Terrible or Terrific

Josh turned two this week.  Celebrations included:
- A visit from Grandma and Grandpa
- The customary crown from school,
- Cupcakes, presents, and a family picture at home
- Over the weekend, we'll get to celebrate with Nana and Papa and have a "littles only" party for some of Josh's friends.

 

Josh's two favorite things: Dogs and Airplanes. He points them out with gusto.  Other favorites are books about dogs, books about airplanes, his new doggy sticker book, airplane toys, etc.  Okay, he also loves music, dancing, mimicking faces, from silly to surprised, snuggling with mom (and dad when mom's not nearby), watching and playing sports, and helping - anything to make him feel like a big kid.

We have had a pretty substantial explosion of words over the last couple months.  We still need the secret decoder ring to figure out most of what he's saying, but Josh is starting to embrace words over point and grunt. When you repeat what  he was trying to say, he'll give you this huge, proud nod of the head. He's stringing words together in short phrases, though generally all we can hear are the vowel sounds. Last night, Owen had him saying I Love You to each person in our family: "I OH OO A-DEE" "I OH OO Ma-A" "I OH OO Ow-ee."  We love his cute "S" that sounds more like a jumbled "sch," and he generally talks like his mouth is full of marbles.  We'll continue to keep an eye on the speech, but for now, we're happy that he's trying to talk and practicing a variety of sounds.

Josh is clearly on the lighter side of eating.  A bite here, a bite there, and he's happy to be done.  The winner foods are pretty limited - pasta, meatballs, salmon, fruit, and SWEETS.  Other than ice cream and frosting, Josh's favorite food, by far, is sliced cheddar cheese. As soon as he gets one slice of it, all other foods are off the table, and we spend the rest of the meal responding to, "Mo Cheesche Peasche!"

Josh is incredibly physical.  It's pretty clear that he thinks he's 4 years old.  He loves to run, jump, wrestle, and spin. He assumes he can do everything that Owen can do and has been hanging out on the "preschool side" of school for about 3 months. He is trying very hard to ride the strider bike he inherited when Owen got his pedal bike in July. When we've been at the gymnastics center for open gym lately, Josh jumps in the pit, swings on the ropes, hangs from the bars, and jumps on the trampoline with all the older kids.He loves to climb, wrestle, jump, and spin. He is always on the move and working those big muscles.  He's also started to challenge us by winding up for a fully body smack when he's frustrated, so we're starting to employ more time-outs and consequences. I can tell that one of our long term parenting jobs will be to make sure Josh is getting enough of the wiggles out, so he can focus in school or wherever. For his birthday, we got him a balance board and pair of kid stilts.  Both a little beyond his age, but not his desire, or, in the case of the balance board, ability!

Josh's sleep has improved GREATLY from that rough first year. He's generally agreeable going to bed.  Most nights, he sleeps from 7:30/8 until 6:30ish, but he goes through spells (like these past few weeks) where we end up in his room rubbing his back once or twice a night.  We keep blaming it on his teeth, as his canines have been trying to break through for about 4 months.

While Josh is full of the energy and enthusiasm and physical skill of a 4-year-old, he is still lagging well behind in the growth department.  At 24 months, he is hovering around 21 pounds and fits quite nicely in 12 month pants and 18 month shirts.  His face is growing out of the baby look, so we aren't getting so many questions about "how old is your baby," but I am conscious that as we move over the mountains, he's going to be the smallest kiddo in his new school.

Josh is working hard to exert his independence.  He wants to climb in and out of the car, do his own car seat buckles, brush his own teeth, choose his own clothes, cut his own food, etc, etc, etc.  "I Do It!" is the new favorite phrase, along with "Mine!" and "No!"  There's no doubt he is TWO YEARS OLD.

Josh is a strong emotion kid.  High highs and low lows.  When he gets frustrated, he is inconsolable and we are learning to just let him work it out because there's usually not a way to reason him back to happy.  But when he's happy, he is quick to smile and share his contagious laughter. I has been a fast two years (and at times two long years), but two years that are unimaginable without our sweet Joshua Todd!