page. For example, she likes to be read “The Little Engine That Could.” This is all well and good until she wants to read the same long story over and over and over in one sitting! There was recently a library book we checked out called “Fix It” with a little bear that starts to cry and has little tears on her cheeks in many of the pictures. Gwen is now on high alert for other crying characters in books and will often point at a picture and ask, “Cry?” This means she wants you to ask her, “Is he crying?” and she’ll tell you if the character is crying or not. She recognizes sad faces, too.
-Gwen is a dependable night sleeper and sleeps from around 7pm to around 7am. Her napping is less dependable, but she usually sleeps for at least an hour in the late morning or early afternoon.
-Gwen loves the white, crocheted blanket Great Grandma Earnshaw made her for her blessing and calls it her “blank” for blankie. She likes to have it to sleep with, and we try to keep it in her bed when she is awake because she has tripped on it in the past. However, she’ll often go in her room quietly and get it out of her crib so she can cuddle with it.
-Recently, Gwen always wants to go somewhere. She’ll go to the door that leads to the garage and say, “Go! Go!” If asked where she wants to go, she says, “Car!” She seems to like road trips short and long (and she even survives the four and a half hours of driving to Maine without much of a break). She loves trips to the library, store, church, gym, out to eat, or just anywhere. She’s really pleasant in public, so it’s usually very nice to have her company.
-With the warmer weather we’ve been spending more time outside and Gwen loves it. She likes to drive her cars up and down the driveway, sweep, kick balls, go up and down the little stairs that are part of the walkway that leads to the front door, swing, etc. She’s been on e few walks this spring and will walk all the way around the block!
-Gwen continues to be a great eater. She likes most everything, but sure bets include: peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, edamame, broccoli, dutch babies, cheese tortillas, rice and chicken, black beans, toast or bagels with cream cheese, oranges, pears, bananas, cantaloupe, enchiladas, pasta with red or cheese sauce, yogurt with cheerios and blueberries, strawberries, cheese, crackers, tortilla chips, sweet potatoes, okay… most everything!
-Gwen will often say “again” or “more” when she wants something to continue. The cutest is at the end of Family Home Evening she always asks, “More?” When we say we’re all done she says, “Again! Again!”
-Gwen’s loudest time of day seems to be during scripture time when Dad reads to the family. She can play quietly or look at her own little scripture book, but she prefers to yell and talk gibberish very loudly. This makes us think she is unlikely getting anything out of our scripture time. However, this evening when we began reading she remembered what we had been reading on another night when the Spirit says to Nephi, “Look!” On that night, Dad had read this very enthusiastically and pointed dramatically. Tonight when dad began reading scriptures, Gwen said, “LOOK!” and pointed energetically. It was so cute!
-Gwen says “No” a lot and rarely, if ever, says, “Yes.” She may nod or repeat what you said to show her agreement, but she just doesn’t use the word yes.
-Gwen is working towards potty proficiency. She does really well if she doesn’t have pants or a diaper on, pretty well without pants on, and not very well with pants on. Hopefully warmer spring weather will allow more “no pants” days so she can master this skill soon!
-Gwen’s hair is super long and Mom likes to put it in all sorts of pony tails. She is pretty tolerant of having her hair done and she looks adorable!
-Gwen is super sweet and cuddly. We appreciate her obedient spirit which brings so much joy to our home. We love her very much and can’t wait to see all the new things she’ll learn and do as a two-year-old.
Labels: Birthday Girl Gwen, Gwen Growing Up, Toddler Gwen, Update
This little log cabin sits outside of the library. Gwen loves the library, but the cabin gives her a reason to leave the library and head in the direction of the car. When Gwen first started walking last summer, she would walk unsteadily inside the cabin from the window at one side to the window at the other side. Mom could race from one window to the other on the outside of the cabin and almost always be there to greet Gwen. Now Gwen is steady on her feet and Mom can never make it from one window to the other before Gwen can! Doesn't Gwen look so tall in the doorway? She is holding "two Dora books." (We recently discovered the Dora book section and now Gwen loves to pick out Dora books each week. If only Mom and Dad enjoyed reading them as much as Gwen does!)
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 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 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, “
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 
Gwen spent the day with two friends, 
