Perfectly Two and a Half

This little girl of mine is just so very two and a half right now. Contrary, strong willed, determined, independent. She is bright and inquisitive, interested in everything, and absorbing it all like a sponge. I find myself frustrated by her to the point I feel my head is about to explode, and then she wraps her tiny arms around me and tells me she loves me and melts my heart. She makes me laugh every single day, sometimes it is her very naughtiness that causes me to laugh and so I have to turn my head. Sometimes it is just what she says and does as she goes about her day. She is teetering on the brink of baby and child. Sometimes she seems like such a baby to me still, and at other times I am surprised to realize she is really becoming more of a preschooler, keeping up with her sister in most things. She is always so completely her own self, so much spunk in such a tiny body that it can't be contained.

Last week we went to the dollar store for tissue paper. Violet spotted packages of plastic Easter eggs and decided we needed them. I kept telling her we were not buying those. In the end she stood next to me in line with them firmly in her clutches, refusing to set them down. "Our family needs these" she reasoned with me "This is important for us to buy. They are beautiful and we can't leave them here. They will make us so happy." Because they were only a dollar and I was tired and just couldn't stand the thought of a tantrum in the store, struggle to get her in her carseat, and screaming all the way home, I bought them. And guess what? She was right. That was an important purchase, our family did need them and they did make us happy because after carrying them around like a doll in her arms as we finished our errands she opened the package up at home and my girls spent the next three days playing happily and peacefully with them. They took turns hiding the eggs for each other and having egg hunts around the house. They got out their basket and filled it with the eggs they found and then did it again and again. A dollar well spent.

But a few days after that we went to Target for toilet paper and I let the girls try on Easter shoes just for fun. I didn't realize it at the time, but the ladies underwear department was right across from the children's shoe department. As we were leaving Violet spotted some bins with things in them and went over to inspect. I was calling her, reminding her that she could only be out of the carriage if she listened and stayed with me, but she was being very two and a half and ignored me while she carefully selected an object from the bin. She came running toward me, all smiles and happiness telling me she picked the most beautiful one and she wanted to bring it home. I told her we were only buying toilet paper today, she told me she needed this thing, and we went back and forth for a bit until I finally decided to just take it from her and put it back. I had to wrestle the object from her fierce grip, as she screamed at the top of her lungs, feeling very annoyed and ridiculous in the middle of the store with my out of control toddler  and regretting that I ever let her out of the carriage. When I finally got the damn thing out of her hands I was able to see what it actually was. It was a leopard print thong with hot pink lace trim. I stood in the middle of Target and wrestled a hot pink and leopard print thong out of my two year old's hands while she screamed "No! It's so beautiful! It's my most beautiful thing in the world! I need that thing!" Clearly it was an over-site on the part of Target to put a bin of brightly colored thongs in bins down at toddler level right across from the toddler shoes. But this is how our days go, here in the middle of two and a half. It is never, ever boring, always interesting, often exciting, and very sweet. She is something else, this two year old of mine.

Pandas, and Other Things We Did This Week

Bamboo Paintings

Making a panda mask with paper plates and black paper.

Pandas in bamboo.

Can you spot the well camouflaged panda in this picture? 

Inside the greenhouse.

Panda lunch. Rice ball decorated with nori and vegan cheese and a pea.

Violet had hers with cucumbers and Penelope had avocados with hers. 

We finally did our calendar for March.

Some vegetable prints.

Rainbow water color.

More rainbows.

Open gym.

Violet walking on the "balancing bean".

Pen getting a lesson from an older girl.

They both wore their tutus to gym.

We tried a new Chinese dish.

Lots of chopstick practice around here lately.

We got MORE snow. Violet is showing Itty Bitty the snow.

Tissue paper rainbows.

By the end Violet was tired of scrunching up her tissue paper squares.

Ta da!

Pudding finger paint.

Violet ate a lot of it.

And painted with a lot of it too.

We finally made an upside down snowgirl! We named her Upsidedown  Ivy.

I love this picture!

Penelope's "friendship hands" she made in the snow.

Violet watching Penelope clean all the snow off the car for me with the broom.

Pen finishing up her panda lapbook .

We made gluten free chocolate playdough.

I gave them old cupcake papers, sparkles and candles so they could play cupcakes and birthday parties.

It kept them busy for a long time.

Pen showing her Daddy the lapbook.

One more trip to the sledding hill.

Violet and her daddy.

Always happiest outside, like her mama.

We learned a whole lot about pandas this week. I always thought they were cute, but now I think they are one of my favorite animals. We recorded info we found while reading through piles of books about them, and put together a lapbook at the end of the week. We also made some panda crafts, including the masks in the pictures. We watched part of a documentary on China on Netflix - just the part about pandas. We also watched a lot of videos of panda kindergarten, something I never knew about. It is one of the ways the Chinese are trying to save the pandas by raising babies in captivity. The movies are too precious, what endearing animals these creatures are!

We took a trip to Blithewold to visit the bamboo forest. The girls brought their panda masks so they could play panda there. I took some pictures of Pen when she was deep in the bamboo wearing her mask and she was able to see how well their black and white color helps them be almost invisible in the bamboo. And while we were there we went into the greenhouse for a bit. It was so magical to be surrounded by blooms and green things, it was hard to leave the warmth and bright beauty in there.

We made lots of rainbows too, and did an experiment where we shone light through a glass to make a real rainbow. We got a bunch of snow, which bothered me greatly but thrilled the kids. I eventually got over my disgust and we went out and embraced what was hopefully the last snow of winter. We built our upside down snow girl and a fort and rolled some crazy giant snowballs. We all went sledding together and had a bunch of fun, and we tried a new Chinese dish in our quest to find something gluten free, vegan, and acceptable to most people to bring to international night to share.