What? She's only TWO?!??

Oh, I'm getting worse at posting these blog things as time goes on. I can't believe it's been 6 months.

Netsanet is growing very fast, and she's quite tall for her age and has a big vocabulary. In the last month I can't count how many times we've heard, "she's only TWO?" People think she's 3 or 4 years old given her height, her vocabulary, and her proportions (looonnng arms and legs!). She's really developing at amazing speed. She speaks many sentences now and gets pretty agitated if she's not in on the adult conversation. She's still very active, but she listens better than she did 6 months ago, and she will mostly stay close or come back if you tell her. It makes going out of the house a heck of a lot easier!

Today is her first day back at daycare after the 2-week long break. At least it's not 3+ weeks like last year when daycare was closed because of the snow! I think she was relieved to get back to her friends, although she did seem to enjoy our outings and some of our activities :) During the break, we went to see Santa, and she rode on the carousel downtown, which she LOVED. She kept going on about "the horses, the horses" for days after, so we took her a second time. She wasn't scared of Santa this year, and so her Santa picture is a lot happier than last year's! We also had some play dates during vacation, and there were many trips to the playground when it wasn't too wretched outside.

Christmas was good to little miss Net as usual, and she got too many toys. Santa brought her a tool set (to be like Mommy), a pretend cash register set, a doll stroller, and some bubbles and paint. Grandma and Grandpas brought her a whole bunch of other things, including a leapfrog computer, a DVD player, and many stuffed animals. She's still working through all of her presents, and I've considered hiding some in the garage so they're fresh later. I had to do a major purge of older toys before Christmas, some of which she had hardly touched! Our house seems smaller by the day... I've started fantasizing about buying a house with a big playroom.

Back in November, we took our first family vacation. Daycare closes for a week around thanksgiving, so we decided to make the most of our forced time off work and go to Joshua Tree Park in California. We rented a great little 2-bedroom house near the park for a little over a week. We were nervous about the plane ride, and how Netsanet would do in an unfamiliar place, but it went really smoothly. She was a typical 2-year old on the plane - not too horrible, but a few screaming fits when she had to sit still in the seatbelt for too long. We brought the computer and some Ni Hao Kai Lan DVD's (her favorite TV show), crayons, and snacks. Those got us through a lot, and she settled into the vacation house pretty quickly. It was sunny, which helped - she loves the sunshine! We did some short hikes, wandered around the 2 acres surrounding the house, baked cupcakes, and generally chilled out. She had a little trouble sleeping, but otherwise seemed to have a good time on the trip. It was so great to sit in some warm sunshine and read during her naps, too. I'm already thinking of our next vacation!

We also tried some extracurricular activities this fall, which completely fell flat. We registered her for swim class at the YMCA near our house, and we ended up attending only one class. I think it's just too hard to get used to this schedule right now, with both of us working full time. I feel like I don't even have time to do laundry and grocery shopping most weeks, so I don't think extra stuff is on the menu. Maybe later, when she really wants to do some things, then we can figure out how to fit them in. I don't know how people do it when both parents work full time!!! Kudos to all of you out there. Anyway, Netsanet seemed to enjoy the swim class, which was basically some bobbing around with parents to the tune of some songs, and then playing with water toys. I think we can do that ourselves during family swim time....

A good indoor activity for this cruddy weather is art. Netsanet really enjoys drawing and any creative activity, and it's fun to see her try new methods. She's now drawing circles, and the other day she started drawing shapes inside of the circles she drew. That's pretty good symbol recognition for two years old (or maybe I'm just biased ;-) We tried watercolors this weekend, and she was really into it, except she's a little 'enthusiastic' about painting with water, and ended up grinding through several sheets of paper. Ah well, all artists have to experiment, right? She also wants us to draw with her, and really enjoys it most when we draw or paint together. She also enjoys some 3-dimensional art, and has taken to applying pieces of masking tape to paper in many layers. She's very serious about it and says "I'm doing my work, Mama, I'm doing my work!" It's great to see her enjoying this so much. I think I end up saving too many of her creations, though... the drawers are full of her work.

Well, hopefully I get to this blog again before summer, but if not - here's hoping for some of those unexpected sunny winter days!