Our wild, feisty, cheerful, smiley little “Baby E” is a 2 year old! She is such a little love and is fiercely independent. She packs a ton of personality in to her tiny little body and isn’t afraid of much (except guys and coyotes-more on that later!) She currently has a few nicknames that are sticking around: “E,””little lady,” “lady bug ,” “sweet pea” (her Daddy’s), and “chaos.” It is hard to believe that 2 years, 730 days, 24 months or any amount of time has passed since she joined our family. I cannot help but feel an overwhelming sense of joy and pride as I watch her continue to grow into the fantastic spunky charismatic little girl that she is, not that I am biased or anything right?!
Her personality is, with most children, truly unique. She is like sugar and spice, she has the sweetest disposition but a streak of wild and feisty. Hands down Elin is a tough little cookie and she reminds me a lot of myself. Mike and I often giggle thinking about what she will be like, and how our relationship is now and will be as she continues to grow. What I enjoy is that I can for the most part understand and see where her intentions/motivations are and it helps us immensely when it comes to “figuring her out.” Although she can be just straight out wicked landing a punch or pinch on mostly Thomas, the majority of the time she is very kind. She is the first one to run over and help with a crying baby or little kid who needs help. When she gets into trouble, especially if it was an unintentional thing (for instance she didn’t realize throwing her cup without a lid with frozen peas everywhere would create a huge mess) you can see in her eyes that there is a part of her completely devastated that she just made a boo boo. One of the other personality traits that is already very evident is her determination, once she has her mind made up, it is made up. This makes her both very successful in completing things and also super hard to redirect if what she wants to do can’t happen or isn’t safe. This is the best I can do to put this little love into a personality nutshell.
Her speech and language continues to excel and blows people, even me, out of the water. She is coming up with 7+ word sentences, asking questions, telling us how she feels, what she is doing and for the most part remembers to use her words instead of scream or crying. My favorite is when I am on the phone with my SLP/therapy friends and they hear her talking and they ask me to remind them how old she is. This also makes it much easier for her to have her needs met and therefore helps us reduce her amount of “tantrums.” She knows a lot of her colors, her basic (eyes, ears, hand, ect) and secondary body parts (elbows, knees, hair, cheeks, ect), she loves to sing and is starting to try to “boss” her brother around.
She is a physical little girl who has a ton of energy and loves to run, swim and climb. She is completely fearless when it comes to any of these things, so we are constantly trying to keep her safe and save her from herself. She has just started to try to petal her tricycle, but if Thomas is riding his bike she would still prefer to run behind him. She has so much stamina for running it is slightly nuts. I remember this with Thomas as well, but it just seems crazy to watch her little legs go a hundred miles and hour and for a long time. She can run all the way to the park which is by our house and refuses to go in the stroller on the way there, on the way home I can usually coax her in with a snack/water. If Thomas is doing something she isn’t far behind him and she will push herself until she can do it, like climbing huge ladders at the park or going down super scary (to us) slides. There are even things that Thomas won’t dare do/try and she is all in. Most of the time we call her the “crazy lady” or “danger mouse.” Thankfully, Whitney (Seattle friend) introduced me to her danger mouse and I have learned a lot about how to keep this little one safe from herself most of the time. What this means is that Elin, much like her Mama, if you tell her “no or don’t do that” she will find a way to do it just to prove to you she could. So teaching her to do things, explore, run, climb and jump safely is the name of the game in our world now, because telling her to not do it doesn’t work out so well.
Elin loves to dress herself when she decides that wearing clothes is a good idea. She is still running around naked or near naked 3/4ths of her life. She understands that she needs to wear clothes when we leave the house but when she is home she like to rock her cute little buns. She usually goes through a few outfits a day between taking them off, playing hard, and food. She is able to get all pieces of clothing (shirt, pants, undies, socks, shoes) both on and off. Socks sometimes trip her up or she decides that after she has put one on she would rather be helped with the other. She helps us pick out her clothes and usually she has something to say about it. Choices help us with this daily task immensely. E is still pretty petite and is currently wearing size 18 months-24 month clothing. Some of her 2T stuff fits her it is just a little big. We are finding this slow and steady growth to be nice as she is able to wear her clothes big at first and then grow into them so she wears things for about a year before outgrowing them.
Our tiny little bug continues to be a messy and experimental eater. She is able to use a fork and spoon well but finds that her hands deliver more food and quicker. Many meals she will try to combine things in “different” and weird to us ways, it isn’t unusual for her to have her corn dipped in her milk or something similar, she is always mixing and blending as she eats. She is not a picky eater, but doesn’t always eat a whole lot, depending on the meal and how much she likes what we are having. Some meals she grazes and other meals we can’t believe how much she has eaten. She is still nursing before her nap and bedtime and then will also have warm milk (her hot choc) most nights.
She is sleeping from about 8 p.m. to 7 a.m in our room, naked or sometimes with a t shirt on. She wakes up to go potty 2 sometimes 3 times a night, we try to sneak a diaper on her after she is asleep, but many nights she takes it off. When she wakes up we take her to the bathroom and then we can lay her back down and almost immediately she is asleep again. She is also a funny sleeper because she likes to fall asleep with her head smashed straight into the bed, which super scares me about her breathing, somehow though it works for her. She has started to occasionally have a bad dream here and there and will let us know “I had a bad dream” through her sobs. We can also usually tell because she will hold her hands over her eyes as tight as possible and then we have her “poof” the bad dreams away. I really don’t like this part of the kiddos imagination development, it is so hard to see them so sad/upset from a dream.
She loves her babies, horses, cows, animals, playing in the sandbox and backyard. She is also a super fan of Stella, Tucker and Itzy and has also fallen in love with the neighbors yellow lab Zug Zug. Books are also her thing and she could spend hours with you reading books and looking at the pictures. Elin loves doing art projects and drawing/writing with markers/colors/paints, true to a 2 year old and her the messier the better. She loves to paint and cover herself head to toe in color. She has some great independent play skills, but for the most part is playing along with Thomas. Socially she doesn’t have many friends that are her age yet, but she has a few, and we are working on this, but she does hang out with Thomas and his buddies. When they are around she is usually playing with them for a bit and then will go do her own independent play. She is doing a good job with taking turns and “sharing” her stuff, but with a big brother around she is also a little bit of a scrapper. If someone tries to take her toy she has no problem holding on for dear life, and if they get it she will try to bop them on the head. We are obviously working on this but it is nice to see she will stick up for herself and hold her own, even to kids 2 to 3 times her size. She also loves to be the big helper and try to take care of the kiddos her age an any baby. She, like Thomas, becomes quite concerned when they hear a baby crying and want to fix it. She says she is very excited about being a big sister and getting to help with the new baby.
All in all our little bundle of energy is a sweet and feisty little thing. She is eccentric and marches to the beat of her own drum. We cannot imagine our life without her keeping us on our toes and making us constantly giggle. We love you baby girl, and cannot believe we have had you with us for 2 years already. We cannot wait to love you and nurture you while you grow you are truly a blessing and a gift. 
A few of her favorites:
Shows: PAW Patrol, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (specifically Mickey had a farm), and Sheriff Callie’s Wild Wild West.
Activities: Playing with her babies/stuffed animals, doing anything with Thomas, reading books, playing in the water/sand outside.
Foods:
Meats: Chicken
Veggies: Avocados, Snap peas, frozen peas, carrots, red peppers
Fruits: Grapes, Apples, Strawberries, watermelon, black berries
Other: Rice, chicken noodle soup, guacamole, cheese, dunkin’ eggs
Elin Answers: (these were fun to hear)
What is your name? “Elin Laschen”
Where do you live? “In Elin’s room”
Who is in your family? “My babies”
What is your favorite toy? “I play with stelly, I love stelly”
What is your favorite thing to play? “I play with my stuff”
What is your favorite color? “Pink like my paint on toes”
What is your favorite thing to eat? “I eat all my stuff in my belly”
What do you want to be when you grow up? “I count two look at Elin big muscles look at Elin’s ninnies mommy”
What is your favorite thing to drink? “I just eat my milk”
What are your thoughts on turning 2? “good”
