I think it's funny when my kid curses. I do. So shoot me. It's freakin hilarious and I'm sticking to that.
She hasn't done it too much, so relax. Maybe three times. The funniest time being when she dropped the f-bomb in the grocery store, over and over, because she heard me say it in the car as an old man pulled out in front of me. She has also exercised the word "shit" with the proper usage, and "damn".
I'm not saying I'm proud of this. I just find it slightly funny for some reason.

Lily is just funny in general these days. Aside from the epic tantrums, she has one heck of a funny personality.
Examples:
- Because I'm a worrier, I have a tendency of saying, "Baby, are you doin ok?" a lot. So, of course, Lily has picked up, "Mama, you ok?", complete with concerned look and hand on the shoulder.
- Because Lily is sick often, my mom and I both "check" her for a fever by cupping her face in our hands and feeling her forehead (ineffective, yes, I know). So, of course, Lily has now done the same with us, complete with, "Mama, you feel hot".
- One of her favorite sayings is, "Awww, maaaannnnn", when she drops something or can't find what she's looking for.
- She also loves, "Check ya later, dude", thanks to her daddy.
- For some reason she associates the word "crabby" with having a belly ache. I can only attribute this to the fact that when she's in one of her fits and I ask her "Are you crabby?" that maybe she has a stomach ache?? I'm not sure, since she doesn't know how to communicate these things to me all of the time yet. Anyway, she'll come up to me, put her hand on my stomach, randomly, and say, "Mommy, you crabby??".
- She calls Dustin and I by our first names sometimes. She can say Dustin pretty clearly but my name is "Bee-yes-a". She pulls this card when she thinks we aren't listening to her. Such as, "Mama, I want M&Ms", and I reply, "No, baby. Not until after you eat dinner". She'll say, "BEE-YES-A, I want M&Ms", as if I didn't understand or hear her the first time.
- She has this little manipulation thing that she does where she'll ask for something and then say "OK!" in answer to herself. For example, "Mommy, wanna get some cape (cake)??", and then right before I say something she'll say, "OK!!!", as though she's answering her own question, running into the direction she needs to go to get what she wants. 

Other random things about Lily at 26 months:
- She loves the word "no" and uses it as much as possible, even if she really means "yes". She also loves, "NO WAY, MOM", or "Go away!" when she wants to either be all alone or be alone with someone else in the room. Hurtful, for sure, but shows some independence, I suppose.
- She loves school now. She's had a new teacher since summer began, Mallory, who she ADORES. She talks about her all of the time.
- She has very little separation anxiety from anyone. She's great when I drop her off somewhere, like my parent's house or my in-laws, and just says, "Bye, mommy! See ya later!!". This is bitter sweet for me but I know it's ultimately a good thing.
- I bought her a play kitchen about a month ago and she loves it. She loves making us "coffee" and "pizza".
- She has zero interest in giving up her paci, going potty on the potty, or moving to a big girl bed. We're working on the first two, little by little, but I can tell this might be a long road. I feel as though I am going to be one of those parents that I used to judge that has a 3 year old in diapers with a paci hanging out of their mouth. At least the paci is now reserved for the house or the car only now.
- She is very sensitive and will apologize if she thinks she's physically hurt someone. She also says "thank you" to everyone, including our cashiers at stores.
- She's a homebody. She isn't a big fan of being out and about lately. She'll tolerate it for a couple hours but will constantly remind us that it's "time to go home". I'm hoping this changes a bit.
- Sleeping is a challenge again...or still, depending on how I look at it.
- She loves to sing along to songs, especially Katy Perry's "Alien" and Enrique Igliesias' "I Like It". I love it.

She's developing so quickly. She's about 29lbs now and really tall. Her red hair is growing quickly now and all kinds of crazy curly/frizzy.  She's a lot of fun to be around, most of the time, and seems to be so smart.
I feel myself losing my "baby" everyday, which makes me sad, but I'm so excited to see who she will grow into.

I was all set to sit down and write an awesomely funny post about Lily-isms since it's technically nap time, but I just heard, "MOMMY. MOMMY. Time to get up??", after only sleeping for 25 minutes.

::sigh::

It's never a dull moment. One thing about motherhood that you can be certain about is the uncertainty.

I've been at a loss for posts. It isn't necessarily because I don't have anything to post about, it's because I don't always want to be negative and to be honest, I haven't had a lot of nice things to say about motherhood lately.
That sounds bad, right?
I will say that 2 is a fun age in many ways. The development of language and emotion is sweet, adorable, intriguing, and whatever other positive adjective you want to insert. Lily is the funniest person I know and she can be so adoring and sweet...but, it isn't called "terrible twos" for nothing.
Lily has regressed on sleep habits, waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes often, and taking nothing but short cat naps. Combine that with epic tantrums and you have yourself one tired, annoyed, stressed out mama. I realize I'm not alone and I'm certainly not claiming that I have it worse than any other mom, but I will admit that I'm at a loss on how to deal with the terrible twos.
I'm doing the best I can to roll with the punches. Live for the cute little nuances. Keep myself calm. Breathe through the challenges. Remind myself that this will pass. Utilize my family and take breaks. But some days all of these things combined just aren't enough to keep me feeling sane.
I struggle with the guilt of feeling frustrated. I feel horrible when I snap at Lily during her meltdown because I logically know that SHE is frustrated and just learning how to deal with HER emotions. I am the adult. I should be able to hold this together for her. But it's frustrating and sometimes infuriating.
I am going to look into some books theorized on the terrible twos and try to exercise some of the techniques, because let's face it, I'm kind of at my wits end here and we have at least another year of this!

I promise I'll have something happier to share. I just tend to need to write when things are, well, difficult. That's what I need this outlet for- venting. It soothes me a bit and allows me to not live in my own head so much.