I have been meaning to write Lily’s 2 and a half year update now for a month – so now that I’m sitting down and writing this, she’s actually 2 years and 7 months. But I wanted to write this to remember how she was at this age, little things that I might forget in the future.

At just over 2 and a half years, Lily weighs 1 stone 12 lb (13.7kg) and is 0.93m tall. She wears age 2-3 year clothing, and her shoe size is 6.5 (so she wears size 7).

She has a sweet tooth and her favourite treat is doughnuts – the little mini pink ones from Tesco, or the chocolate sprinkles Krispy Kreme doughnut. Though she does eat healthy foods too – favourite fruit being strawberries and red watermelons. She loves marmite on toast, or weetabix with honey for breakfast. Fish fingers are a fave, though I’ve been trying different foods since the new year, and the lentil chili con carne went down well with her.

On this day, I took her to the doughnut shop after she persistently said “Mummy, want go doughnut shop” since she woke up. I finally gave in after playgroup and said okay. She sat up in her buggy and said “Yaay!! I’m happy now!”

At the doughnut shop she looked at the display for ages before choosing the “pink heart one”. I knew she wouldn’t like it, but she was adamant. “Pink heart one”.

She took one bite of it and this was the face. “Mummy, want chocolate sprinkles one” – doh!

Lily has curly hair that seems to be growing outwards rather than down. I see other girls her age with super long straight hair. Lily’s hair isn’t long, even though I haven’t cut it. When it’s wet in the bath, it goes down to just below her shoulders. I guess curly hair grows more slowly.  I’ve had to teach myself how to look after curly hair – like only brushing it at bath time and using detangler and my fingers through her hair in the morning.

She had a phase of having gingerbread man biscuits only and babycinos at Caffe Neros only – but now she seems to like going to any coffee shop. She’s gotten used to meeting up with Mummy’s friends at coffee shops and as long as she has her drink and snack like she’s one of us, she is happy. I usually bring little toys too if I am meeting friends, so she can occupy herself. I love how familiar she is with my friends too, she’s a very friendly toddler once she warms up.

She is full of love for her family, I’d say the favourite is Nana, and then obviously Unc Zu, Aunty. She does love her Grandpa but is feisty with him, with her little annoyed face. And then there’s her dada’s mum Agee that she always needs 5 minutes to warm up to and then she’s fine. She gives hugs to her family by standing arms down and holding her head towards the other person, so the other person has to put their arms around her.

Lily has learnt the concept of having ‘friends’, I would say since October, so she would have been 2 years and 4 months. She would name her three best friends at playground, and they would follow each other around – unfortunately they’ve all started nursery so Lily has lost her first friends. But she’s happy to make new friends wherever she goes. Though sometimes she’ll be in the sort of mood where she wants to play on her own. She also loves Tyler’s friends, shouting their names when she sees them with a big beam on her face.

She a very musical child, and just loves movies with catchy songs – last year it was Trolls and Sing, now it’s The Greatest Showman which she watches twice a day at least with Mummy, since it came on Sky. She’s constantly singing the songs and acting out the moves. This was one of the reasons I started ballet and tap classes for her, as she seems to love dancing so much.

This outfit is her favourite, there was a time where she would only want to wear her Peppa t-shirt & watermelon skirt (from Macy’s in New York) and M&S polka dot leggings. If not, there would be a meltdown. But only just recently, she’s happy to wear other clothes. But this will always be a first choice.

She is very caring towards Tyler, especially at school pick up time. She loves to run into his classroom and grab him, put his hand in her hand and pull him out of the class. Other times she’ll run and hug him shouting “Tyler!” like she hasn’t seen him for a week.

She reminds us of a puppy sometimes, especially when she’s in her fleecy pjs. She’ll always climb into our bed at around 6am, we hear the footsteps and she’ll climb over me to be inbetween her mummy and daddy, and she snuggles her face into the pillow with these little puppy sounds she makes. She’s still a baby in so many ways, she’s in size 5 nappies and wears those baby bodysuits with poppers, and she still loves her dummy (no haters on this please). She loves brushing her teeth in the morning with Tyler, and she always wants to put on her boots herself. When we come home, she always wants to take off her coat and scarf herself, no help, even if it’s a struggle. She’s one of those toddlers that wants to be independent and gets frustrated if she can’t do things herself. She has to press the lift button, and she has to put the key in the door – otherwise it’s a huge meltdown. Yep, fiercely independent.

I could write so much more now that I’ve started, but I think that’s enough to remind us of what she was like at 2 and a half years. A fiercely independent, loving and caring, moody, demanding, dancing, Peppa Pig/Trolls/Greatest Showman crazy girl. And I love her so much, despite all the demanding bits, she’s literally all my dreams come true.

Sabrina x

P.S. Do have a look at these 2 and a half year updates that inspired this post, Cora from The Mummy Adventure and Embla and Olympia from Meet The Wildes – they do write so beautifully. Lovely, lovely reads.