Who is this tiny person?

Jocelyn just turned 28 months old, and I swear she is two going on twenty.  She is becoming quite the little person.  When she gets frustrated over something, she says, "Oh man!"  When something is ridiculous, she says, "This is ridiculous!"  She is speaking in great sentences, such as:  "I had fun with you, Mommy," and, "I want some milk please, Daddy." And she is very good about disagreeing, saying things such as, "I playing right now.  I don't want to eat dinner." 

She is still bad at transitions.  No matter what it is, the first time you bring it up, she doesn't want to do it these days.  I think that the only exception might be a walk to the donut shop, but even then she drags her feet about getting in the stroller.  Yesterday we went to the zoo, which is something we talk about and tell stories about all the time, and somewhere she often asks to go, despite never having been there.  Anyway, it was hard to convince her to go at first, but then a few minutes she was all about it.  Once we were there, she wanted to see animals in the order she wanted to see them in, and would turn away when it was something she didn't want to see right now.  Funny kid!

She did have a blast at the zoo, though.  I had always heard less-than-nice things about the Dallas zoo.  But I thought it was a perfectly fine zoo.  No, it's not the San Diego zoo.  It's not even the Atlanta Zoo.  But the Dallas Zoo is good and it has a really nice children's area.  Jocelyn loved the play ground, she got to feed and also pet goats.  She rode a pony, which she won't stop talking about now ("I went to the zoo and rode a pony!"  It's adorable).  She wanted to feed the giraffes, but I wasn't about to spend $5 on a few leaves of romaine lettuce that the giraffe didn't even eat.  The giraffe area was really awesome, though.  It was set down, and there were decks built, so the giraffe's head is at your level.  They come right up to you.  People were petting them!  We weren't able to, but it was really cool being so close to a giraffe!

They still work on manners at daycare, and it's awesome!  We, of course, also work on them at home.  But it's great to have the message reinforced.  They also do stuff that feels a bit advanced for a 2 year old.  For example, recently Jocelyn told Mike that it is good manners to cover your mouth when you cough.  It was too cute!

I guess my little girl is growing up.   More evidence of her new found maturity is that she told us that she no longer wants to wear onesies to daycare.  I nearly started to cry.   My little girl wants to dress like a big kid!  She has also started revisiting potty training at home.  She was all gung ho for a while, and then she lost interest.  Now she is working on it again.  Not 100% of the time, but she's getting there.  She is also getting to where she can clean up after herself, even though she doesn't usually do it without prodding from us. 

That said, she is still such a baby still.  She still loves a good cuddle with mommy or daddy.  She asks for hugs, and sometimes still wants her daddy to walk her to sleep.  And she still has tantrums on occasion, but usually only when she is overtired.  Now she has mostly shifted to just sending away the parent who wronged her and asking for the other one.  It's pretty hilarious.