Serenity is 23 Months Old =)

I didn't realize I didn't post any of Serenity's journal in the last month, so this will be a LOOONG post =)  I took a hundred pictures or so already today as well!  I got her this blue shirt when shopping with Ann and just now found some leggings that worked with it.  She's so cute!   Anyway, here are a few of the best pics from today and a lot of Serenity Stories!

5/13/10

I love how complicated Serenity’s pretend play has gotten.  She sometimes quotes whole conversations from her favorite Super Why shows.  Her favorite is to get to the top of the slide and say “I’m Afraid!!!”  And then we cheer, “You can do it pig, you can do it!” Today during craft time we were making butterflies from coffee filters and clothespins and she said, “What are you doing Serenity?  I’m making a butterfly tummy!!!”  She said it several times while painting the clothespin, it was so cute!  She has just an amazing attention span for painting and other crafts, she really loves it!

Last week we got a piano that used to be my Mom’s.  We’ve had so much fun with it, mostly playing songs from music class and singing and dancing along.  Serenity requests “Tingalayo” a lot, and she loves to sing and dance to “When I’m Silly!”  It is amazing how much she’s changed in how much she can do at music class. This Tuesday she was in a great mood, talking to everyone, really doing the motions and following along with the teacher, and she danced like crazy with the scarves!!!  She loves drumming her drums during instrument time, and she figured out how to click the wooden cymbals together without me telling her.  She must have seen another kid do it.  She often pretends when she finds sticks in the yard that she’s using them like we do in music class, making them jump or using them like a violin and such.

Serenity’s current favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast.  She loves the “baby cup” and she loves it when they dance.  Today she spun in circles on the couch saying “spinning in circles, they are spinning in circles!!!”  And she closed her eyes when Beast told Beauty to before the library reveal =)  And then said, “peekaboo!”  We still watch either Math Circus or Letter Factory nearly every day as well.  We watch some Super Why, but tend to spend more time with our Super Why board game, Super Duper computer, or “SuperWhy Mama’s Computer” which is “pbskidsdotorg!”

5/24/10

This morning Serenity has been doing really cute things with her stuffed animals.  All of a sudden she is all about the pretend play.  She pretended to feed Alpha Pig and Wonder Red blueberries, and then she made them fly in circles around her house saying “fwooosh!”  When she first woke up she made the Care Bears in the bed go boinga on Mama, and then they gave each other kisses and hugs.  Sometimes when she gets to playing like this she starts speaking very complicated sentences so fast I can barely catch some of the words.  It’s fascinating to see how elaborate her games are getting.  She’s still very good at entertaining herself, and everyone else for that matter =)

She’s still a very snuggly sleeper.  Last night I bonked her a little while she was sleeping, and she rolled over and wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled her face next to mine for a whole hour.  It was so sweet and cozy.  She gives hugs like that now too, wrapping her arms around and actually squeezing.  She’s very excited to give Daddy “a kiss or a hug” now, which usually ends up being a kiss and a hug.  Several times in the last week when he’s left for work she’s run after him and stood in the window saying “don’t go, don’t go!”  It’s sweet =)

Yesterday Serenity read the word Eggs off the grocery list with no prompting... this is remarkable not only in that she's reading but in that she managed to read MY writing! =)

Our new favorite series is the Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney.  We started with Llama Llama Misses Mama and have now checked out Llama Llama Red Pajama and Llama Llama Mad at Mama.  She loves them and asks to read them nearly every night.  I might need to buy them instead of just checking them out at the library every week!

She’s really paying attention in music class.  She’s even started singing the songs by herself!  She especially loves Little Raindrops Falling Down and 5 Little Ducklings.  She does the motions and has sung the song all by herself a few times!  Still we often do it where I sing a line and then she finishes it.  She also did the little rhythm exercise “we’re playing in the sprinkler, ch ch, ch ch ch.”  That was a surprise when I saw her do it!

June 7, 2010

Serenity is so sweet and affectionate.  She loves to wrap her arms around my neck and say “I love you Mama!” and “I like you Mama!”  Of course, it sounds like “I yuv you” and “I yike you.”  So so cute.  She snuggles and cuddles with her cheek pressed against mine, and then she’ll say, I snuggle Daddy and flop over on Eric for more =)

June 9^th

Today Serenity really wanted to wear my wedding ring, so I let her look through my jewelry box to find some things she could play with.  I have a jewelry box of my mothers that is full of my Granny Hale’s jewelry.  Serenity loved it!  We spent an hour playing with all the pretty things.  She sorted things, tried some on, and delighted in telling me, “there’s a flower, there’s an oval!”  So cute =)  She preferred the bracelets, and made most of the necklaces into bracelets as well.  She didn’t really like me wearing the earrings, I guess she’s never seen me do that before!