We are dealing with full on temper tantrums at this point. We still alternate between ignoring, trying to get on his level and ask him what's wrong (telling him we can't understand when he's crying), and giving him a hug to see if it helps. I'm not sure if it's bad to use different techniques based on different situations. Honestly, a lot of how I am personally handling it is how patient I am feeling at the moment. And my patient can be pretty thin at times.
I'm not sure if it's the fact that I'm pregnant, or the holidays, or maybe even the fact that I don't have him eating as well (or it could always be the age of course) but Neil has stepped up wanting me and only me. Not all of the time but wow when he only wants me, cue the temper tantrum. I am still carrying him but there have been times I have put him down and let him scream. He will need to learn how to share me somehow. Oh these terrible twos. And yes I've heard three is worse.
Neil really wants to help us, including me cooking, which is nice but not helpful at all. He is getting an independent streak and wants to do things by himself and for himself, or help us out.
Neil still loves music and sings along to everything. I swear he knows lyrics better than I do! And he sings entire songs where sometimes it's not until halfway or most of the way through the song that we finally realize what he's singing. He seems to sing somewhat in tune, which makes me happy! Neil also likes to count. He doesn't get the concept of stopping (Neil, how many dogs are there- if there are three, he counts to three pointing at each one and then just keeps going pointing in a repeat again). He still skips 5 all the time though.
He also counts in Spanish, thanks to daycare. They apparently do count in Spanish. As far as I can tell he knows the first ten numbers but not always the order. He skips around there more than he does in English.
Neil is obsessed with puzzles and we have one meant for kids ages 4 and up. We let him play with the pieces and my mom and I have both been trying to show him how to put it together, knowing it's too early for that. Now he flips them all so you can see the color side and there are two pieces that he actually pulls out and puts together himself. I was surprised at that.
I'm nervous about colors but I think I'm too used to Neil picking things up quickly. I think his favorite color is green but if you ask him to get green he picks random colors. He doesn't associate the name of a color with an item of that color. I should see if he can group things together being the same.
Neil is getting more active- jumping up and down and spinning around in circles. It makes me tired just watching it haha. He also closing the doors of rooms but for the most part can't open them. So if we hear a door close we go see if he got "stuck" in that room. And we try to leave doors open; the way the heat is in our house, if you close a door then the heat doesn't circulate in there. Neil doesn't seem to care about that even though I've tried to explain it to him. He also has mastered steps although he either holds onto the bannister or slides on his butt. Either way though he's not insisting on holding our hands as long as he's inside on carpet.
We haven't gotten to the wanting to be naked phase but Neil in general is fascinated with zipping and unzipping everything, including his pajamas. We thought maybe he was saying he needed a diaper change, but nope, he just gets a satsified smile when he zips and unzips. Crazy kid! He also unzips his backpack and puts thing in it to carry around. Speaking of that, he is getting to the point that he loves putting things in and out of other things, like the pumpkin we let him carry to collect candy when we went trick or treating. Now if we're missing something we have to look in anything he can reach.
Neil loves magnets on the refrigerator and we (oops finally) used up the last of his gift certificates from his 1st birthday on a little alphabet magnet thing for the refrigerator. You can put a letter in the actual device and it says the letter along with the sound it makes. Neil seems to like the letter "D" best so far. We have no idea why.
Oh and I'm blaming Dave but Neil has taken to calling me "Jen" instead of "Mommy". It caught me off guard at first and I ask him what he calls me and he will go back to Mommy. It's cute but kinda weird at the same time.
Neil seems to have manners although he doesn't understand. Please can be hard to get out of him without some prompting but he says thank you fairly regularly and if he realizes he hurt one of us he is quick to say that he's sorry. I'm not sure he really knows what it means though because it doesn't teach him to be more gentle or stop...
Finally, Neil has both pooped AND peed on the potty chair/toilet!!! He peed one day after I peed myself. He asked to go potty and I said sure figuring yeah right. I wasn't paying attention and he sprayed all over. Doh. Then he actually started to poop in the bathtub one day so Dave caught him and put him on the potty chair and he finished pooping on the toilet. I'm not sure we can call that a success. And these are the only times he's done it but finally he's done it for us, not just daycare. I'm wondering if we need a better seat though so he doesn't spray. We still aren't pushing this but when he asks for the potty we put him on as fast as we can.
Clothing - I only put away the light 18 month pajamas. It's been cooler so he's been in heavier 18 months pajamas. I think by next month I will move him to 2T in pajamas though. Everything else is 18 months. Pants are still falling down but he could and does wear some 2T shirts. When I get enough time to go through clothes again and find the 2T box, I might just get out all the 2T shirts we have and put away the 18 month ones. Some of them seem short even though they fit.
Diapers – size 4
Shoes - size 5.5. His boots are 6 but he hasn't worn them yet.
Shoes - size 5.5. His boots are 6 but he hasn't worn them yet.
Weight - 26.5 pounds
Height - 34 inches (If that's right he's grown 2.5 inches in a month. I either screwed up last month or this month... I did double check this month and had my mom look so I think 34 is correct.)
I have a feeling sizing is different for boys and girls because Ella is wearing 18 month pants. She is also wearing 18 mo or 24 month pajamas. Some 18 mo pants are too big in the waist. But the 12 mo ones are entirely too short.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it is. It also varies based on brand but I haven't taken the time to figure out which ones run bigger than others at this size (waist). It's different than onesies or whatever.
DeleteThe length tends not to vary but some have huge waistbands. But she had to wear a bigger size for length.
DeleteWe loved the Baby Bjorn potty chair for the spray/splash protector guard. It's also just overall a great potty chair. We had two once we started seriously training (one on each level of the house) and the Bjorn was the best, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry at all about colors. Parker took forever to get it right. And that is apparently a very common thing. For some reason colors are a difficult concept for kids to grasp.