IJ is 28 months old!

11.6.11

Since turning 2 in July IJ’s vocabulary has skyrocketed. He loves to talk and often does so non-stop. We can have a complete conversation with him now. He also likes to sing and listen to music. His favorites are baby beluga, ABCs, Yankee Doodle (“Yankee ride pony”), happy birthday, EIEIO, any song from Yo Gabba Gabba, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Blackbird (Beatles song). He also recently picked up on a few curse words we occasionally use. He yells them out repeatedly when the mood hits. He loves vehicles, playing outside, his tricycle (which he rides expertly), his daddy’s bike, and reading books. He has memorized his books’ titles and various phrases within them. He likes to say “once upon a time.”

He decided he was ready for the potty about 2 weeks after his second birthday. He frequently uses the potty or pees outside all day long and only wears diapers for nap and night time. He started wearing underwear out of the house and while at school towards the end of September when he also began peeing on full size toilets. He does go through phases where he resists his potty and prefers to go outside (or resists going completely) but has been fairly consistent. He has perfected his color identification although confuses brown and black. He counts to 12. He is doing better with letting me leave him at school and I either sneak out or he actually tells me “bye bye mama.”

In the last month since ZJ was born IJ has seen a lot of changes at home. His mama was gone for a couple days and then brought a new baby into the house. He seemed quite interested in her and wanted to touch and hold her. At the same time he spent about 2 weeks being mainly cared for by his daddy and didn’t see his mama as much as he is used to. He did show a little aggression towards his sister a few times during these first few weeks but more often he wanted to kiss, hug, and “pet” her. He likes to help pat her when we are burping her. He always announces when she is crying and likes to talk about her pooping (even before he had ever witnessed her doing this). Most recently, he has only shown love and seems to be adjusting to the idea of her staying around. But, he has had lots of extra attention with his grandparents staying with us.

Days after turning 2 IJ went his first 24 hours ever without breastfeeding. This continued for about a week and he then asked for “gnu” and went back and forth skipping days. Prior to this, my milk had completely dried up due to the pregnancy, so he wasn’t really drinking, just latching and sucking. He continued to randomly ask here and there for a few months. He basically puts his mouth on and takes it off then repeats on the other side. He now only calls breasts or breastfeeding “gnu” and all other beverages are now called “wawa.” He went a long time without asking by the time his sister was born and then asked a few times when he saw her breastfeeding. He has only tried it out once and not again since. He has been drinking breastmilk daily since her birth due to my oversupply while pumping for her. I plan to continue providing milk for him as long as I am nursing and able.

IJ went through a rough sleeping time where he would not let us leave him in his crib awake and we would spend hours laying with him trying to get him to sleep. He finally, gradually got to a point where he was used to me leaving him at nap time and NJ worked on night time. He is now used to the routine of being put to bed awake. Naps are inconsistent. Sometimes he skips them and will just play/talk/sing in his crib and sometimes he sleeps. When he skips his nap he goes to bed around 7 pm if he naps he goes to bed around 8 pm. He usually wakes between 6:30 and 7:30 am.

In the last few months he started having more intense and frequent fits when he doesn’t get his way. He yells “No”, “Mine” and “My turn” constantly. Sometimes it seems like everything is a battle. We are getting a bit better at avoiding and talking him down from these situations but they are still frequent.

He was sick twice during August. First with an ear infection and then with a sore throat/swollen tonsils and fever. Then, 2 days after ZJ’s birth he got a cold and was snotty for a few days.