Last year I dressed her nicely and took her outside for some cute pictures. I have a "thing" about HAVING to take the pictures of them on the actual day they turn that age. I know that one day doesn't make a difference but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. I got so caught up in just having fun and enjoying Rosalee that I totally forgot about taking some nice pictures until I started on this post. :(
But I feel that this picture does a great job of summing up Rosalee turning two.
*She is VERY independent! She likes to pick out her own clothes (even if Mommy tries to tell her that it won't be warm enough, doesn't match, etc.), she wants to feed herself, and likes to walk/climb/move without any assistance.
**She speaks in fairly coherent sentences. Other people can (for the most part) understand her and she enjoys interacting with anyone who gives her the time of day! Her vocabulary is so large that I've lost count of how many words she can say now. She knows what the words mean and if you try to ignore her, give her something else, etc. you are guaranteed to see a tantrum.
**She can jump and is starting to get her feet off the ground. It's pretty silly to watch actually. She also enjoys dancing and calls herself a "dancing baby" and has 3 dance moves- happy feet (think Flash Dance, jogging in place quickly), spinning, and dancin' (that's the penguin like wobble she most often does).
**She LOVES giving her family hugs and kisses. Actually she'd kiss or hug anyone but I try to discourage the hugging of random Wal-Mart door greeters.
**She is a big help with Zeke. She likes to help pick out his clothes, tell me which diaper he should wear ("No Elmo this time, he needs a Big Bird one."), talking or singing to him when he cries, and kissing him whenever she can.
**Going swimming is a favorite activity, even though all she can do at this point is walk around in the shallow end, go down the slide, and lie on the steps.
**As much as she enjoys helping me pick out her clothes she'd rather go without clothing. She always asks if she can take a "naked nap" (that just means without pants on) and she takes off running as soon as she's done in the bathroom before we can redress her.
**She uses the potty and has gone up to 3 1/2 days without an accident. When we're at home she wears underwear and if we go out she gets a pull-up over top of the underwear. She gets pretty upset if she gets her underwear dirty and will tell us randomly throughout the day, "we don't go poopy on Minnie/Tinkerbell". It's kind of funny that she is attached to the characters on her underwear, but whatever keeps her dry!
**She is starting to get into pretend play with her toys. She makes food with random dishes (mostly soup) and then feeds them to her babies. Last night as I was going to turn the light off she asked me to wait. When I looked over at her she was taking one of her blankets and tucking her new dolls under it.
**Nature FASCINATES her beyond belief! Any rock, leaf, etc. is like a piece of gold to this kid. Her eyes get so big and bright and she almost squeals with delight as she tells you about it.
**She likes to color, especially if someone sits with her and allows her to tell them how to color.
**She does NOT like naps, but will go to sleep with little to no complaints if we turn on a book on CD for her. Going to bed at night is great, as long as we keep with her routine. If we're at a new place she'll get upset so it is
CRITICAL that we bring a toy or blanket from her crib with us when we travel. Thankfully she'll only be upset the first night and then be fine the rest of the time so we haven't been discouraged from taking extended trips yet.
**She knows her full name is Rosalee Helene James and she's convinced that Zeke's full name is Zeke Let James.
**She likes watching videos and cartoons, especially Disney ones.
**She is a toddler and has tantrums but thankfully they don't happen that often or last for very long. I love that she copies lines from books or movies to express her frustrations to us. Once we realized that she was doing this, we worked on teaching her the correct words to use. Now instead of saying,
"This is my hiding spot!" when she's mad (it comes from the 1st Tinkerbell movie) she'll say either,
"no thank you I'm fine" or
"I don't want to". She still says,
"it'll taste just the same" when she disagrees with us (that comes from
Just a Nap one of the Little Critter books by Mercer Meyer) but one day she'll figure out what to say to better get her point across.
**She has a great smile and laughs hysterically. Her laugh is contagious and can change the mood of an entire room.
**Rosalee is a wonderfully happy, smart little girl who is greatly loved by everyone who knows her.*
Rosalee's great grandparents came down for a short visit. Rosalee was in her crib getting ready for her nap when they came. I figured since it was her birthday I'd be nice and let her get out of her nap. Boy was she excited, no nap AND she got to see GG and Grandpa! They bought her a cute outfit (she's wearing the green coat) and a fancy sequined dance skirt.
(Don't mind the crazy hair, I'm in desperate need of a hair cut!)
I made Rosalee a strawberry shortcake for her birthday because that's what she wanted. Although I'm 99% sure she has no idea what a strawberry shortcake is, I made one anyway. I made a strawberry cake and then topped it with whip cream and strawberry syrup and strawberries.
Here are some of the still shots I took of Rosalee opening her gifts. I should have just kept it on video the whole time, but I wanted something to put in a scrapbook.
A dinner fit (and picked out by) for a two year old! Rosalee wanted chicken nuggets and curly fries so I made some popcorn chicken and curly fries for dinner. Rosalee was excited to have ketchup and ranch to dip her food in. Despite the odd look on her face she really loved her dinner and ended up eating two plates full of chicken and fries.
We kept saying, "wow, that doll is the size of a real baby" so to prove/disprove our statement we put Tink next to Zeke. At first he was shocked to see another small person next to him and then he started smiling and cooing at the doll.
I was hoping she'd dig in and make a big deal out of her cake, but nope. She daintily picked off all the strawberries and then told me she was all done.
Same story with the ice cream... all she wanted was the strawberry syrup.
We love our monster baby, Rosabug, Lily girl very much and are so happy to be able to continue to watch her grow! 
