The Hintons: Blake is Two!

Height: 34 inches - 49%
Weight: 26.6 lbs - 65%

Where to start with this girl...I've been working on this post for weeks. But at first, I could only come up with about 5-6 things to say and I wasn't happy with that. Then the last few days, inspiration suddenly hit and I had plenty of things to say. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about Blake, and then some.

Her talking has really taken off in the last month or so. She is fairly good at repeating anything you say, though she has trouble with a few of the sounds. If you said a string of words, she used to only repeat the last one and she was only saying one word at a time. Now she is starting to put words together. Not quite full sentences yet, but definitely making some good progress.

Blake doesn't seem to enjoy going to new environments. She clings onto me the first time or two, constantly throws tantrums, etc. So people tend to think she's just like that all the time. However, if you come to our house, she is outgoing, she shows off, and she probably wont stop talking and trying to get your attention. She's just a completely different baby. After a couple times going somewhere, she seems to warm up, though those first few times can be a bit painful.

She loves her brother and is always trying to do her best to keep up with him. She copies what he says and what he does. It's adorable to watch how much she loves him. Unfortunately, there are a few things that Will doesn't like Blake to do and she gets left behind.

She loves snacks and would probably snack all day long if I let her. She loves crackers, pretzels, toast, yogurt, apples, bananas, string cheese, lunch meat, etc.

She enjoys going to McDonald's and playing on the playground while enjoying chicken nuggets.

When something doesn't go her way, Blake will lay face down on the floor, hide her face and scream. Or she will go downstairs into her bedroom, shut the door, and proceed to lay face down and scream. One time I told her to wait a minute before I would put her in the swing at the park. She had a melt down. She took off down the sidewalk and when I started following her, she just laid down and covered her face.

I swear she thinks there is an invisible door. If I put her in her room, she will rarely come out. Instead, she will just come to the edge of her door, lay down, and cry.

We took her binky away at the beginning of the year. It's been a bit of a transition. Instead of lying her down and having her fall asleep, she climbs out of bed and cries through the crack at the bottom of the door. I have to go in there, sing her a song, and lay her down. This could happen 2-4 times a night. I think having music playing will help her, and I am going to try it and see how it goes.

Blake loves playing outside and especially jumping on the trampoline.

I must have overdone the picture taking, because if I pull out my phone or camera, Blake either hides her face or runs. It is seriously difficult to get a decent picture of her. Most of the good ones I get are from me just pretending that I'm using my phone for my own purposes when I'm actually snapping pictures. Sneaky momma.

Or you will start to notice that there are a lot of pictures with her sitting at the counter, many involving food. It's one of the few times she is sitting still enough to get a clear shot.

Though sometimes that means you get a mouth full of food.

Her two favorite songs are "I Am a Child of God" and "I Love to See the Temple". I've noticed when I sing them that she knows some of the words and is starting to sing along.

She started this new thing recently where she throws a fit if you try to put her in her car seat. If you set her down, she will climb in and start buckling herself up. But if you do it yourself, she will make your life difficult. Luckily this didn't last super long and she is back to allowing me to help...sometimes.

I attempted to start potty training her just to see how it would go. She was so excited to sit on the toilet, I couldn't get her off.

Then she would just throw toilet paper in and flush. Again. And again. I finally had to lock her out of the bathroom. Not conducive for potty training. I think the main problem was that I just let her run around naked or with underwear, and our house is freezing, so she was uncomfortable and wanted clothes on.

Now she insists on wearing a diaper and she doesn't want to be a big girl. I'll try again in a bit.

Blake loves playing with babies. She pushes them around in a stroller, feeds them, wraps them in blankets. And unless you want to witness a major meltdown, don't touch her baby. We are still working on that whole "sharing" thing. It's not going as well as I would hope.

And while she loves her babies, she also has an older brother. That means she likes her cars and trucks just as well.

There was one morning where Blake simply woke up grumpy. As I had her sitting by me, she put her hair in her face and over her eyes. If I tried to move it out of her face, she would scream at me, then proceed to pull all of her hair back over her eyes.

I even got a video, though it is dark and hard to see.

Whenever I sit down to play the piano, Blake immediately jumps up right beside me. And it has to be on my right hand side. I'm not sure what my music sounds like without her accompaniment any more. Luckily that only lasts a few moments, then she gets down. Will and Blake have come up with this idea, that whenever I play the piano, they have to spin around the living room. And the louder I play, the faster they spin.

For the past week or so, Blake refuses to wear jammies to bed. Instead, she always asks for a dress.

We didn't do much for her birthday, but of course we had cake. Will was very helpful at blowing out candles.

And even though I may make it sound like she is always throwing tantrums, screaming, or just a grumpy kid....she really isn't. She definitely has her moments, but mostly she really is happy.

And other times she's just kind of like this....

She loves slurpees and often asks for one when we drive past 7-Eleven. Every once in a while, we will stop to indulge.

Since taking her binky away, within the last week I have noticed that she is starting to chew on things. She will have her blanket in her mouth, or she will shove both of her hands into her mouth. I'm not sure if she is teething, or just wanting something to chew on.

Blake is quite the little gymnast and climber. I swear she can climb onto just about anything. And she doesn't just climb, she hangs upside down, sideways, all over. She climbs in and out of her crib with ease. But not only does she just climb in and out, she likes to climb so she is sitting on top. Then she lets go and falls back into her crib. Crazy girl.

She loves to color. In fact, within the last week she has added lovely pieces of art throughout our house. :( Thanks, Blake!

There is something slighly "off" with Blake's right eye. I'm not sure if it is a lazy eye, or if it goes cross-eyed sometimes, but something isn't right. It is something that people often mention. Blake's doctor has recommended me to an optometrist. I just need to go ahead and make the appointment. I'm curious and nervous to see what he says.

She loves to tell people who her mommy and daddy are. When someone comes over, she immediately starts pointing to one us us and repeating mommy...mommy....mommy. Yes, that is your mommy.

During an impulsive day in January, I went and got Blake's ears pierced and got her hair cut. She cried a little when they pierced her ears but she calmed down pretty quickly. Luckily they had a little teddy bear for her to hold onto.

The way her hair fell made it look like a mullet. Just something about it drove me crazy, so I had the bottom layer cut so that it was even with the rest. It was hard to me to have it cut, but it made a huge difference and I am happy that I did it. It has already grown a lot since then.

This is a picture I took a week or two before I had it cut. It doesn't look bad in this picture, but there was just something funny about it. It's crazy how long it really was.

Here is what it looked like right after:

If you ask Blake how old she is, she will say 3 because that is what she always hears Will say. If you try to tell her she's 2, she just laughs and says three!

Her hair has been a bit out of control lately. She suddenly had all of this new hair start to grow in so she has a bunch of fuzz sticking straight out by her forehead line. There is no way to tame it, it simply is wild right now.

Since my hair is curly, Lance's hair is curly, and most of our family's hair is curly, we just assumed all of our kids would have curly hair. Blake's hair is pretty straight. It flips a little at the ends sometimes, but other than that, it is stick straight. Weird.

Still on the subject of hair, while I try to do her hair and keep it out of her face, sometimes you just gotta let it go. Blake gets a kick out of pulling out clips, flowers, headbands, ponytails, everything. Often it's not worth the fight and she ends up looking pretty homeless.

She loves to brush her teeth and walks around the house with her toothbrush.

Sacrament meeting has become nearly impossible with this tormentor. She is only happy if you let her run free. But then she will run up and down the aisles, out the doors, etc. It's really dangerous to let her loose. Or my personal favorite, one week I just let her go and watch. And she went right to the middle of the aisle, plopped down on her back with her dress up over her head, took off her shoes, tights, etc. I was so exhausted and tired of fighting with her, I just sat back and watched the whole thing. I should be fired.

For a long time, she wasn't strong enough to escape if I put her between the main doors by the foyer. But recently she has learned how to push the doors open and she will run outside.

Blake loves dogs. She loves to point them out, try to pet them, play with them, etc.

She got these 2 little scratches on her face several weeks ago and they have yet to go away because she picks at them. I have noticed that when she is sad or really upset is when she starts to pick at the scabs. I've tried putting band aids on them, and it worked for about a day until she ripped them off. Now she wont leave them on more than a few minutes.

There are times when Blake will willingly give kisses, but there are also times when she doesn't want to and says, "No kisses, mommy. No kisses."

She has also gained Will's love of trains. But how could she not with how obsessed her brother is. She loves to play with them, ride them, go see them, make train noises, etc.

She has begun to torture me by refusing to take naps. She definitely still needs one and if I can't get her to take one, then when six o'clock rolls around, she is falling asleep sitting up. And obviously napping that late causes serious problems. If I go for a drive in the afternoon, she will pass out, but the second I stop or try to move her, she wakes up. Oi vey! Sometimes the only way I can get her to nap is laying down with her and turning on a movie.

One day I held up chocolate cereal and regular cheerios. She chose the cheerios and Will wanted the chocolate. She sees me pouring the bowl of chocolate and starts having a panic attack, screaming "no chocolate cereal". She definitely knows what she wants.

If Blake is wearing a jacket, chances are it will be zipped up with the hood on. The moment you put a jacket on, she asks for it to be zipped. And she loves walking around with her hand in her pockets. So if the jacket doesn't have pockets, chances are she wont want to wear it.

This cute little girl definitely takes after her mama in that she loves to read. Almost any problem or tantrum or bad mood can be immediately fixed with story time. We love going to the library and picking out new books.