Journey Kay is 2 1/2

Our sissy pie is officially 2 1/2. I just can't believe it but then she is sooooooo 2. Everything is "NO I do it" or "NOOOOOOOO I do it alllllll by myself" She likes to draw out certain words in her sentences. She thinks the longer the sound the more impact they'll have. She can be really mean sometimes but can turn it around in seconds and ask me "hold me lika bebe" She has this soft sweet little voice and her own way with words. WE love listening to her talk. She speaks really well. She makes up these stories for her babies all the time. It's so funny. I can just sit in her room with her and listen to her play. She doesn't like me to engage in the play with her, I just spectate and hold her children when needed. I'm also the official diaper changer and I put the clothes back on the babies when she can't. She just talks and talks to them. Mostly soothing them or putting them to bed and tucking them in. She really likes to line up all her babies (which are dolls but also stuffed animals) and cover them with blankets. She skips her naps sometimes because she just sits in her crib and plays for 2 hours. I hear her on the monitor telling them "you go to sleep baby. here i will cover you up. there you go baby." Such a sweet little momma. She does still nap on a regular basis but it takes her awhile and then when she finally falls asleep she really sleeps. Like for 3 hours. Then she gathers 2 or 6 babies, her blankets and her sippy cup and reaches up to me to pull her out of bed. This is the time I get to cuddle her real good. I lure her in by letting her choose some fruit snacks from the pantry and then hold her close while she eats them one by one. She treasures those little snacks. She is still so so soft. And her hair is silky smooth. I've never cut it but thinking a tiny trim might be ok soon. Maybe.
She likes to be naked or just underwear on. I make her put on underwear because when shes naked for some weird reason she always reaches back and rests her fingers in her crack. They're not like up in there but they are resting snug in the crack. It's gross so she wears underwear or a "pull yup" as she calls them.
She's peeing in the potty on a regular basis..we still have accidents and they happen when she's playing and doesn't want to leave what she's doing so she just goes and then tells me about it. She's never pooped in the potty. I have no idea why. She'll either poop in her underwear or she will tell me she has to poop and asks me to get her a pull yup. If she's already wearing one then she go off to play legos or go to her kitchen or like last night she went under the dinner table while we were eating and told us proudly "I go poop under the table." She likes to do stuff while she's pooping so she'll tell me "I poop while I play legos" We have tried sitting her on the pot when I see the warning signals but she will never just let it out. Her teacher at school keeps telling me "she's only 2..." I know that but I also know her and she's smart enough to be doing this. She's just too stubborn. We'll get there.
She's wearing a headband today. I couldn't believe she asked for it..I haven't been able to get her to wear once since she was about 18 months old. I later learned the only reason she's wearing it is because one of her babies wears one and she's been big into being a baby lately. She asks me to hold her like one, feed her a sippy cup and wrap her up in blankets and sing to her. 
The other morning we all heard her on the monitor waking up so Jonah and I went to get her. He was feeling especially silly that morning because when we went in to her room he was like "oh look at the newborn baby. can I hold our newborn?" Lol She is always really babyish in the morning so she played into it real good. Jonah sat down in the chair and I swaddled her and handed her to him and he held her for a whole 3 seconds before being done with the whole thing. 
She is active and can run super fast. She's very athletic and freakishly strong for being so little. She's the star in her gymnastics class. Or at least we think so. We are so proud of her. We all just kinda stand back and watch her do her thing. She doesn't even use her hands anymore when doing a somersault. She just kinda jumps and rolls. She's fearless so I know this is her sport because she is willing to try anything. I can already see her doing aerials and front hand springs..she's 2!!!!! 
She moved up to the 2 year old class at church to the frog room and it's been an adjustment. She really hates change like that so it's been hard. Jonah moved up too but he's handling it a little better. These kids get so used to a routine and when something changes it really messes with them. 
Journey really loves her brother. He is her whole world. She talks about him when he's at school and asks when he's coming home to play with her. Jonah will be sweet with her but on his own terms. He loves her but he also likes to play on his own. She kinda likes to destroy stuff right now and he's really into building and creating so they clash at times. He builds something awesome and she comes over to knock it down and have a dance party on top of the mess. 

She loves being thrown into the air and landing on a pile of pillows. Pretty much anything that's dangerous or involves being tossed, thrown, flipped, turned or hanging upside down. Justin likes to get them riled up after he gets off work and one by one will throw the babies into a pile of pillows on our bed over and over.  

She's wearing 2 and 3T clothes, mostly 3T because she's so tall. I really love to put her in soft cotton dresses with leggings. She looks so pretty in dresses. She doesn't like when I do things to her hair but she allows it as long as she can play with the elastics while I do it. I will braid it to the side or pig tails. She loves pig tails and sits in front of the mirror while I do it. She even leaves the bow in her hair until we are in the car leaving wherever we were or until we get home. She used to never do that and would pull her hair out the minute she got into her car seat so we've come a long way. 

She weighs about 30 pounds and wears size 8 shoe now. She's 38 inches tall so we can't wait for SDC to open in a few weeks. She'll be able to ride all the big kid rides! 
She's shy around people she doesn't know and I appreciate this. It keeps her close to me when we're out and about :) I love to take her grocery shopping. She's holds onto the list and marks things off or just colors over the whole list so I can't tell what I was there for. 

She's really smart and loves to sing. She sings all day long and loves when I sing to her. Bless her little heart. Jonah never really cared for my singing...even when he was little. He cares for it even less now. I used to ask my mom to sing me every song she knew..and she would! So I am so happy that she loves my voice just like I love my mommas. If she skips her nap I take her into her room around 7:45, turn out the lights and sing her Somewhere Over the Rainbow.. and about a minute in, she's out. Every single time. 

Her favorite foods are bananas, yogurt raisins, chips (any kind will do), fish sticks, french fries, avocados, jambalaya, garlic bread, pepperoni and apples. I can't get her to try new foods anymore. It's going downhill.. both kids are now the pickiest eaters ever. The struggle is real folks. Every day. It's worse with Jonah so I'm hoping Journey will still eat if I make her food into really cool shapes or bribe her with chocolate. Jonah's too smart for that nonsense. He's like "ok, so this is dinner tonight? I'm not hungry" and doesn't eat a bite and goes to bed with an empty stomach. I always try to put something on his plate I know he likes and he will usually eat that and nothing else. The kid could survive on apples and cheese. but Anyways, this is not about Jonah...

Journey Kay loves Toy Story. All 3 of them. And i love them too so I'm happy to watch them with her. Can't wait for the 4th. We are all going to the theaters for that! I heard 2017.. Monsters Inc, and Tangled are also popular. She loves watching Wild Kratts with Jonah. And Peppa Pig is still a big hit in our house too.

She's counting to 10 and knows most of the numbers all the way to 20 but doesn't get them in the right order. She sings the ABC's very well and has been hearing Jonah sound out his words lately so she's been doing it too. But it's funny because she's making the P sound then says "KANGAROO!" It's super cute and really smart because she understands that letters make sounds which turn into words. Jonah is teaching her and doesn't even realize it. 

This is by far my most favorite age. I would just love to keep her right here in this moment of time forever. She is so much fun and just lights my world up from the moment I hear her waking on the monitor to rocking her to sleep in her room at night singing 'every song I know.' I know she can't stay little and that's ok but I plan to just soak up every last bit of the sweet babyness that is left. 

Justin and I took her to lunch one day while Jonah was in school. I saw her pig tail silhouette as we were leaving and it made my heart so happy.

Nature walk trail - winter style.

We babysat our friends dogs for a few days and we fell in love. It was hard returning them. Daisy was so sweet and let her do pretty much anything she wanted. She thought Daisy was cold so was covering her with wash cloths. 

Dressing her is one of my favorite parts of the day :)

We painted and she did some serious finger painting that got everywhere. I popped her in the sink after mainly just to see if she still fit and she does!! She enjoyed her time immensely and asks me all the time to paint just so she can take a bath in the sink.  

This is the way Superman watches tv

The other day Dakota darted out the front door while it was open and I was calling her back in. Well she stopped in the yard and started to poop. I muttered under my breath "oh now she's taking a big dump.." Journey heard me and proceeded to tell me that "Dee dee is taking a dump. A BIG dump. Dakota are you taking a dump? haha Dakota is taking a big dump mommy..." It went on far longer than it should have and I couldn't help but laugh. I decided not to take it any further and just called D back in and we let it go but it still makes me laugh when I think about her and how she picked up on that one word and went to town with it. 

She is our angel pie. The mere mention of her and I smile. A true silly heart who does hop scotch on the kitchen tile and whose favorite phrase is "AGAIN AGAIN!" She really enjoys life and it's a joy watching her grow and learn.
Happy 30 months to our baby girl!