Matthew: 2 years old!

My first baby is 2 years old! 

Sleep:

He sleeps 12-13 hours at night from 7:30/ 8 pm to about 8 am or 9 in the morning. Matthew naps once off and on for 2-3 hours. He's doing great in his crib. He doesn't show any signs of being discontent or climbing out.

Clothes:

He's still in 24 month/ 2t clothes. I just cycled the cool weather long sleeve clothes out a couple weeks ago. The 18 month pants still fit.  Matthews shoe size is 7. We found a great little pair of converse like shoes with the twisty curly laces, which are really fun for him. He's in size 5 diapers. His 2 year stats were 29.2 pounds (50th percentile). Height is 36 inches- 3 feet tall (95th percentile). Head circumference is the same from his 18 month visit of 20 inches. He received the flu shot as well.

Matthew crawling in to Daniel's car seat complete with pacifier and burp cloth

Matthew's bumbo time, hehe

Food:

Matthew is a great fruit and vegetable eater. His preferred proteins are sausage and bacon. He eats three meals a day with an occasional snack thrown in there. He uses a spoon at every meal. He also has joined daddy's habit of a salad at the start of every dinner. Mommy is joining as well. He is getting his 2 year molars in. He enjoys putting the toothbrush in his mouth every morning. He is doing great with a sippy cups and now the occasional straw cup. We just changed from whole to 2% milk over the last couple of weeks. We really only heat up his night time milk anymore. He does a 1/2 milk cup in the morning and water during the rest of the day. 

Typical/ favorite meal choices:

Breakfast - cereal and grapes with half a cup of milk

Lunch - steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots, peas)  with pb&j sandwich or chicken & cheese quesadilla 

Snack - home made fruit smoothie or fruit squeeze with wagon wheels and fruit.
 Dinner - what ever we eat in smaller portions cut up. -with the exception of most meats, not a fan. We supplement beans for the protein. Dinner is followed by his nighttime milk cup.

Socially/ verbally:

Matthew is learning to be kind and gentle with his friends. Especially the other little boys in our small group. He told one of his friends he was sorry with a bit of encouragement from mommy. He continues to relax within about 20 minutes if a new or rarely seen person continues gently. Matthew can string together 2 to 3 words now. He will still 'speak' for an extended period of time as though he's holding his end of a conversation. It's adorable!!! He can identify all of his upper case letter and about half of the lower case. He can name six shapes- circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval and star. He can spot the numbers 1 & 2. We walk daddy to his car on work mornings and wave goodbye and blow kisses. He jumps up and down saying his grandparents names when we call them. He really likes skyping with family and friends.

Developmentally:

I have come to get him up from his nap and have found him more than once with an article of clothing removed. 

He enjoys climbing on anything we'll let him. 
He has fed his bear a couple times. Once by finding a bottle at Sunday School. A couple of times replicating how mommy nurses baby brother. 
He can build a tower of blocks at least 4 high now. 
Matthew understands our directions and can be encouraged to follow by being a great helper.
He throws balls often. Toys too, when unhappy. 

 

Matthew is a wonderful, loving, smart and handsome boy. He's also a normal 2 year old who needs mommy and daddy's best attention, patience and effort to help guide his new found emotions and preferences to be expressed in healthy ways.  There are wonderful parts of this age such as hugs, wanting to be held and read to, helping mommy and daddy and play time with giggles. Doing arts and crafts, sensory bins and manipulatives for our schooling has really helped encourage his tactile personality and help him connect with the world around him. There are also times when I am on the phone with other mommies asking how they helped their children through this stage. His behavior is demonstrated in an assertive manner and when he dislikes something his protest is very strong. 

It bears keeping on this update from 21 months that opinions are forming and compliance is a work in progress. We are working on some basic structure, time outs for him or the toy being thrown, eye contact. We are encouraging apologies and hugs when his temper involves hitting others. Keeping cool, calm, firm yet kind requires every bit of the strength the Holy Spirit gives me access to. I have added to the words on the side of the fridge the word Consistancy to Love, Empathy, Choices and Boundaries. I pray to help train Matthew through his emotional challenges with these reminders. Being a parent definitely keeps me close to God and on my knees praying. Last week I was outside of his door praying for God's words to come to me before I went in to talk with Matthew about why he spent some time there. There is no perfect parent, child or particular approach. Every child IS different. 

Academically: (new category)  With much thought, prayer and preparation I am now entering our 10th week of homeschooling with Matthew. Preschool after some initial adjustments has become a source of joy, quality time, growth and learning. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to watch Matthew grasp concepts and identify the alphabet, colors, numbers and shapes. We've done some fun units like Back to School and Pumpkins and many bible stories. Rather than a list of accomplishments, I want to be the most thankful for the intangible benefits of character training, bible stories, songs and getting to know how Matthew views the world. Just as compensation- monetary, physiologically or emotional- is a by product of choosing a career that most fully helps others utilizing the gifts God has given each of us; learning is a byproduct of experiences in an environment of safety, growing, learning, making mistakes during the journey of giving, the sharing of our authentic ourselves and living.

Personality:

outside.  Matthew enjoys having a wide range of books read to him including ones where we ask him what the animals say, and identifying the shapes, letters and now numbers.  Matthew's favorite book to have read to him are the growing collection of Veggie Tales books we have. Other favorites are the ABC Bible Verses, The Story, My First 100 Words and If You See a Mouse. I place his books on low book cases and baskets on the floor. He reaches for the Busy Bible several times a week and we go through the bible stories playing with the felt manipulatives. He asks to repeat the same book usually about 3 times back to back before moving to the next.  His comfort items/ friends are blankie, dog, bear, puppy, monkey and guy. His bed is getting pretty crowded at night. His favorite day toys are his Bob & Larry, books, tunnel, ball pit balls, cars, blocks, trucks, train set, riding and push toys. He likes piggy back rides, being chased, tickled and tackled.

  He's doing better when prepared before we transition from one activity or setting to another or when He  tries something new. We took him to Chick fil a on his birthday to play in the tunnels. He approached the large play section, went up a step, came back down.. waited a few minutes, went a couple steps higher, came back down. He repeated this until he made it all the way up on his own. I'm so proud of his determination!

This precious boy is a delight to our hearts. He LOVES his brother! He wants to help rock, kiss, bring a blankie, burp cloth and try to pick him up. I've been encouraging him when Daniel cries in his car seat to sing or talk to him rather than join in the crying. He likes throwing away the dirty diapers in the trash. If I load Matthew in the car first Matthew points to the spot where Daniel's car seat should be and says "Daneee". Matthew shows great interest in all things of Daniel's as well such as his car seat, swing, high chair, bassinet, etc. He does like to climb up in to the chair to get to his booster seat and can get down by himself. He's very accustomed to his brother. Sometimes he looks around for him when he's not where he was at the same time the previous day such as when he gets up from his nap and Daniel isn't in his bassinet or swing. 

Firsts since last update: 

In April first trip to the zoo and carousel ride and awful ant bites, over 75 on one foot

Put 3 words together yesterday. It was 'I not wet'. This was after coming in to his room to get him out of his crib in the morning to find his sheet, bedding, lovie and himself all wet. 

Birthday Party coming up!!