Skader Gator

Is what Leif started calling Skadi. She is none too pleased by this and tells him, "I SKADI!"

We are headed full on into summer after a very mild – okay, dreary, wet spring. As expected the day hit that we suddenly went from 60’s and dreary to mid-80’s and hot. There was a week of 70 degree weather in there somewhere.

My baby girl seems to have disappeared and morphed into a squealing, giggling, opinionated, bossy, but fun little girl. At 2 years and 2 months it is interesting to me to compare her to her brother. I went back in my blog to Leif at about this age. I was pregnant with Skadi and we were getting ready for a weekend at the Shelton cabin with grandma and Bompa. That seems like just yesterday even though I know in my head that I didn’t have Skadi there. We are looking forward to the same trip with them this year. (Three years later!)

Skadi has proven to be far more verbal than Leif ever was at this age. My update from where he was 2 years 2 months has him just starting to talk in full sentences. Skadi has been on that for months now. She communicates very effectively verbally and occasionally uses sign language as well. She can’t say “all done” or “all gone” without also signing.

One of the funniest things she says is a phrase she picked up from her brother – “sure dude”. I can’t explain how she says it other than that there is an emphasis on “dooood”.

Skadi can count to her teens – or at least she knows they exist. She has learned to try and trick people and she will often count to ten in her own way – “one, two, three, seben, eight, nine, ten!”
This is my fault since she did this once and I asked what happened to four, five and six?

“They fell off,” she replied, which now is accompanied by much laughter and giggling. She waits for you to ask what happened to those numbers with a silly little smirk on her face. She gets to twelve and then it’s the teens. This morning it was “eleben, twelve, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen!” Somedays it will be “fourteen, fourteen…”

Her favorite numbers appear to be two and seven. She likes things that come in pairs and usually exclaims, “two feet! Two hands! Two bananas! Two cups!” You get the idea. If there are more than two of any object, she usually just declares there to be “seben”.

Skadi knows her A,B, C’s through K at this point. She will mumble the whole alphabet while hitting the high points after K. That would be “P”, “S”, “W” and “ZEEEE!” with lots of mumbling between those letters.

Skadi and Leif seem to be about on the same time schedule for potty training. Skadi has shown some interest and even had a few days of hitting the potty regularly. Then she changes her mind. Which is fine with us, neither of us are pining for the coming day of no diapers, racing a child to the potty in Costco from the opposite end of the store, getting everyone loaded into the car and three minutes on our way only to have to turn around (or go into Starbucks) when said child decides now is the time to go potty (when five minutes ago was not). I expect that she will hit the milestone at the same time Leif did, 2 years 4 months. (We will just hope she masters #2 a little easier than Leif.)

She can take off her clothes and put new clothes on. A feat only recently mastered by her brother 2 years 8 months her senior. This makes getting her ready in the morning for school a very difficult challenge. Thankfully she is more into layering than taking the time to remove her clothing. She is terribly opinionated on what she wears on a daily basis and most days it just isn’t worth the battle, she has way more shoes than a two year old should have (thanks to AB… KIDDING!) and insists on wearing shoes to bed every night.

Skadi also likes to have her hair done everyday. This morning I pulled the top half back into a half ponitail. I don't do this very often. In the car we were pulling out of the driveway and she squeals, "mommy, where my ponies?" while she patted the sides of her head. I told her to touch the back of her head. Once she found it she said, "oh, otay!"

Skadi enjoys reading and her favorite books are the Elmo book Leif got her for Christmas, Goodnight Moon, Dinosaur’s Binket, Ten Little Ladybugs, The Bedtime Book, Winny the Pooh, and Yertle the Turtle are her favorites. She loves turtles which may be why Yertle is in there – but I think she strives to learn about world domination from Yertle.

She enjoys art, particularly laying on a large piece of paper and having us trace her. She also enjoys painting. She loves her Little People and her play kitchen enough that AB is considering moving it downstairs and into an area where we tend to be more when we get home from work.

Skadi has been in a big girl bed since we moved to the new house. The downside to this is that many nights, consistently about 1:30pm she gets up and walks across the hall to our bedroom. Where we promptly lead her back to her room and put her back to bed. About half the time she sleeps through the night. We are getting there.

Cuddling is still her favorite activity and she requires far more arm time than Leif ever did. Her favorite weekend morning activity (outside swimming) is laying on daddy’s chest and watching Dora. Daddy sleeps. Leif is the recipient of most of Skadi’s outward signs of affection. While she loves to cuddle and snuggle, her kisses are rare. Leif, by far and away, receives the most kisses, followed by her best friend Lexi, then maybe daddy and about last on the list is mommy. Apparently I am the chosen one for snuggles, but not kisses.

Swimming is Skadi’s highlight of the week. She is very animated in the water and so very happy to be there. She has picked up an interest in soccer courtesy of Leif and even knows which ball is a soccer ball.

Skadi still believes it is her birthday most everyday, but particularly if she wears something with a cupcake on it. She picked out a cupcake outfit at Costco the other day - politely declined the other outfits, "no thank you". As we wheeled through the store anyone who looked at her, she lifted up the outfit and said, "it's my birthday!" To which we were quick to respond, "actually it's not, her birthday was 2 months ago". But she is still milking it for all it's worth.

Skadi will move up to the next daycare room here in a few weeks. She will do great!