Paul at 2 Years!

Paul turned 2 a little over a week ago! Here's an update on what he's loving and doing these days!

Words: 

- Paul's language continues to explode. We are just amazed at how much he talks. I'd say he's about average when it comes to small and gross motor skills but is probably above average when it comes to language. He's starting to say more short sentences like, "I'll get it," "read it," "no quiere," (no want in Spanish - should be no quiero but it's close enough!) and "hi/bye, mommy/daddy."

- I love how he says things like, "bye, news" or "bye, peoples" (peoples = his little people toys) when we go upstairs for bath time.

- some mispronunciations that I want to remember are how he says "bargage" instead of garbage, "mushy" for muffin, "aminals," and pronounces girl as "gay-ul."

- my favorite thing to hear is "I love you, mama" - he usually says it after I tell him I love him but sometimes it happens unprompted which is the best!

Growth: He is still quite petite. He weighs a little over 23 pounds so is back down to 4th percentile which is where he's been for most of his life. His doctor isn't concerned since he's following his growth curve. He grew a little over an inch between 18 and 24 months, though, and is almost 33" now. He wears size 12m pants, size 18m shirts, 24m sleepers, and size 5 shoes.

School: he has learned so much in the toddler room. They've taught him to count to 10 in English and Spanish and he can sing his ABCs. I never would have guessed he would be capable of learning these things before 2. Sometimes I feel guilty about working and sending him to daycare but I feel way less guilt now that he is in the toddler room since he learns so much! His teachers are amazing!

Loves: 

- Baths - we give him one every other day as he's prone to dry skin. We sing some of the songs from swimming lessons and he loves to line up his toys and have them 'jump' into the bath tub (he sits on the side of the pool and jumps into my arms at swimming lessons), and in the photo on the left he is practicing "monkey cheeks" which is what they try to get the kids to do before putting their face in the water so they don't breath in/swallow water.

- Playing with his little people toys. This is by far his favorite toy. He loves to line them up and lay them down to "sleep." He's named some of them after mommy, daddy, papa and a friend from school.

- His other favorite toys are magnetic letters and the barn set from my parents.

- He loves Wheel of Fortune. We try to limit tv watching but he watches this nearly every night and asks for "wheel." It's really cute to watch him watch this show. He claps when people solve the puzzle, says "oh no" if they land on bankruptcy or lose a turn, and will turn to us and say "no T" or "no S" etc if a letter is called that isn't in the puzzle. It's pretty funny/entertaining!

- He loves being outside and going on walks! Luckily he does not fight riding in the stroller yet so we try to take long walks when the weather cooperates. He especially loves seeing ducks on our walks.

- making people laugh. Paul has a really good sense of humor for a 2-year old and has a really good sense of comedic timing. Here is a video of his latest trick: making his hand disappear. His belly laugh in this video is THE BEST.

- he still loves books and I hope this will always be the case!

- singing songs! He can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep. He sings parts of the baby shark song and Old McDonald. We work on songs on the drive home from daycare which is a really good use of that time.

Eating: is still a challenge. Paul eats really well at school but not so much at home. His teacher says he won't eat fruit at school but eats pretty much everything else. He definitely loves carbs as his favorite foods are pasta, chips, and crackers. He also loves banana pancakes, which are egg-based, so are not really a carb, and he loves scrambled eggs. He can eat 3 scrambled eggs on his own so this boy can put away the eggs! He's not a big fan of meat but we keep trying to give it to him occasionally. He loves milk. We've shifted to 2% so we can just buy one kind of milk.

eating a banana muffins and milk

Dislikes: having his teeth brushed, getting his diaper changes, and taking oral meds. Besides that, his dislikes change from day to day and from minute to minute. He can go from saying 'no milk' to 'milk please' in 30 seconds. 

He learns so much every week so I can't wait to see what the coming year will bring. We are going to try potty training over Easter weekend. Hopefully he does well as it would be nice to only use diapers for naps and nighttime!