Proud.
La La is now about 27 months old, and she’s doing great. At her 2 year checkup, the doctor started asking us the usual questions, but soon just asked her the questions, because he could see that she was capable of answering them. He said she’s doing fine, her ears are fine (we were worried after a few ear infections) but we are still trying to figure out if she has allergies like her parents, of if her faucet of a runny nose is just caused by all the hugs and kisses at day care (they are a VERY affectionate bunch). Seems like whenever the weather changes, all three of us end up with some kind of cold. Anyway, the doctor said her vocabulary was off the charts for a 2 year old, and that we had nothing to worry about developmentally. (Yay!)
And it is off the charts. The. girl. never. stops. talking. From the moment she wakes at about 5:20 AM each day (even weekends! 
) until she finally passes out telling stories to her dolls in bed at night, this girl is talking. And most of the time, other people can understand her, except for a few things that she says so fast that even I have trouble with.
Her new "thing" is "Mama say Once upon a time? and a red car? and a dragon? and a tunnel?" where she wants me to tell her a story, but she gives me all the prompts I need to tell the right story. Over and over again until I can’t come up with anything more creative to say. And it’s not just her in these stories, it’s Princess La La and the Mighty Mighty Thor (one of her classmates is named Thor) and sometimes Muno or Foofa show up too.
I remember when my sister went through this phase of constant chatter and I remember how much it annoyed me (and didn’t seem to affect my mother) and now, tada! I can tune it right out while still being able to detect when I need to pay attention.
Last year, I made a little pillow and pillowcase for La La for her dolls. She hated the pillowcase and would always pull it off and just play with the pillow for hours, putting her doll down and talking to it and tucking it in and picking her up and readjusting, but the pillowcase just made her mad and she didn’t want it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and now she loves the pillowcase and keeps pulling it off and asking me to put it back on. A few days ago, she was playing with her "babies" and the pillow and she pulled off the pillowcase again. I was tuned out but suddenly there was the "wake up mommy" sounds so I asked her what was wrong.
"I need help" she said. We’ve been working on the importance of saying what you need instead of just whining.
"What do you need, honey?"
"I can’t do it. It’s stuck. I can’t… I can’t…I didn’t learned it yet." she said, and handed me the pillow and the case. She actually got the pillow halfway in, and was doing pretty good.
"Do you want me to show you? You almost did it all the way!"
"Yes", she replied.
"Here you go" I said as a pulled out the pillow and put it back together. Then I pulled it out again so she could try. She took it from me and tried again, and this time got it most of the way on. She got frustrated again.
"Would you like me to put it on, and you can try again later?"
"Yes, please". I put the pillowcase on and she thanked me and went back to playing. I was so proud of her for knowing that she "didn’t learned it yet" but that she still tried and then asked for help when she was really stuck.
This kid amazes me every day with her words, her love and hugs and kisses, and just how much fun she is. I really feel like with her attitude, she’s never going to stop learning and I’m so grateful that I have a curious kid.
As much as it freaks me out that she is constantly exploring, which means danger is always lurking, I think it’s so much better than the alternatives.
