Savannah: 2 Years Old – Trav and Erin + 3

Our sweet Savannah is officially 2 years old today! Honestly her birthday kind of snuck up on me with everything else we’ve had going on lately. She has grown and learned so much over the last 6 months. It’s hard to believe she’s really TWO!

We go to the doctor on Tuesday for Savannah’s 2 year checkup, so I don’t know her official stats. But she is definitely a heavy thing (I can say that since she’s still little…haha). I wouldn’t be shocked if she weighed 28 or 29 pounds by now, but we will see. Update: She weighed 28.3 pounds (75th percentile) and was 34 inches long (50th percentile). She is wearing 24 month/2T clothes, some of which are actually getting a little snug. She just moved up to size 5 diapers after we ran out of 4s, and they are fitting much better ;) Her shoe size is anywhere from a 6 to a 7 depending on the shoe. I would say 6s are mostly getting a little too short. Savannah has gotten a few “haircuts” by this point, but I’m trying to just be patient and let her hair grow. It’s starting to look really pretty! Very straight and still pretty blonde, although I’m sure it will darken up as she grows. She will sometimes wear headbands and leaves them in for a little while at least. Her hair is also long enough to put some of it in a little “ponytail” on top of her head, which makes her look like Pebbles :) She has gotten 8 teeth in the last 6 months, including almost all of her molars. She is down to lacking just ONE more baby tooth—one of the 2 year molars on top. Whew—then we’ll be done with teething for a little while!

Savannah is still a good eater overall, although some meals she chooses not to eat very much. Honestly, it really depends on how well Brooklyn eats. If Brooklyn doesn’t eat much and gets down from the table pretty quickly, Savannah wants to do the same. But, if Brooklyn eats her whole meal and gets dessert, Savannah is a sight to behold. She starts stuffing food in her mouth as fast as she can so that she can get dessert too ;) I guess siblings are a form of positive AND negative peer pressure! Savannah isn’t usually too picky with what she eats. She loves fruit and bread. She eats meat much more often than Brooklyn did at this age. She loves milk. And she has a pretty big sweet tooth—I think I passed that on to both my girls :) Savannah has also recently learned how to drink out of the Munchkin 360 sippy cup, so we are trying to transition over to just using those for milk and water. They are supposedly better for your teeth than hard top cups, although before this, Savannah was mainly using straw cups. The girls just went for a visit to the dentist earlier this week, and Savannah’s teeth looked great!

I love Savannah’s little cheesy smile! This is the face she makes when something is really funny :) All of these pictures came from a mini session we did with Carla recently. Perfect timing for some 2 year old pics! Savannah is definitely not as prone to smile for the camera as Brooklyn has been…I think we trained Brooklyn from a very early age since we were always taking pictures of her. Savannah is such a sweet girl! She loves her “mama” and her “gaga” (daddy) and she is always talking about “gaga” while he is at work. She is pretty obedient and is a great helper when it’s time to clean up toys around the house. She also always wants to help when it’s time to set the table or do any kind of cleaning (she will run to get a rag and start wiping all the furniture…haha). She has started testing us from time to time when we ask her to do something, so she does have a little bit of stubbornness in her. But, it’s usually not a huge battle to get her to mind us. She falls apart if we have to spank her or get onto her. She has started coming out of her shell at church and around other kids, although she’s still not super outgoing. But, she will usually at least give high fives to people at church! :) She also goes off to explore around the church building, so she doesn’t cling to us quite as much as she used to. She goes to Bible class without a problem these days, and she seems to really enjoy music class and story time at the library where there are other kids. I think it helps that Brooklyn is right there with her!

As far as toys and books, Savannah is MUCH more interested in reading than she was even at 18 months old. She brings me books all the time to read together. Watch out if you forget to let her turn the page though…haha. She is definitely the official “page turner” when we read. She loves her “baba” (Bible) and enjoys reading a Bible story together before bed. In the last month or two, Savannah has also really grown to love baby dolls. She has pretty much adopted Brooklyn’s baby doll as her own and sleeps with “baby” every night. Luckily, Brooklyn never cared too much for dolls, so it hasn’t been too big of a deal for Savannah to claim it as her own. She also loves coloring with crayons and colored pencils, building with blocks, pushing her baby doll stroller and shopping cart around the house, and pretty much doing whatever Brooklyn does. She is getting more interested in TV shows and movies, although she usually won’t sit still long enough to watch anything other than Daniel Tiger or Curious George all the way through. She’ll watch a few minutes of a movie before going off to do something else :) Daniel Tiger is definitely her favorite show!

Savannah is also a good sleeper most nights. She still seems to love her crib, so I hate that we’ll have to move her out of it before too much longer. She has never tried to climb out; if she wakes up and we don’t come in right away, she usually plays with her doll or with the musical aquarium hanging on the side of her crib. We aim for a bedtime of 8 PM, but sometimes it’s a little later than that before we actually get the girls in bed. If it’s too much later than 8, Savannah usually lets us know and starts melting down ;) She mostly sleeps through the night unless she’s teething or her paci falls out. She usually wakes up between 7 AM and 8 AM each morning, so I can’t complain about that one bit. She takes one nap per day, and it’s usually around 1 to 1:30 PM. Naps generally last about 1.5 or 2 hours, occasionally longer. She is really easy to put down for bed—just lay her down with her paci and baby doll, turn on her sound machine, and she quietly goes off to sleep. We are pretty spoiled!

It has been both endearing and frustrating to watch Savannah and Brooklyn’s relationship develop over the last several months. Savannah obviously looks up to Brooklyn and wants to be just like her. It is so funny to watch the two of them playing in the backyard: Brooklyn frolics all over the yard from activity to activity and Savannah just follows along right behind, like a little duckling. They love each other and love to play together, but it’s not without its drama and fighting. They are both still learning how to share and take turns—something that requires frequent reminding. Savannah has started hitting/biting/pushing sometimes, so we’re trying to work on that. She definitely has started standing up for herself! Sometimes Brooklyn will choose to play in her room by herself, and Savannah gets her feelings hurt that she doesn’t want to play together. She really does love her big sister so much! It will be interesting to see how Savannah does when she becomes a big sister herself in a few more months. She will be the middle child then, so it will be a totally new role as both big sister and little sister at the same time. Hopefully she will adjust well!

Savannah’s speech has just exploded over the last month or two. I’ve lost count of all the words she attempts to say. She isn’t speaking in phrases or sentences yet, but she is definitely doing well with single words! She has come so far since she was 18 months old. She is not only repeating words that we say, but saying plenty of words on her own without having to copy us. Many things she says are not super clear and sometimes not really even close to the way the word should be pronounced, but at least she is trying! I know her pronunciation will improve over time. She is also saying plenty of gibberish that we can’t understand. Some words I want to remember at 2 years old:

Brooklyn has gotten into watching Beauty and the Beast lately. Sometimes we’ll sing the theme song from the movie and when we get to the part: “Beauty and the _______”, Savannah will pipe up with “BEEEEES!” (Beast).
She has started saying “peeez” and “tik you” for please and thank you instead of signing them.
She can say “pa” (Paw) and “yay yay” (Rae Rae) and sometimes attempts Cici (makes the “ssss” sound at least).
Last weekend, we were talking about making a ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise. Out of the blue, Savannah said “na-naise!” :)

Overall, I feel so much better about where’s she’s at with speech. Apparently, I just needed to be patient. I still think she is probably technically “behind” where she should be by age 2 since she is just now starting to say single words, but she has made so much progress that I’m not worried about it anymore. The only thing that bothers me is that she still cannot say “dada”, which is usually one of the first things babies learn to say. We are still doing Early Intervention every other week, so Kaci is going to ask one of the speech therapists if there are any tricks we can do to help Savannah figure it out. I don’t think Travis minds being called “gaga”, but I’m sure he’d prefer dada or daddy :)

Likes: being silly and making us laugh, doing whatever Brooklyn does, eating!, playing outside, reading books, being a helper, coloring, playing with bubbles, watching Daniel Tiger, playing with her baby doll

Dislikes: sharing with her sister (sometimes!), getting out of the tub to get ready for bed, getting the seat belt buckle tightened on her car seat, not getting dessert when she doesn’t eat her supper