2.5 going on 20.5

My 2.5 year-old daughter is my first and I am trying hard to do it all "right". We talk about everything, I try to rarely say just "no" to her, always explaining it so she could understand.

She is now very well mannered, but even more important to me, very confident, she answers questions and really knows what she is saying. You can talk to her like any adult and listen to her views and take them into consideration. She seems to understand when I don't agree as well as sees when I do and use what she has said.

We get our tantrums on rare occasion (mostly when she is also tired or hungry) but it is pretty easy to just tell her she doesn't get what she wants with tears and needs to use her words and she does.

She is also very aware of her environment, telling me things are about to happen before I realize it a lot of time (hears daddy's car pull into driveway and suddenly yell "daddy is here").

There are times she acts so much like an adult it is surprising. She is carrying something to the kitchen and drops a part of it, looks at me and says "I will be right back to pick it up." Continue, put her load down, come and get the dropped piece and then take it with the others.