2 and a half years

I missed posting last month (and this is now a month late, he turned 2 and a half on July 29th) so I'm going to talk about the past two months, although at this point Neil doesn't change so quickly that I think it makes a huge difference. With that said, though, wow, some days I just look at him and can't believe how BIG and GROWN UP he is. Seriously. Where did my little baby go?! I think having Nathan around just makes it that much more obvious.

Neil is really talking a lot better. He's always been good but now he's getting more distinct and he's definitely learning to communicate more by talking. I'm working with him on taking some deep breaths when he gets upset or mad. Part of doing that is when I get upset I'm telling him upset and saying "Mommy is going to take deep breaths right now to relax and calm down." Then I physically take deep breaths so he can see and hear and have him do it as well if he's upset. He still has the temper tantrums and there are still times I literally just have to walk away but it's getting better.

What's getting worse though? The independence. He wants things his own way. Now he picks out his clothes (by his choice and demand) and it's funny- it's not about what he wants, it's about something different than what we choose. What do I mean by that? Here's an example. If I pick a shirt for him to wear, he will say no. I'll ask what he wants to wear, and he'll literally reach his hand into the shirt drawer in his dresser and pick out the first thing his hand comes to. So clearly he doesn't care what he picked out. It's more about the fact that he chose it. I think we're in for some fun times as this develops more. I think this is what people talk about with 3 year olds.

We went through a regression with sleep- he is getting up at night multiple times instead of staying in bed. I seriously just want to throw him in the crib and say STAY THERE. When he did this before, we had to take him back to bed. But this time, at times. I can just say go back to bed, and he does. We still have the Ok to Wake clock thing but it doesn't help for going to sleep. I feel guilty at times, too, because there have been a few times he has needed a diaper change (pooped in his diaper) so he's had a legitimate reason to get out of bed. I'm trying to find a happy medium where somehow we get him to realize he has to stay in bed unless he really needs something, like a diaper change, he's sick, etc.

So no we are still not potty trained. We do have him at pull ups. We have diapers and think pull ups are a huge pain when he poops so at home we use diapers. But I don't think I'm going to order anymore. Note to anyone else- Huggies seems better than Pampers. It has velcro so you can undo it and redo it. So for now though he only has pull ups at daycare but we'll transition that when we finish the diapers he has.

Routine wise, we start bedtime at 7. It's bath as necessary, change diaper/clothes, brush teeth, read some books (usually with Nathan), then bed. We have the okay to wake clock set to wake up at 6:20 but most morning he's already up. Generally he does stay in bed until it turns green but if he hears us up and around he gets up before his clock turns green (indicating he can get out of bed).

Neil still loves to read and seems to be developing some friendships. He also loves his brother, tries to play with his toys (including sitting in his bouncer, which gets him yelled at big time). He loves dancing and when music is playing you can usually see him at least bopping along to the music, but most of the time he is really dancing. I love how inhibited he is at this point.

We are insisting on a high chair at restaurants, and since we do it regularly he seems resigned to it.

Neil also transitioned up at daycare to the next age room and that seems to be really good for him. He was ready to be with older kids. They're still around his age but they communicate verbally a lot better and he's learning new things. His new thing is that he wants to go to Hawaii. Hey, I'm all for that!

We are working on dealing with emotions- I want to buy some books that discuss different emotions. I started asking him how he feels, which he doesn't know how to answer, and found a youtube video that talks about taking deep breaths. So now when Neil gets upset I ask him to take a deep breath. He actual will do it and it seems to work!

Clothing: We are starting to use 3T shirts and pajamas. Some of the 2T pajamas are so tight on him! But at the same time he's still wearing 18 month shorts and pants. It's crazy. 2T pants still fall down on him.
Diapers: Size 5 (same as last month), and pull ups
Shoes: Size 7 (same as last month)
Weight: 29.5 pounds
Height: 36.75 inches

2 years 4 months

Neil adores his brother

Just around this mark Neil started to have a lot more good moments although we're still dealing with major temper tantrums and attitude. I wonder if this is partly because he seems to be sleeping a bit more again. It's not as much as he used to (before Nathan was born) but he's sleeping past the okay to wake clock (currently set at 6:15). This also coincided with a trip back to Pittsburgh where schedule went completely off and there were a few nights/days he just didn't get enough sleep. To catch up he got more sleep and that seems to have kicked him back into longer sleep in general. Naps are definitely shorter but at daycare they said they are generally about an hour unless he's more tired than usual, so that seems to be the norm now. Sleeping we also moved his bedtime back to what it used to be, so he goes to sleep around 7:30 (bedtime routine starts around 7) and is waking up around 6:30am. Before this we were forcing bed at 7:00 (bedtime routine starting around 6:30) and he was waking up in the 5:00 hour. Naps are still right after lunch.

Neil is very curious and likes to touch everything. He has quite the knack for getting into things he isn't supposed to, which also just seems to be normal for this age. Also, I blame this on being a boy, but he's unintentionally rough. I am constantly telling him to be gentle.

Neil loves playing piano with me, going to the playground, playing with Mr. Potato Head, and puzzles. He also continues to love music and now requests specific songs to sing or play on piano. Right now Down by the Bay is one of his favorites. 

When eating out he won't sit still. We have been letting him sit in a booth and he hates the booster chair so we finally said he can sit on his knees instead. When we were in Pittsburgh we ate out more and it became increasingly difficult to get him to stay still so we decided that he needs to be in a high chair still. We are currently working on the high chair at restaurants. The bad thing is he's used to sitting with us now so of course this causes a temper tantrum. But sitting in the booth he is standing up, turning around, looking at the people behind him, and in general making a spectacle of himself.

In daycare he has turned a bit aggressive and the teachers think it might be because he's further advanced than most of the rest of the kids. There is a transition in June so we are hoping he will be moved up a classroom. There are 3 classrooms (8 kids in each classroom, 2 teachers per classroom) for the age of 2. His current one is the youngest. We'll see which one they move him to- the office said it could be to the oldest but it depends on how many kids go up to kindergarten. By the way, I realize last month I said I thought he was behind, on letters at least, but in talking he is definitely way ahead. And his current class is moving back to shapes, which he knows very well.

This month Neil started really climbing and is pretty good at it

The highlight of my day is when Neil randomly tells me he loves me.

Neil is eating well as usual and seems to be eating more again. His favorites are still blueberries and he has yogurt for breakfast most days. I stopped buying baby yogurt and now give him Chobani greek yogurt with fruit in it (usually blueberries).

Potty training took a real standstill with the trip to Pittsburgh. We didn't even take a potty chair or anything so we didn't ask.

Stats:
Clothing: Neil is in 2T except shorts. I'm glad it's summer because the length of shorts doesn't matter so much so we can put him in 18 months which fit his waist better. I'm hoping by fall when he's back in pants that he'll fit the 2Ts at the waist better. He also seems to have a big head so some 2T shirts and sweatshirts don't really fit over his head. And surprisingly a couple pairs of 2T pajamas seem to be tight but most of the rest are fine. So it might just be these specific pairs.
Diapers: Size 5 (same as last month)
Shoes: Size 7 (same as last month)
Weight: 28.5 pounds on my home scale (same as last month)
Height: I haven't tried to measure this since we moved.

Haven't seen him in the boppy since, what, 12 months?

2 years and 3 months

With two kids we do watch more tv, and Neil has been sick this month so when he was home from daycare we watched a movie a day just to try to keep him settled on the couch. He still loves Mickey Mouse and seems to like Peter Pan the best out of movies. We're getting to the point that he repeats things; Mickey Mouse episodes, movies, and books as well. We have 2 different Mickey Mouse DVDs (don't have On Demand anymore which switches up the episodes) and he has his favorite on each DVD.

You can't really see in the picture but he put the smaller egg of the same color in the bigger egg (so blue with blue).

Just looking at the kids in daycare, I'd say he might be slightly behind (but overall not behind because I think sometimes daycare pushes this on the kids, not saying it's a bad thing). I think he's behind on identify letters but he is way ahead on music. He will randomly sing songs that I don't even realize he paid a ton of attention to and knows all the lyrics. He definitely knows more lyrics than I do! And he sings all the time. When outside playing, while walking around, along to the CDs in the car, just sitting in a chair, etc., etc.

We are still dealing with major temper tantrums and not listening. Honestly at this point we are not giving chances as much. We tell him something, he doesn't listen, and we take action. If it's doing something that might damage something we take it away. If we've given him a choice he doesn't like (you can do this or go to bed now) then if he keeps resisting we do the 2nd action/option we gave him. It gives him a "choice" but isn't really because we know he doesn't want to go to bed. I can't think of a good example of the first option right now.

Now that the weather is warming up and Neil is older, and I'm not hugely pregnant, we are getting out more, especially outside. It's awesome and Neil loves it too. He also goes outside a lot more at daycare and ends up with sand in his shoes most days. But he's much happier.

Sleep wise, we are having issues. Since Nathan was born Neil is not sleeping as much. He used to sleep 7:30pm to 7:00am and often now gets up at 5:30am. So we moved his bedtime up so he goes to sleep at 7:00pm, and we also bought an Okay to Wake clock, which turns green when we set it and that's when he is allowed to get up. So far it's not working. He gets up anyways and one of us (usually Dave since I have a baby I'm nursing all night) takes him back and says to stay in bed and rest his eyes until it turns green. It IS getting better but he still takes 1-2 returns to bed until he stays put waiting for the clock to turn green. His naps are also shorter, at least at home. Where they used to be 3 hours pretty solidly, they're more like 1 hour. I'd say this is all okay but he acts tired so we know he does need more sleep. I'm blaming this on a lot of the temperment issues and tantrums.

As far as eating, I'm starting to just put whatever on his plate and what he eats, he eats. What he doesn't, is left there. He doesn't get more and he gets what we are eating. I make sure he has some things he will definitely eat so we know he isn't starving. We also know at daycare he is getting a solid meal and he usually eats most or all of that, and several snacks during the day. I do give him a vitamin if he didn't seem to get a lot of fruits or vegetables for the day.

Potty training hasn't progressed but we haven't been pushing it. They do let him sit at daycare but he doesn't go- usually it's when they change his diaper so I figure he doesn't have anything left. He does also ask to sit at home and does go but again it's just not consistent. I'm not really ready yet to tackle this one. Honestly we already have one in diapers; another one isn't a huge deal to me, especially since he goes less often etc. And once he's potty trained I'm dreading having to stop the car immediately to find a place for him to go to the bathroom. Is this normal?

Stats:
Clothing: We are in 2T except for pants and I think we need to move to 2T for pants. Pants are either too short (18 month) or too big (2T), so which is worse? Too short or falling down? I need to go through his 2Ts and find out if any are tighter but haven't gotten to that yet.
Diapers: We just moved to size 5. 4 still fit but we wanted to move up.
Shoes: Size 7
Weight: 28.5 pounds on my home scale
Height: I haven't tried to measure this since we moved.

2 years and 2 months

I am very late writing this post and I didn't even get any pictures around the 29th (when Neil's birthday is). This will have fewer pictures than usual and be a bit shorter. I'd really like to keep up the monthly posts though so I'm trying to continue it.

Neil really loves reading and has shown that he is very good at memorizing, just like his mom. He knows his books by heart, and we are surprised at how many he knows and the fact that he also learns them very quickly. When we borrow books from the library he can say the words on the page even though we haven't had the book very long, especially for the books he likes. I can't believe how well he does at this, even remembering multiple sentences on a page just based on the pictures. If I didn't know better I would swear at times that he's reading.

Speaking of the library, he loves going to the library. He likes to pick out books to read (both there and to bring home for a few weeks at a time) as well as all the activities they have- a train table, an area for coloring, an area with puzzles, etc. I've also started borrowing DVDs and CDs, which gives us some variety. (We have been getting tired of hearing the same CD over and over on the drive to and from daycare.)

Neil also takes after me in that he likes to organize and put things in order. I bought 4-5 different vitamins and left them on the dining room table. When I walked back in the room, he had pulled them out of the bag and lined them up very carefully from smallest to biggest. I'm just glad he didn't try to open any of them, he likes his vitamin when I give it to him. He also tends to pull down videos and/or DVDs and he will line them up on the floor very carefully.

Potty training wise, with Nathan being born that's taken a back burner. I haven't been able to help with Neil upstairs because I'm limited from going up and down a bunch of times, but before Nathan was born Neil was peeing on the potty chair every night as part of the bedtime routine and I am pretty sure that has continued. He did pee more than he is now, and at daycare sometimes they let him sit on the toilet. But I think daycare does it after they change his diaper and they haven't said that he's ever actually gone.

Neil's vocabulary is still really good and he speaks in full sentences pretty clearly, most of the time. Temper tantrums are even worse, especially since Nathan has been born. I think that's more for wanting attention than anything else but the combination of terrible two's and a new baby taking attention way is not fun at all. I haven't been able to pick Neil up since Nathan was born, but thankfully Neil can now climb up onto most furniture on his own although he would prefer being helped.

Neil also seems to be adjusting at daycare. He even found a friend who has a drumset! He mentions that friend fairly frequently, as well as the two main teachers.

Neil still uses his pacifier at night although after initially falling asleep I don't think he touches it from what we can tell. (Side note, he also seems to like to sleep sideways in his toddler bed with his legs hanging off the bed. I have no idea how that's even comfortable.)

Once again, I'm leaving the stats off this post because nothing has changed and I didn't take any measurements. I will be better next month!!! Hopefully by then I'll be going up and down the stairs more, which will give me some more time at the computer.

2 years and 1 month

I have been extremely negligent with my blog. It's partly being tired, partly not having a desk/desktop computer set up, and partly all this adjustment. Anyway, I think I'm going to continue the monthly posts on Neil although this month it's literally thrown together at the last minute.

Unfortunately, we are dealing with the terrible two's in full force. I am still blaming it on a combination of the age and all the changes that have taken place recently. Because of this I am not even attempting to get rid of the pacifier- he really only uses it when he's in his bed and knows that's the rule. And as soon as he falls asleep it's out of his mouth. He's lost it off the side of his bed (and not been able to get it where it's wedged), and it hasn't disrupted sleep so I'm not extremely concerned about it.

I am worried about how he's going to handle another change with a new baby but time will tell.

Since moving he is definitely in his toddler bed (not even the converted crib so we have that for the baby, yes!). Two things have happened there. One was that he fell out a few times despite the railing. I think it was 2 nights in a row and then he must have learned. The first night I was in bed and Dave was downstairs. When I heard the thump it woke me up and was so concerned (knew what it was immediately) that I was out of bed and in Neil's room hugging him with my 7-8 month pregnant body without even remembering I was pregnant. I didn't realize I could move that fast. The second is that now he definitely knows he can get out of bed and does at random times. We thought there would be no more "sleeping in" on the weekends but he now seems to (sometimes) stay in his bed when he's wide awake if he doesn't hear us moving around. But Dave now is getting ready in the morning and Neil wanders to where he is and asks "What's going on, Daddy?" or other cute things like that.

Terrible two's wise: Neil will not listen to us. At all. He apparently is an angel for the new daycare so I swear he's saving it up for us when he's home again! I also think it's partly an attention thing- with the moving we've been really busy unpacking and stuff and spending less time with him. In addition, there is a lot more for him to get into because we haven't figured out where to put things, etc. So there is a lot laying around and he has a knack for getting into it. I feel like all we do anymore is say no, and that that is also part of the problem. So we're working on it. Plus both Dave and I are pretty short on patience at this point.

We do time outs but I don't know if they're really effective. I try to get down on his level and talk to him but he ignores me. He ignores me to the point that I ask him to look at me and he refuses to make eye contact. And he's heard "listen to me" and "stop it" enough that he says them to us without prompting. So yes I'm pretty exasperated. And yes I know 3 is worse, so I'm dreading that as well. But seriously, what's with this attitude?!?! I had no idea a 2 year old could be this bad. For example, take a few days ago. Neil of course was not listening, doing something like standing on a dining room chair where he could have fallen and gotten hurt. Dave was telling him to sit down and he was just so defiant. I was in the other room and said, "Neil listen to your dad." Apparently he turned towards me (couldn't see him) and made a terrible face at me. All I knew was I said that and the next thing that happened was Dave saying "That's it, time out!" He's also sticking out his tongue pretty meanly at this point. Which I find a little less attitude or annoying than some of the things he's saying.

Along with that we do have temper tantrums that I just don't know how to handle. I can't understand him of course, as he's screaming. And he doesn't seem to want anything. I've taken to walking away but he follows me, still screaming. I can't get away. Usually eventually if I hug him he calms down but that doesn't work right away either and I'm worried doing that is going to teach him that having a tantrum will get him a hug, which is not something I want to reinforce. So that's a bit of a parenting loss there as well as far as how to handle that. The ignoring is not working. Trying to talk softly is not working.

This sounds so negative but it's really a lot of what's going on at home. We still have sweet moments. Neil goes back and forth between wanting to be carried (and mostly by mommy) and wanting to be independent and walk himself. I have always kind of played with his hair and it helps him calm down. So now he plays with my hair (and that is so relaxing until he accidentally pulls it or something haha). He definitely loves both of us but I think we just have to work through these rough patches and reinforce that he's a good kid and we respect him. I am trying to make more of a concerted effort to pay attention to him and ask what he wants to do together.

Neil still loves puzzles and seems to be doing a lot of crafts at his new daycare. He also still loves singing songs and is learning new ones at daycare. We don't know them so sometimes it's hard to figure out what he's singing. And we've found a new "game" by singing If You're Happy and You Know it and substituting clap your hands with things like "eat a blueberry".

When we go to a restaurant we offer to Neil to choose either a booster chair or a high chair. He really hates the booster chair at restaurants for some reason and throws temper tantrums about it. So surprisingly, although he exclusively uses a booster chair at home (and insists on climbing in and out of it on his own) he opts for a high chair at restaurants.

Potty training has stepped up a bit. I'm not sure if it's partly because he used to sit on the potty at his old daycare so now he does it more at home. But he is getting to the point that when he has to pee sometimes he will hold it and tell us and as soon as he sits on the potty chair he will pee. Every time he does that, he claps his hands really excitedly, which is cute. He doesn't really poop on there. I'm not sure if he doesn't know ahead of time or what but he'll tell us he needs to go after he poops in his diaper. I still think we're not ready for 100% potty training; his diaper is wet in the morning and he doesn't consistently request the potty chair. Oh and I also bought him a Baby Bjorn because he was spraying and that seems to help a little more to contain it when he pees. Thank goodness.

His schedule has also kind of shifted- they nap earlier at daycare. We still start bedtime routine at 7pm and he's in bed between 7:30-8 depending on the night. (We give him a bath a few times a week, not every night.) He wakes up usually between 6:30-7am. We have some kind of breakfast shortly after. Lunch is at 11am. Then he goes down for a nap between 11:30-12:30 or so. The nap time itself varies a lot but generally is at least an hour and at most 2 and a half hours. After he wakes up he has a snack (time varies, usually based on his request) and then we eat dinner most nights around 5:45pm.

I do not have any of the stats this time- clothing/diaper/shoes have not changed and I didn't weigh him. I do think his cheeks are getting more chubby though! And he's still eating really well.

2 years

I can't believe it's already been 2 years since Neil was born. It doesn't feel like it's been that long but at the same time I look at him and can't believe we have a little boy now, who is talking, singing, running, jumping, dancing, and definitely has a mind of his own.

We have found that Neil REALLY likes puzzles and has a knack for them. He loves to put them together and so far finds things like faces to match up. He has a 24 piece Thomas puzzle and the first thing he puts together every single time is Percy's face along with some of the green color of the train. I'm working with him to group like colors together. He does try to jam pieces in the wrong way and then looks at it like it's okay and I tell him he's being silly and that it doesn't match. This is where I wish I was better at teaching. I want to do a mix of letting him figure it out without me telling him directly and not letting him go so long he gets frustrated.

He also definitely knows colors, which is something I've been wondering about (if he's way behind on that). I am starting to think it's his attitude or something, that's why he says the wrong color. If that's the case we're really in for it.

He still skips numbers- in English it's 5 and in Spanish it's tres. It's cute. He doesn't always skip them but most of the time he still does.

First night in his converted toddler bed

We couldn't get Neil to sleep in the actual toddler bed in our converted guest room. So we decided to give in and convert the crib. That does mean we have 2 toddler beds in our house. But it worked like a charm. The first night we converted it, he slept fine in it. I think that changing rooms was part of the problem. So our plan is to move and pick out his room and then transfer him to the actual toddler bed and put the crib back together as a crib. There are so many big changes at once for him right now that I'm a bit nervous about how all this will go.

At first Neil was staying in his bed for both naps and getting up in the morning. We were pleasantly surprised. I take full blame for ruining this. I credited this to daycare, because since he turned 1 he's been sleeping on a mat and they tell them to stay there until a certain time even if they wake up. Well, I was telling daycare when I picked Neil up one day and saying yeah he could get out of bed now but he doesn't, thanks blah blah. My mistake? Saying that with Neil standing right next to me. He listens to EVERYTHING now even if he seems like he's playing and not paying attention. I forget how much he understands, too. So now we're working on telling him that he needs to stay in bed until we come get him. Imagine my surprise and delight to be woken up in bed the first Saturday after I had this talk with daycare. I have to say, it is cute, and reminds me how much he's growing. But gone are our peaceful days in the morning and I think he has been laying in bed awake so we'll be getting up earlier now.

Neil is definitely playing more organized now. He seems to have a group of friends at daycare. One of the other boys, his mom told me she hears Neil's name along with the other boy at home. I nodded and said yep they must play a lot together or something. He also actually plays with trucks and runs them around and puts things together/builds a lot better. He loves to knock things down as well but it's fun to watch him learn and grow and actually play with things as they were intended. He also lines up his stuffed animals, sometimes to play basketball together. Oh and his favorite toy seems to be Rock N Roll Elmo. He knows the words and even laughs along, and everything can be a microphone for him.

We are now using a booster exclusively. I miss the high chair sometimes; it contained him better. Especially when we're eating out, he doesn't want to sit still and is touching everything on the table, trying to talk to the people sitting next to us, etc. But he really doesn't seem to want to be in the high chair. In fact, Mickey has been in his high chair for the week or so leading up to his 2nd birthday.

Stats:
Clothing: I started putting him in 2T pajamas but they are too big so we just let him wear a mix of 18 month and 2T pajamas. We're doing the same with shirts. Pants have to be 18 months and even some of those are too loose and fall down on him.
Diapers: Size 4
Shoes: Size 7, when I last measured his foot was 6.5 but the shoes I found were 7's and they work well AND light up so that's what he wears
Weight: 28 pounds (50.76th percentile)
Height: 35.5" (85.69th percentile). Apparently I really can't measure his height because I got 33.5 inches. I give up. I need some help.