Manager to Mom: S at 32 months: She's Got Mighty Math Powers!

Ahhh S, where to begin? We thought the first half of two was a wild ride, but the home stretch is taking things to a whole new level! Kinda like going from Wild Beast to Leviathan for those Toronto-ish area coaster junkies out there. As usual (thanks to my Type A blogging personality) I've been mulling over the perfect intro paragraph for this update, but continue to find myself stymied - presumably because there's no neat & tidy way to summarize a 32-month-old. *nods*

So let's just jump right in. And here's what we're gonna do: a list of 32 semi-random points capturing the essence of S at this fine age. Nice & simple - to counteract the pervasive lack of simplicity we're dealing with these days! ;)

But first, vital stats and monthly update photos. Yup, still doing those!

Weight: 26 lbs (15th percentile)
Height: 35" (25th percentile) - just shy of the requirement for Taxi Jam and Swing Time. (Yup, 2nd reference now - can you tell we've been to Wonderland recently??)

28 months:

29 months:

(Yup, she is indeed wearing the same shirt here as 28 months. No, this wasn't intentional. Oops.)

30 months:

31 months:

(Love her sass in this one!)

32 months:

(Someone needs a haircut!!)

The List!

She's totally obsessed with Team Umizoomi. If I got a dollar for every time she's belted out the theme song, I could surely buy licensing rights to the show. And her TU shirt has gotten more wear than her dad's holey boxers.
Her memory is incredible. She can recall precise details about events that happened weeks or even months earlier, names of children she met on the playground, comprehensive sets of instructions, where missing objects are, etc. One time after a lengthy hiatus, I asked her where the Little Miss Scary library book had ended up and she told me it was "in the crack beside my bed". Sure enough, there it was wedged in beside her mattress.
She continues to be a redonkulously messy eater and shun her utensils. Apparently eating's no fun unless you end up wearing half your meal!
Her appetite has gotten a little pickier. About a month ago, we finally ran into her first staunch refusal to eat a meal we'd prepared. Since it was a first (and the meal was curried spinach lentils which, admittedly, may not appeal to the average person), I offered her something else. But we're definitely not planning to make a habit of that! (And luckily it hasn't happened since - knock on wood!)
Current fave foods - oatmeal with fruit and a maple syrup drizzle, green smoothies, most kinds of fruit and, most recently, caribbean jerk chicken and mango salsa. (Sooo good - recipe pending!) Oh, and condiments evidently comprise a food group of their own. *nods*
Her conversational abilities are pretty amazing for her age. Yeah yeah, you say - all parents think their kids are ahead of the game. But take a peek at this video (from over 3 months ago - at just under 2 1/2 years) and tell me if you don't agree!

She's not so in love with the camera these days. She'll sometimes ham it up but more often we'll opt for the candid route.
She loves being in the garden. Her favourite aspect is, of course, the ol' pick 'n' eat (raspberries, tomato and dill in particular).
That hair still has a mind of its own!
She definitely gets her visual attention to detail from her dad, which means she and I make a great team - I lose something and she finds it for me! For example, one time while I was filling my water bottle at the tap, she said "There's your lid, Mommy!", pointing it out from among the clutter on the kitchen table. She also rocks out at I Spy books and their substantially more challenging relatives - the Can You See What I See? series.
We thought she'd put her sibling ~~hatred~~ rivalry behind her, however it resurfaced in spades when CJ began crawling. All of a sudden hitting, pushing and biting were back on the menu. Yes, I resorted to a single, frustration-fueled incident of "Do you want to see how that feels?" No, it didn't feel very good (to either of us) and I resolved we'd never use that technique again. Thankfully, at the time of this writing, these behaviours seem to have abated and she loves her brother once again. Knock. On. Wood!
She loves to bear hug other kids, with amusingly mixed results (depending on mood, kid, etc.) Most common body language: ummm, help??!
"Aminal". :)
Calling her strong-willed is the understatement of the year! She wants to call the shots, darn it, so we often need to get creative to make her feel she's still making choices in order to get stuff done. For example, if we ask her to use the toilet before heading out, she'll inevitably say "I don't have to!". But if we say "Where do you want to pee - downstairs or upstairs?" she'll usually bite. Usually. If that doesn't work, a little competition always spurs her into action! "Do you want to pee first or should Mommy pee first? Oh you don't want to pee? OK Mommy will pee first." "No, I want to pee first!"
Speaking of competition, we continue to work on That Sharing Thing. Her aforementioned sibling rivalry has, of course, upped the difficulty factor on this one (as she wants everything Ceej has - a baby toy, a mum-mum, some pureed peas, whatever) but we persevere with reading her lots of books on sharing and discussing why it's a really nice thing to do, and we're starting to see her come around. We even hear her go "Here you go Ceej!" and let her brother momentarily hold an object she loves, like her Pink Little Blanket. Heart!
I've acquired quite the little sous chef! She helps fill muffin cups, mix ingredients together and crack eggs, and she certainly understands the importance of taste testing. :) All this wearing her special apron from Nana and Papa, of course!
Speaking of Nana and Papa, she's now enjoyed several sleepovers at grandparents' houses. I've got three words for that: win win win!
She understands rhyming, and will often point out examples of it. The other day I said something about "random cars" (can't remember the context) and she said "Hey! Random sounds like Brandon!"
She's very honest. For example, when she attempts one of her patended "pretend pee ploys" to get out of her room at nap time, I'll ask her if she's tricking mommy and she'll own right up. She'll also venture forth potentially incriminating info like "I just bit CJ!"
At the park, she looooves swinging and playing with the gravel, but she's averse to slides. I think she had a bad experience one time involving a super-slick surface and an awkward landing.
We're at that transitional nap stage. She naps about 50-60% of days (more at daycare) but when she does it's lengthy and she's up later at night. We're trying to find a balance here as it's clear she still needs to nap but 9-9.5 hours overnight is a little thin!
In typical 2 1/2-year-old fashion, she wants to do things herself - but lately she's prone to taking this to an almost comical (or exasperating, depending on the situation) level. She'll get mad if I even turn the light on to start her bathroom routine, as she has her stool which enables her to do it herself. Or if I start bringing an object she wants from one place to another, she'll protest, take the object back to the starting point, put it down, pick it up and bring it to the new place herself.
She doesn't like to be wrong, or "fail" at a task. If, say, her feet get stuck while putting on a pair of tight pants, she'll likely whine and/or lie on the floor and ask me to do it. Or if I correct her with something (even a clear fact), she'll often stick to her guns. (S - "That's a squirrel!" Me - "Actually, that's a chipmunk!" S - "No! That's a squirrel!") Similarly, she's not keen on guessing games ("Can you guess what colour mommy's thinking of?" "NO!!") presumably because having to try again means she was "wrong" in the first place. Some of this surely came from her Type A-ish parents, though we're also wondering if the mouse on the computer incident from almost a year developed some deep roots. Or, maybe we're overthinking things and this is just another toddler/preschooler phase she'll grow out of!
She perpetually gets her left and right shoes mixed up. I'm pretty sure she's playing us.
She's still really into sensory activities. Making mudpies in her backyard playground, painting, playing with water, etc.
After several read-throughs of a book she really enjoys, she can recite the whole thing back almost word for word! A recent favourite - Berenstain Bears' "The Spooky Old Tree". Here she is performing it for her Nana and Great Aunt in her best duck voice!
Some shyness has come out recently at times in group settings, and/or around new people. For example, when we dropped in on her great grandmother and great aunt up at the cottage, she kept her hands over her eyes during the whole visit, and just wanted to stay in my lap. I also noticed she tended to be less gregarious than the other kids during our recent weekly library drop-ins. But then she'll do a 180 and be the bullish one - chatting up a storm, assertively assigning tasks to others during play, etc.
She can walk up and down the stairs now without holding the hand rail.
By 30 months, she was fully potty learned during the day. At the time of this writing, she's now wearing undies at night too. A few accidents here and there, but overall she's been awesome!
She's a little too obsessed with tablets. If given a choice, she'd generally pick time on Daddy's "Kobo" or Granda's iPad over, well, pretty much anything.
She has a vivid imagination. I often listen to her when she's playing by herself, and she'll assign creative roles to her toys and objects and narrate some pretty interesting stories! I've also recently noticed that she says "OK" a lot during her play. Gah - she must have gotten that from me! Funny because I tease my own mother about her overuse of the word but obviously I'm "afflicted" too! But I digress...
Overall, we have a sweet, determined, bright, hilarious, beautiful, precocious little gal and we wouldn't change a thing about her. Except maybe how quickly she's growing up *sniff sniff*. We love you, S!!