and now look at this guy!
A little bit about James lately....
He is definitely a two year old. Sigh. This has been super hard for momma especially now that my hormones are out of wack and I'm moody. Where has my sweet little boy gone? He has started this blood curdling scream that he does when he's mad and doesn't get his way or when he's mad and someone just looks at him. Sure makes him look like a bratty kid when he does this to complete strangers. But then in an instant he can do a total 180 and he's back to his sweet old self giving kisses and telling mommy she's pretty. Split personalities, I swear.
One issue we are having is eating time, this kid does not eat lately. I wonder if he's getting his two year old molars in. But he's also just gotten more picky which I didn't know was possible. He used to like a small variety of things but now it has gotten even smaller! So frustrating! He used to love fruit especially bananas but now he won't eat them. And what he does eat, he isn't eating much and of course mom's like to control that because you want your child to grow healthy and strong. My sister who is in nursing school said she learned that kids around this age will go through a time where they won't eat much at all and that is perfectly ok, they are hitting a plateau in growth and don't need much at this time. And my mother in law sent me some information that said kids will eat however much they need to at a given time so these things have helped me feel better.
He has been getting up around 7:30am (sometimes before) for the past couple months no matter what time he goes to bed even if it's a late night...I really shouldn't complain but I really enjoyed sleeping till 8-8:30 every morning haha. Oh well, such is life. We used to put him down at 8:30 at night but now that he's getting up earlier, we put him down at 8pm and he does just fine so that's a good compromise.
We have started limiting the binky to naps and bedtime. He has actually done pretty well at this which I was surprised, that kid loves his binky. As long as we keep it out of sight, he doesn't really ask for it. We will probably let him keep it during naps and bedtime for a while. I worry about taking it completely away. He'll wake up usually one time during the night (sometimes even twice) which is annoying...he used to sleep through the whole night when he was younger....but it's usually because he has lost his binky so all we have to do is go in and pop it back in and we're good so I worry about eliminating the binky completely for fear he won't be able to put himself back to sleep. Hopefully it'll come with age. Advice or words of encouragement from other moms would be greatly appreciated :)
He has figured out how to open all the doors in the house now! Ahhhh! I liked that I could hide stuff behind a closed door and know it was safe....not so much anymore ha. I still need to go out and buy those baby proof door knob covers. His favorite door to open is the pantry. He helps himself to pretty much anything he wants in there, though not as of late because he's not eating!!
He is a smart little stinker and knows his colors pretty well and can count to 10 in English and Spanish. A little toy got him started with the Spanish counting. He usually needs help with counting but we will hear him counting to himself and will do pretty well, only skipping a couple numbers and then he'll clap and say "yay" when he gets to 10.
He even knows how to work our iPhones!! It's not like we gave this kid a course on how to use it! Oh the day and age we live in. He knows how to slide it on and will get into Netflix to find Thomas. I have no clue how he even figured out how to use Netflix, we very rarely use it on our phones before he figured it out. If someone texts me and I leave it lying in a reachable spot, he will slide it open and start texting them back. I will also go to use a certain app and find it is no longer there, yep he deleted it haha. Good thing Apple tracks all that for you so you don't have to go and buy it again :)
He sings to a couple songs on the radio, usually those with a repetitious chorus. He likes the Taylor Swift song, "We are Never Getting Back Together" and will sing parts of it. It is so cute. He still absolutely loves Thomas the Train and now has a Thomas the Train shirt and when given the opportunity to pick out a shirt to wear, it's always that one whether it's clean or not. He for some reason really likes the At&t commercials, he likes the little chime at the end and will sing it and say "At&t" after it.
Some of our favorite things he says lately are...
"Mama/Dada hold you." if he wants to be held.
"Kanks" for Thanks. He's a very polite boy ;)
If we ask him something like, "Are you ready to get out of the bathtub?" he'll say, "No, I'm not" but will even give that response if you ask him something like, "Do you like your toy?"..."No, I'm not."
"I wanna sit on couch." when he wants to avoid taking a nap or going to bed and wants to just snuggle.
"Mama pretty." melts my heart. He'll say this and play with my hair too.
He will pass gas and then try to blame it on one of us, "Mama/Dada toot."
After we get off the phone or one time I asked an employee at a store a question, he asks "Who's that?"
He'll ask, "Mama/Dada what you doin?"
Here's a picture he created on Doodle Buddy on the phone, and then subsequently saved it for me to find later. He's so creative :)
Carson and I took him to Red Robin for his birthday dinner and then we had a little family get together for his birthday yesterday and had cupcakes, rice krispie treats, and ice cream and opened presents. It was fun getting everyone together to celebrate his special day.
giving hugs at the party
baga and papa Swensen got him a Tonka truck
baga and papa Cullimore got him a wheel barrow (you better believe he'll be helping put in the yard this Spring/Summer)
Mama and Dada got him a trike
Happy birthday sweet little boy. We love you so much.
