Well, I thought I was going to get caught up but now that the holidays have begun, I'm behind again. But before all those end of the year holidays, I have to start with our Taryn. She turned two on October 14th. It was awesome because her birthday fell on Columbus Day this year so even though the girls had school, Tyler had work off, so he was able to spend the whole day with us on her birthday. We spent most of it shopping for her gifts, but at least we were together and we did eat out for lunch. Here is a picture of Taryn on her actual birthday. This post will be like my other birthday posts - lots of pictures of the birthday girl with some added narrative of things we don't want to forget about our special girl!
Taryn still sucks her two fingers, and usually keeps them covered with her other hand. People who see her a lot think it's funny and also know it's a sign that she's tired. When she's really sleepy, she'll use the fingers from the hand that covers her sucking fingers to rub her eye lashes, which I think is super cute. Here's a rare photo of her without the hand covering the fingers.
Probably like all kids her age these days, Taryn is very adept at using electronic devices. I like getting pictures of her, because she still looks so little, and yet she can maneuver around my phone and iPad like she's been doing it forever. This first picture is on my old phone, but she was playing Fruit Ninja like a master so I had to get a picture. I don't keep many games on either device specifically to keep her (and the other girls) from using them ALL the time, but Taryn knows which games/activities are on which device. She looks for my phone and asks for "Wheels on the Bus" because there is an app with that song and she'll listen to it over and over. On the iPad, she always asks for "Minnie Mouse" because she knows how to find the app where she can watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes, or our Disneyland App that has games and videos that she can scroll through.
And speaking of Minnie Mouse, she is still in love with all things Minnie. She can spot Minnie and Mickey things in any store before anyone else does. She prefers to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over any other show (Special Agent Oso is a close second), and it's the first thing she requests in the morning and the last thing at night. With her birthday so close to Halloween, I knew she had to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween and she would be getting some Minnie Mouse dress-up things for her birthday, so I made her a skirt and crocheted her a hat. She loved them both and wore them multiple times before Halloween.
Her birthday was Minnie Mouse themed, which basically meant the cake since it was just a family thing, but I got Tyler's help with the creating and frosting and I thought it turned out great.
Most of her presents were Minnie Mouse items, which was great since she was our first kid who was into Minnie Mouse, so no repeat toys at our house. She loved all her stuff and has luckily been really nice about sharing since the older girls have liked playing with new toys as well.
A few other things about the two-year-old Taryn:
She has been our pickiest eater by far. She refuses to eat most foods, especially at dinner; and has even gone as far as just getting down from the table and skipping dinner completely. I feel bad when I realize she's going to bed and hadn't eaten anything, but she doesn't complain like she's hungry, so I guess she's fine. She has lots of bread for dinner. She does do better at breakfast and lunch, although she still is picky. The foods I've found that she will eat on a regular basis include oatmeal, eggs and omelets, toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, guacamole, and then most snack foods. She of course will eat any dessert or sweet item, but I try to spread those out between the apples, bananas, cucumbers, and avocados she also likes to eat. She also lives on chocolate milk. She requests this about as much as she requests to watch Minnie Mouse. It's been one of the most clear phrases she's been able to say for a long time, so everyone knows she loves chocolate milk. Her by far favorite food though is Cheetos and she asks for these every day. She LOVES them. Here's a picture after a lunch when she ate Cheetos and then wanted to give me a kiss - so kind of her!
Taryn also loves dressing up, acting goofy, and pretty much doing whatever her sisters are doing. She does some awesome dance moves whenever the girls are dancing and will even scream at her sisters if they try dancing at the same time that she is dancing. She is also a great singer. Her favorite tunes to sing include "I don't care, I love it!" and "Heavenly Father, are you really there." You may not understand all the words, but her rhythm and the tune are undeniable. She requests the Rah-rah song in the car which is the BYU fight song and she sings along with Hey Baby too.
She likes shoes and trying on everyone else's shoes in the family and walking around in them. She's a very good helper and knows where the shoe basket is so she's great at putting shoes away and bringing you your shoes whether you need them or not. Here she is in Abby's cowgirl boots.
She follows Aubrey everywhere and they love doing things together. Here are some cute pictures of them gardening after they found the few roses that bloomed in our backyard this year. And wearing some masks that Tessa had made. Taryn's pretty funny about getting the girls' attention. She loves to get them to follow her around too by telling them to "meer" which means Come here. You can constantly hear her saying things like "Tessa, meer. Meer, Tessa" until she finally gets them to follow. She'll pull on your hand too while saying it until you go where she wants. She a determined little girl.
She loves to "cheese" for the camera, and as long as you show her the picture right away, she will happily smile for you as much as you want. Getting her to stand still long enough for a non-blurry picture is a different matter however. Here are some of my favorite "cheeses."
She loves babies and I caught her one day giving kisses to these baby pictures in Tessa's baby book. It was so cute! She'd talk to them too. "Hi, baby!" Adorable.
As a fourth child, she's very good at entertaining herself. She loves to find the books (which I keep on low shelves specifically for this purpose) and will sit down and read them herself. She found this pile of library books one day and I was able to catch a picture while she was reading. One of her new hideouts is below our tall chairs. She takes whatever toy she's playing with at the time and climbs in and hangs out under there for awhile. She's even talked her older sisters into coming under to play with her.
Taryn loves parks, playing, and definitely the swings. She has fun with her friends and basically just doing whatever everyone else is doing. She's social and happy and just fun to watch when she's playing.
We love our Taryn and are so happy she's a part of our family. We've loved the first two years and can't wait to see what else she has in store for us in the years to come.
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