Enya at 2 years

2 years ago we didn't think Enya would survive as she had a really rough start, so the fact she is here 2 years later and doing so well is an absolute miracle! I can remember the neonatologist warning us that we would have to be careful not to favour her as the "tiny weaker" child, and he is right, I sometimes have to fight with myself as I do tend to be more protective of Enya. Enya herself is remarkably fearless, as the physio says she doesn't believe there is anything she can't do. Even if physically she is not quite steady or developed enough to do it she will still give it a go, which can be quite scary to watch but she needs to explore her own limits. She was the first to do a single step completely unaided, even though she nearly fell each time she did it, she kept on trying until now she can do it quite steadily and has also progressed on to doing 2 steps like her "big" sister.
trying to climb out the cot (she managed it twice while we were on holiday)



Speech wise Enya is imitating everything we say, picking up the melody of the words even if the pronunciation is sometimes way off. This is the one area where she is ahead Ciara, she knows her body parts although she can't name them herself she can point if we ask where the ..... is. She chatters the whole time when playing and will hold jargon conversations with us for minutes at a time. She even sings along when we play CDs.

Enya is a very soft hearted and caring child, she gets upset if anyone else is crying and hates it when we tell her off. She ducks her head down, the mouth goes square and the tears just well when she is in trouble. She is quite easy to distract from her tears, if we pick her up and cuddle her to our left shoulder (the right just won't do) she usually calms down quickly and enjoys a snuggle. She is an extremely affectionate child who loves to give and recieve *mwaahhhs* and cuddles, she is also very ticklish which keeps Z entertained! She would be happy if she could spend half the day in our arms being cuddled. If Ciara is upset, Enya will often try and comfort her with a cuddle or more recently by bringing "babee" to Ciara. What I find very surprising is that she is also starting to give things to Ciara if Ciara asks (says "bitte"), Ciara is not quite that generous to say the least!

As a baby she had no fear of strangers but she is going through a phase right now where she doesn't like strangers at all, she barely tolerates our landlady who she sees regularly. She is however fascinated (like Ciara) with older children and loves to play with them if they let her. She has learnt to climb up the front of the slide in our garden and can now even turn herself around and launch herself down by herself although we still supervise as the platform of the slide has no rails. She is however terrified of swings and barely tolerates gentle swinging when being held firmly in our arms. Given how Z throws her around when they play together I don't quite understand this, she also loves to run back and forth holding the swing so it's not that she is scared of the swing as an object.

Her favourite toy is her Cusko it goes everywhere with her although we try restrict it to her bed as she sucks her thumb when she cuddles with it. She loves to put toys in her mouth and mouth and suck on them- I guess she is still very orally fixated. She also loves her bottles and tubes (trying to open them) and loves to play with wheels and cars. Her favourite part of the new duplo lego set is the wheeled platform- I see her often running it along the ground making car brrmmmming noises. The bobby car has finally been mastered too, she can steer and no longer hits all the furniture (only about half now). Another thing she really enjoys is climbing into things or crawling through obstacle courses- I think the confined spaces makes her think she is safe from being "got" by Ciara. I have made Ciara sound like a monster and Enya an angel but she isn't. Enya has been known to steal things from Ciara and because she is so fast she gets away with it. Enya also gets frustrated very easily and throws things around and yells as she doesn't know how to handle the frustration yet. I think she has inherited my temper, poor thing!
Bottles

Dressing up is also fun


Obstacle courses, and before you ask she did this all by herself

Don't ask me where she gets if frrom but she also likes things in their place and will get upset if for instance the toilet lid is up. In the mornings she come into the bathroom see the lid is up and look at us squwaking, she then will go over to the loo and put the lid down and then all is good in the world again. She also tends to be the first to help pick up toys or if we are out will often bring me litter (bonus is when she can throw it in the bin herself). If, when she is feeding herself, she drops food on the table she often trys to pick it up and feed it to me or drop it back in her bowl. I can see she will be keeping me and her messy sister in line in the future.

Little monkey trying to grow taller


For the longest time we had problems with feeding her solids, that is now going really well. She still takes a looooong time to chew and swallow but in comparison to where we were even a month ago she has improved dramatically. I have even seen her finish a roll before Ciara which I would never have believed possible. She remains small, so small that we are now getting asked if they are really twins as one is so much bigger (3kg heavier). To be honest as long as Enya is growing it doesn't bother me that people don't see them as twins, all I have ever wanted is for them to be seen as individuals rather than the Z twins.
Look at that grin, it says everything doesn't it!