On the 25th our little baby boy turned two years old and is officially no longer a baby! Although he has known that for quite some time, it can take us by surprise sometimes. It seems like we barely turned around and he's grown leaps and bounds! To us, it seems like just yesterday T was having to lean backwards to counterbalance the massive stomach and was begging for him to just get out ("for the love of God, just get out already"). And now he's a toddler and has grown so much that he's 50th percentile for weight (that's a lot for one of our babies) and 25th for height.
He's still very physical and spends a lot of his time running, jumping, climbing and the like. He's got great balance and seems pretty advanced in what he can do, he can do anything that his big sis can do. Which is fun because he can definitely keep up with her. The big difference is that he really likes rough and tumble play and B sees absolutely no fun in it at all. He's always tackling her and trying to wrestle her. J has been making a concerted effort to wrestle around with him when he gets home from work so that C has an outlet for that energy.
He still loves his cars (trains, boats and planes are cool with him too, but definitely come in a distant second to the cars) and can spend long periods of time lining them up just so. Recently he has been very interested in dinosaurs and dragons, he likes to pretend he is one and stomp around roaring (there are two distinct roars -- at least distinct to him -- and he will let you know if you call him the wrong one during these games). He plays in their toy kitchen a lot more than B does these days, and he's enjoying drawing and coloring more and more each day.
He now LOVES books and will bring us whole stacks to read to him; in fact, if we put him down to sleep before he's really tired he will lay in his bead (or sometimes on the floor behind the door) and look at books for up to an hour! He's especially fond of Dr. Suess at the moment, and of course any library book he can find about cars or tractors or boats or trains. He also really likes Elmer the elephant (elephants and monkeys are big in his book). He will still pick Cars if he gets to choose a movie 99% of the time, but now he's also a big fan of Winnie the Pooh. The Little Einsteins, Toot & Puddle, Sesame Street and Pinky Dinky Doo are his favorite TV shows. He is getting really good at answering the questions at the end of Pinky Doo, he also loves the little puzzles and matching games with Moose and Zee (on Nick Jr.).
He is such a little dancer, T can't wait until he's old enough to take a class because he just enjoys it so much (and combined with his physical prowess, she thinks he could really excel at it). The first 10 minutes of Ellen is one of his favorite things because of all the laughing and dancing he gets to do with mama. He actually claps when Ellen comes on at the beginning, and T says the other day he was very busy with his cars but dropped everything to dance with Ellen to Will Smith's "Gettin Jiggy With It." He's a Laurie Berkner Band fan and T is thinking that we should get him a Jackson Five CD soon. He's starting to enjoy the toy instruments more and can copy a beat on the drums.
He must be an actively growing boy because he will gobble down any protein source we give him. He loves scrambled eggs and tofu and will immediately zone in on any chicken or other meat that T may have on occasion. He still doesn't like to drink milk or any of the substitutes, but he has followed in his mama and sister's footsteps in his love for hot chocolate. He's also following his sister's path in his new found disdain for crust on sandwiches and refusal to eat vegetables. He does like hummus and avocado sandwiches (something B wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole) so he's still easier to get healthy food into than his sister. Although last night the only thing he ate off his dinner plate was the ketchup.
For his birthday, J took the day off of work and we spent the morning opening and playing with his birthday presents. He got a whole new fleet of trucks and a Carhartt shirt from his Gramma and Grampa;Woody and Bullseye from Aunt Shelly, Uncle Ralph, Taylor and Grant; a super fly and warm puffy jacket from Uncle Dusty and Auntie Jess; a warm and cozy sweatshirt from Uncle Devan, Aunt Jenn, Hayley, Julia and Jax; a frog backpack from B; a wooden puzzle and toy car from our friends the Evans; a wooden block train from our friends the Lymans; a boat that's fun in water and out from the Lawrys; and from us he got a couple of shirts, a European Playground CD, the Curious George anthology, a ride on firetruck and some new wooden trains (Duncan, Annie and Clarabelle and a musical caboose). It was a very good birthday for this little man, he was thrilled with all his gifts.
Later in the day we went to the Academy of Sciences museum to see the dinosaurs and play in the playroom. Our good friends Rhiannon and Rhys (of the Evans family) met us there for the fun. The day was finished up with some cheese pizza and special homemade robot cupcakes.
