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Just a quick little post to draw your attention (ahem. grain_damaged) to the post I just put up at More Than a Little. I know some of you are really into the gardening scene so I think you'll enjoy this one. Also, it is fun to get mail.

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23 things about my 23-month-old

1. She loves to be outside. Really, really loves it. (I do not.)
2. She has become more affectionate as she's gotten older, and now she willingly gives hugs and kisses.
3. She is shy with strangers, and she will usually not talk to someone out in public.
4. She insists on drinking from a cup with a straw in restaurants, and she also thinks she has to order it her own self. (which is contrary to her normal no-talk-to-strangers rule.)
5. One of her favorite things is playing in the sink, though she's not allowed to do that much anymore due to violent tantrums when it's time to stop.
6. She fights sleep like an innocent kitty cat dies every time she closes her eyes.
7. She adores Elmo, loves Abby, Cookie and Oscar, and is more than fond of the rest of the Sesame Street gang, but she doesn't care much for any other set of television characters... except Pippi. She adores Pippi, too.
8. When Granny and Grandpa are around, she doesn't want much to do with her mother, but if she gets hurt, it's Mommy she comes to.
9. Bubbles in the bathtub were a recent obsession, and she was crazy about them for about three baths until suddenly she freaked out and kept insisting "NO BUBBLES" when it was time to take a bath. That lasted about a week and now she wants bubble baths again. No clue as to what happened with the bubbles except she told me once they were hot. (??)
10. She is making really good progress with the potty-training at the moment, and is going multiple times per day most of the time.
11. We're working on weaning but it's slow going. Still at three times a day, but sometimes we don't get to all three.
12. She's been walking around all day talking about the "mighty jungle" because Granny sang it to her yesterday. She also sings (parts of) "Happy birthday" and "Row Row Row your boat" and "EIEIO [aka Old MacDonald]" recognizably, and she knows enough of some other songs to request them.
13. I fear she is something of a germaphobe, for which I guess I must take the blame. She freaks out if she gets her hands dirty, and she scrubbed herself so hard in the bathtub one other morning that I feared she had developed some sort of long-lasting phobia. (Thankfully, she was just enjoying playing with the soap, I think.) I am trying to do better, and to also offer some other reasons for things other than that something is dirty.. like when she thought I threw away a grape because it was dirty the other day, I made a point of explaining to her that it wasn't dirty, it was just not a good grape. I don't know if it will help but it makes sense to me.
14. Her favorite toys are probably her kitchen and dishes. She loves to cook and is greatly excited about helping me cook.. which is frustrating at the moment but I am looking forward to it getting easier.
15. She has a little mole on the top of one finger and a paler-than-her-skin birthmark on her belly. I want to kiss them every time I notice them.
16. She is afraid of older women. I have no clue why. You know that grandmotherly type? They terrify her. She's not always afraid of women of that age, but it happens pretty often. In general, she's a strangely timid child for being so tough. She usually doesn't cry when she gets hurt unless it really, really hurts, so it's always a shock when she starts wailing about being afraid.
17. I taught her once to kiss Mommy's freckles (on my shoulders) and now she will randomly sometimes grab my arm and say "Mommy freckle!" and kiss my arm. I die a little from cuteness overload when she does that.
18. My niece, whom she calls Sissy, is the most exciting person in the world to her. Sissy is a rock star and there is nobody who can top her in sheer fun value.
19. A couple of months ago, my cousin was leaving my grandfather's house and she had to take her daughter's Barbie away from Evelyn so she could go. Evelyn is still talking about it and I promise I have tried to discourage her from remembering it. She will say, in this terribly sad little voice, "Jo Jo. Barbie. Take away." She doesn't dislike Jo Jo or anything and will speak favorably of her at other times, but she cannot get over Jo Jo taking her doll away no matter how many times I try to reassure her.
20. And on that note, the child has got a memory like... well, M says that the only thing you can compare Evelyn's memory to is that of her mother. She remembers everything.
21. She has a fascination with sticks, my little girl. Our yard was such a disaster at the beginning of the season that one of our little family activities was to go outside and pick up sticks to put in the wheelbarrow. She loved this (except for a few days when she was too terrified of bugs to move) and she still prefers picking up sticks to other (normal) outside activities.
22. She is not a big eater, but she does like: ham (lunch meat type), cheese (preferably mozzarella, either shredded or in stick form), pasta, chicken nuggets, french fries, grapes, kiwi, bananas, strawberries, yogurt, peaches, applesauce (but not apples), cheerios and peas. She theoretically likes burgers and pizza and quesadillas, too--by which I mean, she talks about them, she wants to have some of them, but she will only eat them sometimes. There are other foods she eats upon occasion, but those are really the core things that she lives on. Ham and cheese and grapes is her most common meal. I figure it is healthy enough, compared to the things she could be eating, but it is sadly unfilling, which means I have to feed her random things all day long. Have some fiber, child! Alas, no.
23. She doesn't have much experience with playing with other children. She spends some time with a couple of other kids when we visit my family, but it's seldom and she honestly spends most of her time with my mom when we're visiting. I think she is annoyed by how very immature they are. (Not to say she is any more mature than they are. She just thinks she is. hehe.)