Sallie Cate at 2 1/2 Years Old

Sallie Cate turned 2 1/2 on October 2, and I had every intention of posting that day, but I am still just having the hardest time finding the motivation {and time} to blog. But the last few posts have been all about her big sister, so I felt SC was long overdue for an update. *And now this post has been in my drafts for almost a month. Sigh.

SC definitely keeps us on our toes. One minute she can be just the sweetest little girl you ever did see- giving the biggest hugs and kisses and I love you's- and in the next instant she can become a fit-throwing, screaming mess. Her personality is all over the place. I know a lot of this just comes with the territory of being 2, but she is very different than Curran was at this age. She does not respond well to discipline, and we haven't exactly figured out which discipline technique works best for her. Sometimes time outs cause her to scream and cry and be filled with remorse; sometimes she is fine to just sit there and then goes right back to the bad behavior. Sometimes spanking works, and other times she laughs in our faces. With Curran, I could start counting "1...2..." and before I could get to 3, she would stop what she was doing or respond to me in whatever way I was requesting {And she still does}. That has never, not even one time, worked with Sallie Cate. She was particularly bad on my birthday last week, but then the next 4 or so days that followed were blissful. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason {that we can figure out anyway}.

She is still a mama's girl, preferring me to not be out of sight. She still likes to be held and babied, but also likes to assert her "big girl-ness" quite often.

Her speech really took off at the beginning of the summer, and she started talking in complete sentences all the time. I would say she now has a much larger vocabulary at this age than Curran did, and I think it's primarily due to having an older sister. She has a few cute terms for things, like she calls her nap mat at school her "nap nap" and it sounds so cute when she says it. :) She'll say "Count to two!" whether she means 3 or 20 when we're playing a game. If you ask her why she might have done something {Why do you hit? "Because I do that." "Why did you say that?" "Because I say that."}, she doesn't know how to explain herself. She just repeats the question back, basically. So frustrating but kinda funny.

She copies a lot of what Curran says and does. Within the last several months, she has started taking showers with Curran {as opposed to baths} about half of the time, which surprised me because the shower used to totally freak her out. I hear "No! Like Curran!" a million times a day, and it can apply to anything. She loves her big sister {most of the time}, and then really are so sweet together. It's really fun to see them truly play with one another, now that Sallie Cate can hang like a big girl. Curran gets tickled with her, and she likes to look at me in a knowing way when SC is doing something funny/wild/crazy and say, "She's a mess and a half." while shaking her head. :)

SC has started calling me Mary Louis a good bit, which totally cracks me up. She mainly does it when she's calling to me from another room. Sometimes she'll just look at my sideways and say "Are you Mary Louis?" And I'll say, "Yes. Are you Sallie Catherine?" And most of the time she says yes; sometimes she says "No, I Sallie!" Her friends at school call her Sallie Cate, Cate Cate, Kay Kay, Sallie Cakers, etc. It cracks me up to hear all of her different nicknames. I would say her best friend is Win {Lillian's little brother}. It makes me sad that they aren't across the street from each other anymore, but I'm glad they have each other at school. Whenever I ask SC who she played with or what she did at school, she answers "Win." :)

She loves to talk about how she's going to kindergarten when she turns 5. She knows the name of Curran's school and her teacher's name. She is obsessed with Curran's back pack and lunch box and loves to carry them to the car for her each day.

The biggest thing to happen recently was that we potty trained her back in August. This summer she really started asking to use the potty, so we let her but still made her wear a diaper. We just didn't have a weekend at home to train her! So on our first weekend with no plans, we bit the bullet and did it. She got #1 quickly since she had been doing that already, but #2 was a hard battle. I didn't think she would ever get it, but after about 2 weeks it just clicked. She still wears a pull up for naps and bedtime. At nap time she almost always stays dry, but she still wets her pull up at night. That is very different from Curran who started waking up dry almost immediately after potty training. I don't know if it's an age difference {Curran was nearly 3}, but I guess that will get better with time??

She is taking swim lessons one day a week and has done really well. Don't get me wrong- she cries a lot- but she is learning quickly, and I am so proud of her.

She started gymnastics on Friday mornings. I was hoping to hold out until she was 3 so I didn't have to do the Mommy and Me class for 2 year olds, but it is like torture for her to watch Curran's lessons and not be able to participate. Plus she is our little monkey and has been able to do a perfect somersault since she was a tiny thing. She is actually really good at it. At her very first class, the teacher kept saying how shocked she was that SC knew just what to do. We do need to work on listening and sitting still when it's the other kids' turn. :) I'm already think we will be doing a gymnastics party for her 3rd birthday.

She loves, loves, loves our dog Cooper. She baby talks him and says "How ya doing, Buddy? I missed you, Buddy?" all the time, and loves to give him hugs and kisses. If it wasn't for SC, poor Coop would probably get no attention. :) Her absolute favorite show is Bubble Guppies. She would watch it morning noon and night if we let her. She likes to play outside and ride her scooter. 

Back in the Spring, she started saying the blessing. She used to sing "God Our Father" but then she started copying Curran and singing The Lord is good to me. And so I thank the Lord. For giving me the things I need: the sun and the rain and the apple seed. The Lord is good to me. Amen." We call her The Reverend because she takes it very seriously and repeatedly tell us to "Fold ya hands!" Close your eyes!" and she has to climb into another chair at the dinner table that we refer to as the pulpit. Sometimes it takes us 5 minutes to get through the blessing because she will stop as many times as she needs to in order to remind us to close our eyes and put our hands together. She's a mess.

She is still in a crib, and we have no plans to move her despite the fact that she can easily climb into and out of it. Thankfully she hasn't climbed out when it really matters {bedtime or nap} because I watch that monitor like a hawk, and as soon as I see her start to throw her leg over I run in there and correct her. She can stall bedtime with the best of them, and we still have lots of tears, but overall she is still a good sleeper. She loves to say "Don't leave me, Mama!" while clinging onto my arms. She knows how to work it! She has woken up crying during the night several times over the last few months, so I'm not sure what's going on with that.

We love our Miss Sallie, no matter how crazy she makes us at times! We think she is the funniest, cutest thing and can't imagine our lives without her!