My Big Girl, 2 Going on 5

"I never get to go in this cabinet, don't make me close the door"

Happy girl

First time pushing the kid's cart at Trader Joe's

Ava is getting more independent each day. It's so fun to see how much she can do by herself now like put on her shoes, take off her clothes, or brush her hair. I'm amazed by how much she can carry while going up or down the stairs! Whenever we go around the house, she wants to bring her toys with her. She'll say "stroller coming?" Or mostly "stroller coming, mama" in a very determined voice. This morning she carried a big box with her crayons up the stairs by herself. The conversations that we have are so different than just a few months ago. Sometimes when she's looking for a specific toy she'll say "baby doll, where go?" Then I'll tell her that it's in her bedroom and she'll go upstairs to get her.

A couple weeks ago, we shopped at Trader Joe's, which is her favorite store! She saw a couple kids pushing the kids carts and asked me if she could use it too. We shopped through the store and she enjoyed picking out things at her level and things on our list. On our shopping trips,  Ava searches for the green monkey hidden in the store. She asks to give the plush monkey a hug and then she gets a treat from the bowl. The workers stock it with suckers, fresh fruit, and cereal bars. She loves to pick a cereal bar to snack on in the store!

Little girl pig tails

The morning we shopped, I asked her to pick from the different dresses to wear. She also likes to pick out her shoes. And I put pigtails in her hair then she picked out the yellow flower barrette for her hair. I like to offer her a couple of choices to empower her to make decisions. Aaron gives her less choices, but his parenting style is more "go with the flow" so that works too.

I'm also amazed by how much Ava understands about how the world works. Tonight, she noticed the sun was setting and she knew that meant that the moon would come out since it was turning into nighttime. We talk about things all the time as she's trying to figure it all out.

My mother-in-law reminded us last weekend that the parenting you do at age 2 is going to pay off when our children turn into teenagers. I loved hearing that because my greatest fear in parenting wasn't babyhood, it was the teen years! I think it's because of how my brothers were in their teen years. I want Ava to be a confident lady! But for right now, I'm going to love mothering a two-year old!