Week 108

Mar 23-29

So Jack had his official 2 year old well child check up. Craziness! I remember when he was super little and it felt like we went to the doctors every couple of months. Now he doesn't have to go back until he is THREE! He is all caught up on his shots (except for the flu shot which Ed and I don't really believe is necessary for healthy kids).

I will start with physical growth. Jack was 90th percentile for his weight and 99th percentile for his height. If he was 1/8th of an inch taller he would have been off the chart! He is going to be a big boy!!!! I was a little nervous about the weight but the pediatrician assured me he is proportionate to his height and he looks VERY healthy. Ed and I are very anxious about him being overweight since it is such an epidemic in children these days. She said he is tall and lean and I have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The pediatrician keeps asking me if he is a "picky eater" yet as most toddlers are. I told her if anything his taste for different foods improves with time. He has started eating more meats. He has always liked all fruits and vegetables. The kid even eats salad! There are times when he practically eats the portion size of a young adult. But then other times he is not as hungry and he might just graze a little. We are still trying to keep his diet as healthy as possible. He drinks milk, water, and juice. We try to give him balanced meals and he gets treats every now and then.

So Jack surpassed all of the expected developmental milestones as usual. I have to brag because I am so proud of him. The expected language development for a 2 year old to have a vocabulary bank of 30-50 words. Well of course my child has way more words than that...look at how much his mom talks! Haha!

Jack has at least 100 words in his vocabulary...if not more. I have always prided myself on explaining everything I am doing, even when he was a baby and I felt kind of silly talking to him in full sentences because he obviously wasn't going to repeat it. I feel like that has really helped him. We are constantly going over words and identifying objects.

Jack can speak in 3-4 word sentences and phrases. For example he will often ask, "Where did Daddy go?" if Ed leaves the room. He is very observant. Children at 2 years old are also supposed to identify objects and point them out as you ask them. Jack can do that, but I feel like he has kind of surpassed that phase because we read to him all the time and point things out in books, now he takes the initiative and points out the objects himself as he names them. You know those books that just have one object per page? He has mastered them. It is really funny going to the grocery store with him because he points at everything and yells it out loud until you acknowledge him.

When we show him pictures of people he will identify them by name. He used to just know me, Ed, and himself. Now he identifies all of his friends by name, and also his Grandma, Uncle Andy, Uncle Will, and Aunt Caroline. He recently saw most of them so he remembers.

He loves to do his "A,B,C" puzzle and can correctly identify about 20 out of 26 letters of the alphabet. He can count to 5 and sometimes he can count higher than that (depends on what mood he is in). He has started to sing songs...his favorite being the annoying "Clean Up" song from the old Barney movies. He must have learned that one in school. He tries to sing "ABC's" and "Twinkle Twinkle".

He is very sweet and social. He always hugs his friends and talks to them. He knows when I am going to work because "Ashie" comes to our house and when I come down in my scrubs he runs over and gives me a "hug and kiss Mommy" and then he automatically says, "Bye bye!" He doesn't mind when we leave. Same with when I drop him off at school. It's almost sad because he is so confident, but I am glad he doesn't cry and have separation anxiety.

He is very independent and likes to figure things out himself. He also likes to "help" with everything that we do. LOVES to throw things in the trash when asked. LOVES to help empty the dishwasher, put clothes in the laundry and he even knows the correct buttons to push to turn them on. It is very cute but sometimes annoying when you are in a hurry. One thing you learn with a 2 year old is endless amounts of patience. :)

Right around his 2 year old birthday he started climbing out of his crib. He is pretty slick about it too...you never even would hear a thud because he skillfully shimmied down the rails. He would get stuff around his room, put it over the rail, and then climb back in. We decided for safety reasons it was a good idea to go ahead and put him in a toddler bed. He has done VERY well with it. I was really nervous about it because I thought he would just play around his room and not go to sleep.

Nights he goes right to sleep (score!) and nap times we have utilized the "Super Nanny" method of putting him back in his bed every time he gets out, not saying anything. The first couple of days it took about an hour to get him to fall asleep and get the idea...now it is like 15 minutes and he is down. He started napping again (double score!) after a nap drought for the past couple of months.

We have been letting him stay up until around 7:30 pm now. It is starting to get dark later and later so why not? We are hoping to adjust his wake up time to 7:30-8:00 am. We will see how that goes. He still sleeps for 12 straight hours at night and takes about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap.

He has started to exhibit some of the traits of "terrible twos". He had to start at some point being a typical kid. Haha! Overall he is very well behaved, but sometimes he does try to push the limits and can be defiant. He will get frustrated when he doesn't get his way. It is amazing how fast children learn the art of manipulation. Sometimes he will want something and I will tell him "no." He will look over toward Ed and in a whiny pathetic voice say, "Dada?" We are trying our best to stick to our guns and teach him at an early age that Mommy and Daddy are a united front and if one says no then that means no. Hilarious!

Physically he is in tip top shape. When he is awake the kid is on full speed the entire time! He climbs, plays, runs, jumps, etc. I must say it is hard to keep up with him at times (especially being pregnant and tired) but he keeps me on my toes! He loves the park and can climb up any type of structure. He likes to slide, swing, play basketball, run around, and play with his friends. He is super active!

We have started putting him in "school" two days a week. It is the Child Development Center (CDC) on base and they do drop in care for a very reasonable rate. He goes for about 2-3 hours twice a week and has come to LOVE it. When I tell him he is going to school that day he runs and gets his shoes. The whole drive there he talks about, "school, play, kids." It is super cute and I love to see him have fun playing with other kids in an organized setting. Most of the kids there are regulars so when he walks in they all run up to him and yell, "JAAACK!!!" It is the cutest thing ever. He hugs all of them and then just jumps right in to whatever activity they are doing. Socialization is a wonderful thing. :)

I think Jack is going to be a great big brother when the time comes in September. In the meantime we are going to start working on potty training. We have started introducing him to the idea, but have not really started to enforce it. I read that the "ideal" time to start is 2 years and 3 months old so we will try soon. I want to wait until I have a nice stretch of time off of work so I can basically take off his diaper for a few days and just constantly have him sit on the potty and try to go. More to come!

Here are some pictures I took of him the other day, he is growing fast! :)