Caroline's Last Two Months As a Baby

Sweet Baby Girl,

I'm afraid I have no photos from this month and no notes of your special tricks from the last. At 23 months, you have well over 200 words. You call about fifteen of your classmates by name (though you can point to them all and know who's book bag/lunch box/jacket goes with who), verbally recall many opposites (go-stop, push-pull, clean-dirty/ew!, open-close, up-down, on-off, front/back, etc.), and you name your body parts (eyes, noes, ears, neck, back, toes, fingers, hands, arms, neck, hair, mouth, teeth, tongue, legs). You can consistently count to six (and to ten with help), you know many animal sounds, and you randomly burst out with a sentence. Just today, you had been counting, and when I asked you what came after six, you turned to your daddy, said, "Mommy doesn't know", and started giggling. You usually say "please" when you need help (or want a bite of someone's food), and you can tell me your name, age, and birthday month (March). Since you turn two in a few days, we have been practicing putting up two fingers on one hand, but you are having a lot of trouble. 

You do many smart things including cooking and setting the table. You can put on your shirts, dresses, and pants with very little help, and you can flip a coat over your head. You would like to put your socks and shoes on independently, but you still need a decent amount of help. You can, however, take your shoes and socks off. You love to hang your coats and sweaters up, but you still need a little help arranging them on the hanger correctly. You LOVE unbuttoning and unzipping and are working hard to button and zip independently. You are very good at pouring liquids in both large and small vessels. You recognize and name purple, yellow, red, blue, and green, and you can recognize and name almost all of your letter sounds. You match opposite and go-together cards with very little help, and you can put together all kinds of puzzles. 

You had your second encounter with croup and ended up at Children's for two nights, and we confirmed that you definitely do not approve of beach photo shoots in January.