MATTIE GAYLE MACKAY - 2 YEARS OLD

3/2/11

Weight:   31 lbs 12 oz  (93rd percentile)

Height:    35 inches (84th percentile)

Head:     20 inches  (97th percentile)

Our little baby girl is two! On March 9th she went from being a baby to a toddler. Craziness! Honestly though, it seems like she's been two forever. She talks so much and so well that we feel like she's older than she really is. She is the delight of everyone she knows and her nursery leaders can't stop talking about how much fun she is and how much they love her. She just has the most fun personality - always so excited and happy about things, and so smart for being so little and so young! We are so grateful that she is a part of this family and will enjoy her being the baby for the last few months she has left as the youngest :). Here are some things we want to remember about Mattie at two years old:

- She can count almost to 10, knows the alphabet song, knows all her colors, knows tons of animals and sounds and recognizes them too, and she is learning shapes. At first glance, she can recognize triangles, numbers 0, 6, 8, and 9, and the letters A, B, C, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W, and Y (and then if you go over them with her a couple of times, she can recognize more shapes, numbers, and letters). We weren't quite sure if that is where most two year olds are or not until we went to her two-year check up and her doc - Dr. Jantzen - was so, SO impressed with not just her language (both pronunciation and amount of words she knows and the use of full 4+ word sentences), but her ability to recognize letters and shapes and animals and their sounds (all of which she demonstrated for him just in the course of his regular check-up). He couldn't stop talking about how smart she was, so that made us proud :)

- Mattie loves to sing and knows more songs than I can count right now, almost as many as CJ. She definitely knows the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I am like a Star, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear, Bingo, I Am a Child of God, Hey Diddle Diddle, Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and parts of plenty more. And she likes to make up her own songs too and sing to her dollies and stuffed animals.

- Speaking of stuffed animals, Mattie falls in love with all stuffed animals almost instantaneously. She loves to hold them, hug them, carry them around, sleep with them, roll and run and dance with them. And she knows they all love her back.

- If you can't tell, she is very sensitive. Unlike her older brother, Mattie is the one to snuggle with us, give tight hugs, lay her head on our shoulders or our laps, willingly hold our hands, etc. She is very loving and affectionate to people and toys alike. And on the flip side, she tends to be a little dramatic and overly sensitive when it comes to disagreements with her brother and when she doesn't get her way (she's also very sensitive to being tired or hungry - it's like night and day with her. If she's slept well and especially, if her belly is full, she is one happy, happy girl).

- Mattie LOVES animals, especially dogs. ALL dogs - and I mean all dogs, real or fake - are "cute doggies." For example, the Old Navy store here has a fake dog on display with the mannequins, and Mattie has a meltdown if we go in to Old Navy and she doesn't get to go see the doggy. And when she sees said "cute doggy," she then pets it and will even try to give it a hug. It's very tender.

- Mattie is starting to get into some girly things, at least with her appearance. She knows which tops she likes, and they are usually the ones that are pink, or that have butterflies. She also likes to have her hair in piggy-tails (though she rips them out every single time she takes a nap or sleeps), and asks where they are if I haven't put them in yet.

- Mattie loves movies. She even likes to walk around carrying the DVD cases. Her favorite movies right now include the Toy Story series, Despicable Me, and Barney. Her favorite tv shows include Monkey See Monkey Do, Bubble Guppies, Sesame Street and The Wiggles.

- She may like watching movies and tv shows, but she also loves books and puzzles and can entertain herself for quite some time with a good book and she never tires of us reading to her.  

- She is very good at saying "Please," "Thank you," "Excuse me," and sharing, and usually without prompting. She recognizes Jesus, the temple, and the Prophet, and she is excellent at saying prayers. However, she has a hard making it through the whole hour of sacrament meeting (our sacrament meeting is last, at 3 PM), but by that time, most of us do :)

- Mattie loves baths, bubbles, her rain boots, her purple elephant bank, playing by herself in her room, dancing, jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed, playing with her Buzz and Woody dolls (from Toy Story), her JJ stuffed animal, her pink patchwork blanket (that Gramma made her), looking for the big Native American with the moving eyes on Wenatchee Ave (it's an old Wenatchee landmark), coloring/drawing, and her "silly hats," which include anything from cowboy hats, baseball helmets, caps, Easter hats, and beanies, to mixing bowls on her head.

- She loves popsicles, chicken nuggets, cantaloupe, bananas, grapes, strawberries, canned peaches and pears, mandarin oranges, fruit by the foot, juice, fruit and cream oatmeal, cooked carrots, corn, yogurt, ice cream, chocolate, noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and breakfast carbs like waffles, pancakes, french toast, and German pancakes. She's not a big fan of milk (unless it's on cereal or oatmeal), meat (unless it processed and easy to eat, like turkey franks and chicken nuggets), raw veggies, and pretty much most entrees that we have for dinner :)

- CJ is her best friend and a huge influence on her. She copies him all the time...and this can be a good thing and a bad thing :)

- And Mattie has probably been ready to be potty-trained for a couple of months now, but since Mommy is pregnant, she hasn't quite had the energy to do it. In the next few weeks though...

We love you, Mattie Gayle!!