Terriffically Two!

Hazel turned two years old on October 19th.  She got a doll house for her birthday, and both sets of grandparents gave her accessory sets to go with it.  She has already logged many hours playing with it!  She loves to put the dolls on different furniture and put blankets on them. 

When I dropped her off that morning at daycare, the other kids that were there already excitedly said, "Hazel, it's your birthday!"  and sang Happy Birthday to her.  She was grinning from ear to ear.  She also had a birthday party there after lunch, and because my school is right next door, I was able to go over for it.  She got to wear a hat that looked like a birthday cake, tried to blow out a 2-shaped candle, and even got a Mr. Potato Head as a present from Carrie, who owns the daycare.  It was a sweet little party. 

When my family members called to sing to her, she would always smile and say, "Again?"  She loves that song.

She is growing up so fast and learning so many things!  Here's a list, in no particular order, of many of the things she is currently doing.  This is mostly for my mom and other out-of-town people who are interested in lots of details.

She loves to count, and almost always correctly recognizes two things together. ("Two punkins.")  Usually when she counts multiple things she'll point to them and say "2, 3, 2, 3, 2!"  She can also often count from 3 to 9 by herself, but hasn't figured out that you are supposed to start with 1. 
She likes butterflies, but calls them spiders.  No idea why. 
She loves rocks--one of the first sentences she said was "I like rock." 
She is a much less picky eater than she used to be, but is still picky sometimes.  She actually ate a few pieces of red bell pepper a few days ago. 
She is very polite, and almost always says please when she asks for something, like "More molk, pease."  She especially likes it when Daddy gives her "chocate" milk. 
She loves hugs and kisses.  She often makes Kyle's action figures kiss each other, like the Flash and Wonder Woman.  Sometimes if one of us is holding her and we're standing close together, she'll grab the other one's shoulder and pull us together to make us kiss.
Yesterday she was holding a Brainiac figure (one of Superman's bad guys) and singing "Rock-a-bye baby, tree top."  It was very cute. 
She loves babies, and everything is a baby.  "A baby dinster" (dinosaur). 
She is starting to show empathy--Kyle had a bleeding toe, and she pointed to it and said, "Ouchy, Daddy!"
She loves getting horsey rides to bed after family prayer, and is figuring out how to brush her teeth. 
She LOVES shoes, whether her own or anyone else's.  She will often try to walk around the house in our shoes, which is no easy feat considering how large our shoes are.  She will also bring us our shoes and try to put them on our feet, even if we are already wearing shoes. 
She also prefers doors to be closed, even though she can't open them again.  One Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, we were just waking up and our door, which had been opened a crack, suddenly got pulled shut from the outside. 
She often likes to pick her bedtime song, and usually will either ask for "a star" (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) or "a temple" (I Love to See the Temple).  She also sings Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to herself, but is sounds more like "Ah bah twinkle star."  I don't know what the ah bah is supposed to be. 
She recognizes circles, squares, and stars, and is getting pretty good at her shape-o ball. 
She has been singing "Happy day to Hazel" for the last 5 days or so--it is so cute. 
She is wearing size 3T pants, and size 3T and 4T shirts and jammies.

Her 2 year check-up was actually yesterday, not Tuesday.  Here are the stats:
37" tall, just a little bit off the chart
31 lbs 10 oz, 90-something %
head 49.5 cm, 90-something %
(I left the paper the nurse wrote on in the office) 

So the winner of the poll is------ my Mom!  Before she changed her answer!  Ha.  I was originally going to guess 37" as well, I should have stuck with it. 

I'll add some updated pictures in the next few days.  Kyle put them on my flash drive last night, but I left it at home.