MN Girl in Eire: Two!

Gemma turned two on Sunday! Where have the years gone? If I had to use one (non-superlative!) word to describe Gemma, it would be independent. A new favorite phrase is 'Gemma do it!' She wants to do everything herself and can get quite upset if she can't do something. But, don't even think about trying to help her! Gemma is also a sweet little girl- generous with hugs and kisses! Here's a summary of Gemma at TWO!

- As I mentioned in a previous post, she is 1/4 of an inch shy of 3 feet tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile for height. When she went back to creche today, both of the main workers in her room thought she had grown so much in the week that we were away and were wondering what I was feeding her! I haven't checked her weight recently, but Paul and I both agree she's losing some of her baby belly!

- Gemma is chatting up a storm and repeats pretty much everything we say now. 'What's that?' is asked countless times per day. She also says 'I don't know' in a really cute way. When she really wants you to listen to her, she'll come right up to you and talk to you with her head tilted as far as she can to one side! It is so funny! And, if she's requesting something kind of special, she'll do that and whisper the request, usually 'Stickers?', 'Yogurt?', or 'Chips?'

- Gemma counts to 20

- She can recognise and name quite a few colours- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black

- We're still waiting on the arrival of the 2 year molars!

- Gemma loves her time in bed! A lot of nights when we're putting her to bed, she doesn't even want stories or songs, she just says 'cot!' (which is what a crib is called here). And, after nap time and in the mornings, she doesn't want to come out of the cot, even though she's awake. She'll ask for her books, then lay and look at them! She averages 12 hours of sleep at night, going to bed between 7 and 7:30, and she takes a nap around 12:30, which usually lasts 1-2 hours.

- Gemma got a dollhouse for her birthday, and she LOVES it! She also likes feeding and giving hugs to her 'baby', Barney the dinosaur, bubbles, kicking and throwing a ball, trains/cars/airplanes/motorbikes/tractors,making 'coffee' and 'tea' in her kitchen, stickers, Peppa Pig, and Sesame Street.

- She continues to clap and cheer and say 'yay Liffey Valley' when we turn into the carpark of our nearest shopping centre.

- Gemma still loves her books and reading. For her birthday, she got Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever from Auntie Margo and Freya. It's a huge book filled with tons of stories and pictures. I had the same book and spent hours reading it when I was around her age, so it's been great to read it together.

- Singing and dancing are favourites too. 'Mr. Sun', 'The Wheels on the Bus', 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', 'I Love You' (the Barney song), 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star', 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes', 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', and 'If You're Happy and You Know It' are most of the songs in her repertoire.

- When she gets upset, she sometimes hits out at us, but more often than not, she'll say sorry right away, then lean in and give a hug and kiss. Unfortunately it may be more of a game for her at this stage!

Gemma makes us laugh and brings us so much joy (even with the occasional tantrum)! Happy 2nd birthday our dear girl!

Most of the pics from the month have been covered in all of the other recent posts, but here's a few more.

There is a train at Liffey Valley shopping centre that runs from one end of the centre to the other and back. Here's Gemma the first time we took her on it, waving to everyone!