Happy Birthday, Brooksie Boy!
(Sorry it's blurry. He's a mover)
I just need time to slow down! :) My baby boy is TWO! His birthday was on Thanksgiving Day, November 27th! It was the perfect day to celebrate him, and reflect on just how thankful we are to have him in our lives. He is still such a sweet, loving boy. He likes to cuddle, snuggle, and give unprompted hugs and kisses. (They have to be unprompted because if he thinks you want them, he'll resist!) He is also a strong willed child with opinions galore. He knows what he wants and when he wants it, and unfortunately he inherited some combination of King and Barlow patience (zero times zero), so he spends some bit of time each day feeling frustrated. I think it's a quality that will serve him well as he gets older, but it's hard when you are two. He is an independent little guy. He insists on doing many things by himself, which has been an interesting combination with the zero patience/quickly frustrated trait! He still gets frequent compliments on his is big, blue eyes! And I'm telling you, those eyes are hard to resist! I feel bad for the future woman in his life! :)
As I said, Brooks has lots of opinions, so it's fairly easy to know what he likes and dislikes. These are a few of his favorite things...He loves to play with cars, trains, and Legos. His favorite movie, far and away, is "Cars." He asks for it every single day. When he actually gets to watch it, he sits still for the entire movie, which is unheard of for him. His favorite foods are Rice Krispies, pretty much any kind of fruit, PB and honey or Nutella sandwiches, pizza, and hummus. His favorite things to drink are milk and water. He adores his big sister, and follows her around everywhere she goes. He loves to walk with her into school, and wash his hands when she washes her hands, which we do every time we drop Kylie off at school. He now likes his own school and daycare, and says, "Yaaay!" when we arrive. He loves bath time. He loves reading books. His favorite books, of course, are any that are about cars, trains, or Elmo. At bedtime, he likes a song sung to him. He always chooses either, "Cars" (which is a song that was made up by Kylie), or "Elmo" (which is a variation of Bram's Lullaby from an Elmo book). He also loves to be active, and never sits still for more than a few minutes at a time. He enjoys playing hide and seek, chasing his sister, and riding bikes.
There are also a few things that he very obviously dislikes. He STILL doesn't like having his diaper changed. It is a wrestling match or a negotiating game every time. It is helping to motivate us to give potty training a try...Only problem with that is that the Boy doesn't seem to like being on the potty either! :) Brooks doesn't like being told what to do. He likes to think that everything is his decision. When he doesn't believe that something was his decision, he will protest with a loud, "No," a head shake, and usually a hand out as if to say, "Stop." For as much as he likes to eat fruit, he equally does NOT like to eat vegetables, especially green vegetables. He doesn't like being strapped into his car seat or the stroller at first, though he usually settles down once we start moving. And we've given up the high chair/booster seat altogether. He also insists on climbing into his car seat by himself, which has made for some long, long transitions between house and car/store and car/etc...
As for his milestones, the most exciting is that he is finally starting to communicate...in English! :) He still tries to take the easy way by pointing, grunting, and "ehh-ing" to communicate his desires, but if he is prodded enough he will attempt to say the word. In anticipation for his upcoming well child check, I have been keeping track of his words, and I think he has somewhere between 50-70, but only those of us who live with him can understand most of those words. I think about 15-20% of his words are understandable to everyone else. His clearest words are, "yeah," "no," "mommy," "hi," "bye," "car," "bubble," "water," "more," "me,", and "mine." He has also attempted a few two word sentences such as "no thank you," "water please," and "hi mommy," though those are few and far between. Even though, he is slow to talk, I am finally feeling confident that he will actually, eventually talk! Some other cognitive things that he seems to have picked up are letter recognition of a couple of letters, "l" and "m" and color recognition of "orange" and "blue." He totally caught me off guard the other day when he pointed to an orange chip clip and said, "orange." Then a few days later he pointed to a blue plate and said, "blue." Blew my mind! As far as gross motor and fine motor skills, he seems to be in a refining stage. He is a great walker/runner. He can actually jump pretty well too. He loves to jump off of things, which has been a little frightening. He will climb up onto something and get into this crouch position, and just jump right off. So far so good, but I'm definitely envisioning a future of fractures and stitches. He also likes to throw, catch, and kick, though the only one of those he's mastered is throwing. He likes to color with markers and crayons, but he does not hold the writing utensil correctly. Jon and I will try to put the marker in his hand the way it's supposed to be held, but he just flips it right back around to the weird way he was holding it before. He's definitely right handed. Although I've heard that hand dominance doesn't happen until around three years old, this child has not used his left hand for anything for a long time. He is currently teething again. He has 3 of his 4 two year molars...Just working on popping that last one through. So he's up to 19.5 teeth! :) *I don't know his exact weight or height yet, but he has his two year check up next week, so I'll know then. But he is officially true to size. He's wearing 2T everything, size 6-7 shoes, and size 5 diapers. He's still a good sleeper. He naps from about 1:30-4:00pm, and sleeps at night from about 8:15pm-7:45/8:00am. He's not a great eater because he wants to be moving all of the time, but he does eat something at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He also gets 1-2 small snacks each day, usually mid morning if I need to keep him occupied, and right after nap time. Lastly, he is a milk lover, and drinks about 12-24 ounces per day!
*At his 2 year well child check up on 12/9/14, Brooks weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce (16th percentile), and was 35.5 inches tall (77th percentile). His head circumference was 19 inches.
On Brooks' actual birthday, which was Thanksgiving Day as well, we tried to make it a little extra special for him. When he woke up in the morning, we gave him his big present from us which was a train table. He loved it! After that, we had some Thanksgiving activities (Turkey Trot and lunch with friends), but I don't think he minded sharing his day. In fact, I think he kind of thought all of the commotion was about him anyway! After we got home from lunch, he took a nap, and then he opened all of the rest of his presents and watched his favorite movie, "Cars." Below are some pictures from his day.
Brooks is silly, sassy, super sweet little boy. We love his fun personality, even the challenges, and we can't wait to see how he continues to grow and develop! We are so thankful that God gave him to us! We love you, BKB!
The train table!
Watching "Cars."
Playing with some new Lego cars from Auntie Mia!
