Elena is 2-1/2

Today marks Elena's halfway point between 2 and 3.  She is growing up so fast, it always catches me off guard when I stop and think about it.  Elena is still at the top of the charts for height and weight.  She weighed in at 36 pounds and 38.5 inches tall.  This means in the past 6 months she has grown 2.5 inches and nearly 3 pounds!  She is taller than most of her peers at school.  There are a couple of boys that are the same height but much slimmer builds.  She is the weight of her 4 year old friends and maybe 2 inches shorter.  She's going to catch them soon :)  Current clothing size: 4T, shoe size: 10.5 toddler.

Elena very interested in life around her, she is very observant and learns quickly.  Here are a few tid bits about Elena:

• she knows how to count to 13 (then she skips 14 & 15 to pick up at 16-19)
• she understands the numbers refer to quantities: 2 dogs, 6 books, etc.
• she sings her abc's and is starting to learn letters.  She loves to pick out the letter 'e' when she sees it.
• she understands mixing colors makes more colors and specifically red + blue = purple
• a frequent sing-song phrase we hear is "....where are you?"  This could be anything, the moon, an animal, bugs, etc.
• 2-1/2 is the exact moment she became insistent on "I do it" especially on buttons, zippers and shoes.  Preparation time to get out the door just increased by 20 minutes.
• she prefers to eat standing up and is only a fan of silverware when eating soup
• she's been working on her balance--on one foot and on various uneven surfaces
• she loves building castles, celebrating her birthday (everyday) and reading books
• she talks in complete thoughts; shares but is also insistent on "mine" and what she wants to do
• she thinks it is funny to make trouble and will tell us "I'm making trouble" and then laugh
• she remembers plans and knows we are near Pop's house when we're about 4 blocks away.
• and the most exciting news...last week she became paci free!  I had intentionally been hiding the paci but of course she would ask for it.  So every night after she asked, we talked about the paci and I would tell her paci's don't go in big boy beds (that's what she calls it; we've started the talk about transitioning to a big bed).  The next night she asked for it but I told her it was all gone.  There were a few nights of tears but now after a week she doesn't ask for it anymore.  We are so excited!

 Happy Half Birthday, Elena!