Keegan at 2 years and almost 4 months

Keegan,

What happened to our little girl who only had a handful of words and phrases and who is this little chatterbox who has taken her space? We are amazed with the increase in your vocabulary recently and how much you string together words and how you repeat everything anyone says. I still love the way you say "Yes" with a teeny, tiny lisp that comes from a visible resting of your tongue against your bottom teeth. I also love the way you nod your head as you answer us in the positive, slowly and deliberately. You try very hard to say all of the words your sister does or the big words that we are teaching you and if it is too much, you will say the first two syllables and then sort of muddle the rest.

You have become quite the little foodie. You stole a lot of my salad every night while we were on vacation and ate a considerable serving tonight with your dinner. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of dressing, as long as it has lettuce and other crunchy vegetables with it as well. Today you were fishing out all of the feta cheese and ended up crawling into Daddy's lap so you could pick the good parts out of his salad as well. Tonight you told us that salad is your favorite food but you like noodles, oatmeal, pizza, and other foods as well. You really like candy and will point it out as we pass by in stores and shriek "Tandy!" You also have an amazing ability to hide and hoard food and we frequently find you eating food that we aren't sure where you got it. You love the color pink right now so you appreciate when we can get you pink ice cream or other treats.

You are a huge caretaker and nurturer and will devote a large amount of time caring for your dolls and animals. It usually doesn't matter what stuffed animals are around, you will take care of all of them. You do seem to have a particular fondness for the "Baby Belle" doll and your "Puppy Princess Purse" above the other ones in your collection. You have gotten to the stage where you memorize books more and more and love to read Go Dog Go and your Princess Merida book so you can participate too. You are doing better with being more consistent with your letters and are progressing nicely through learning shapes and other important 2 year old "facts". You seem to struggle with differentiating between white and black, but I think it may be because we don't necessarily practice those as much since the other colors are more fun.

You are a little monkey (although if I call you that, you will correct me and tell me you are a little giraffe or elephant instead) and will climb anything. You seem to know how strong you are and will use your arms to pull up on furniture well above what you should be able to do. You are also getting taller and losing some of those more baby characteristics as you have started running with more purpose. You love to jump down from things too and will try to jump off of the furniture you just climbed up! It is good you are so active though, some of your little best friends (Lylah and Luke) are just as active and wild as you are!

We love you Keegan. You are our wild child, but you are also sweeter and funnier than we ever thought you could be. We love how you keep us guessing as to what you are going to do or say next. Thank you for being such a shining star in our lives!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy