2 Years Old - Monthly Summary

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

YAY! Kye is FINALLY 24 months old and that means he's TWO and no longer a certain-month-old. I've been pretty pumped about this! I know exactly what you are thinking "that means we don't have to endure Emily's looooong borrrring monthly summary posts every month! yay!" Sorry to disappoint but I have no plans on stopping with these posts. While they may be boring to you (and a pain for me to write if I'm honest about it), I think they are mega important. As Kye grows up these will be the posts I probably refer back to the most as they capture his precious little moments and personality traits. From now on though they won't be as formal and will be one post instead of two.

Here's what Kye was up to his last month of being 1!

Vocabulary: His vocabulary has literally exploded (okay not literally but you know what I mean!). He speaks in sentences at least 40% of the time. He says things clearly, where other people can understand him. He's using pronouns correctly. He says "ma'am" now instead of saying "me" He loves to say "Kye do it" or "Mommy do it" when he wants something done. He uses "please" correctly. He can now say "sorry" instead of just kissing us when he's sorry and he will apologize in the correct setting to people/things as well (he will accidentally bump into the wall and say "sorry") He says "excuse me" rather well and will say "thanks" when prompted. He cannot say "you" yet or "love." We have taught him to be careful when closing doors (doors have ALWAYS been a love of his since early on in life!) and he will say "eeeeeasy" whenever he closes one. Every time we pick him up from Bible class and ask what he's learned he says "cookies!"

Reading: He's REALLY into reading and LOVES books. Especially his truck book. Pointing at pictures and saying what they are is his version of "reading" and that works for me! He still wants "mommy read" most of the time but typically he'll interrupt my reading to take over!

Drawing: The #1 thing we do around here right now is color. Kye will sit at the table practically the entire day coloring. He especially enjoys a plain sheet of paper and a pen! It's cute because he's imitating us and how we "color." It's especially fun to listen to him while he's coloring because he'll tell us all the wonderful things he's drawing (like in this video). Here's a video of Kye drawing the "coo coo clock" he sees at Gramma's house (random!).

He's very focused on his task

I may need to start taking paper donations soon :)

It's PRECIOUS to watch him "work" with Daddy (he initiated this all on his own...so sweet)

Potty training: I haven't really updated you guys on this situation in awhile! He is WONDERFUL. Rarely an accident and can hold it now for a good solid 4 hours. I am always sure to take him before leaving for somewhere and he can hold it until we get home. I can ask him if he needs to go potty and he'll typically tell me yes or no. He's also nap trained!!! He has only had about 5 nap accidents since we tried it! Most mornings he wakes up with a dry diaper but I'm still too chicken to try night training. We have a decent amount of diapers left so once we start running low we'll probably start with the night training. I would really like to have him settled into a big boy bed before taking that step though ya know? I mean he JUST turned two so it's not like there's a rush!

Small spaces: I'm not a fan of small spaces, but Kye is! If there's a random basket of any kind then he'll find a way to fit himself into it (like a cat or something!). It's a great thing because it makes me hopeful that he won't be claustrophobic like I am. As I was organizing my office area I found him like this!

Flossing: I've been starting to get into the routine of flossing Kye's teeth. I found a bunch of those little flosser things in my stuff from the move and figured why not? We floss them at night and he's totally fine with it. I STILL struggle with remembering to brush his teeth in the mornings though. Isn't that terrible??? Any suggestions to do better remembering this???

Washing hands: Kye's become quite the pro at washing his hands and he especially loves to use soap ("bubbles") when washing. He will climb up on his stool all by himself and even turn on the faucet! We are having to work on not making a mess but otherwise he's doing great with it. Now if only Mommy and Daddy can do better making sure he always washes them (what can I say? I'm just not a germ-worry person!!!).

Those cute little chubby baby legs are getting less and less chubby :(

Social Skills: I am not one of those parents who thinks their kid is the SMARTEST, the CUTEST, the BEST kid ever. If anything I probably play down his greatness :) One area where I do think Kye excels is with social settings. He does AWESOME around all children. He shares great. He is super friendly and polite. Zach and I both want our children to be smart and well-mannered but more than anything we want for them to do well socially. If you think about it, success in life is 90% due to how well you relate to other PEOPLE. People skills are VITAL so this is something we highly value! Since Kye is older now and his schedule isn't as rigid it's important for him to get lots of social interactions and I enjoy plenty of play date time! Robyn got some cute pictures of this but we found the kids sitting together on her couch sharing their snacks...it was really sweet (although Lorelai doesn't look super pumped in this picture I promise she was being sweet!!!)

"bounce": One day I walked into Kye's room to get him up from his nap and this video shows what I found him doing. I have no clue where he learned it but the boy can do some serious bouncing! I am not a jump on the bed kind of mom (does this surprise you? It really shouldn't...) but I can't get onto him for it in his crib during his nap, but I do tell him to stop when I walk in and catch him. He does also try to bounce on the furniture and will try to trick us by saying he's "dancing." Ummm my response is always "dance on the floor."

Hiding: Other than coloring hiding is the favorite activity! It's SUPER fun too and I love that he's at an age where Zach and I can really play with him. He understands that he has to count and come find us and he understands that we count and come find him. We love to hide when we hear Daddy coming home from work and Kye pretty much loves to hide for ANY reason he can find. If I'm cleaning up from a meal and walk into the living room this is usually what I find:

You'll even hear a cute little voice saying "where Kye go??" which then forces you to say "where did Kye go? Kye? Kye?" thankfully, you always tend to find him!

He LOVES it and will hide over and over and over again!

Roomtime: My very first BIG regret as a parent is not sticking to roomtime when Mom moved in with us. I worried that with all the craziness of living with someone new and being busy building a house that Kye would struggle with it and that it'd be tough for Mom to have to hear him fussing all the time. She never asked me not to do it - I just didn't and I SO regret that now. It's a BEAST trying to get back on track with it and its been a good lesson for me to learn for baby #2 someday. Start independent playtime young and never stop! We opened up a cool Christmas present in the playroom and it's helped occupy him some so he'll play for like 3 min then scream the rest of the time. He'll eventually get it right??? (here's a video of him playing with his new garage!)

Phone: When traveling I was never one to say "let me talk to Kye!" I mean why bother? He was a baby he just sat there. It's always silly to me when parents do that, or when people ask to talk to their pets. I mean really? Now times have changed and I totally want to talk to Kye! He talks back!!! It's precious and so fun and he started doing it at the perfect time because everyone was able to call and talk to him on his birthday! This video is when Zach called and he talked to Kye. I love how he'll even give kisses through the phone :)

Letters: I mentioned in an earlier post that Seth and Crissy gave us Leapfrog Letter Factory on DVD and oh my goodness that video is awesome! Kye LOVES it and we sing the songs non-stop around the house. He's become in LOVE with letters! He recognizes several of them when we sees them and knows many of their sounds. I also appreciate that all the Leapfrog toys he has incorporate the letter sounds and little letter song that the DVD has. Here's a little video of him happily playing with his letters.

hopefully this new love with stick around awhile

snacks: Omg you know how sometimes people will say something in a certain way that just makes your skin crawl??? For me it's when Kye says "snacks." It sounds SO nasily and whiney and it seriously makes me want to vomit. I shudder even typing this. Here's a video of him saying it and I promise you it's a video I'll NEVER watch haha He really is a snack-obsessed kid and it's totally my fault (I mean what else do you use to keep a kid happy at church? when running errands? in the car?) My goal for this month is to break him of the snack-habit and so far, so good!!!

at least he looks cute while saying it right?

sorry, couldn't resist one more cute pic!

At 24 months old Kye seems right on target of what where What to Expect the Toddler Years says he should be. He can:

take off an article of clothing (pants!)
"feed" a doll (the dogs?)
build a tower of 4, 6 and even 8 cubes
identify 2 and even 4 items in a picture by pointing
throw a ball overhand
speak and be understood half the time
identify 1 item in a picture by naming
draw a vertical line in imitation (he doesn't need to imitate..he LOVES drawing lines over and over...)

The only things he's not quite doing are:

jumping up (he's precious to watch try though! He bends those knees and thinks he's jumping...I need to video tape him soon before he learns how to really do it)
carrying on a conversation of 2 or 3 sentences

Kye's current schedule IS much more on track than it was for awhile there! I'm going to work on moving our awake time earlier but it's hard b/c we all like to sleep in!!! However, with swim lessons soon and preschool in the fall, an early morning is essential to allow us to get everything done and be on time to everything!

6:50ish: I get up and get ready (yay for me! I no longer linger in pjs with messy hair all day! I get ready for the day each morning!) Ideally this will be even earlier as I really do want to do a daily devotional and this is the best time for me to accomplish that.
7:30: Kye up. (ideally this will move to back 7 and everything else will shift earlier too) Daddy gets him up and he will help Daddy make the bed (and this is the time that I'd like to be having morning bible study too)
7:45ish: eat breakfast
8:30ish: roomtime (an attempt anyway...far from being successful with this still!)
9:00: if we're home I'd like to be walking during this time and have plenty of time to play at the playground, even take a snack there
10:30: snack time. It's snack time at preschool so I'm trying to give him a snack here and move his lunch later (since lunch has ALWAYS been at 11)
11:30-12: eat lunch. He'll get home from school around noon so lunch will need to be right when he gets home then!
12:30: get ready for nap
12:45-3:30 (or whenever he wakes up after that): nap
after nap: snack
after snack: roomtime #2 (which I haven't started yet...I want to get him to at least somewhat play in the morning one before having it twice a day again!)
6:00: dinner
7:00: bath
7:30-7:45: bed

He is allowed to watch 1-2 30 min length movies a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I try to keep him busy enough to where we only do one, but he will ask me for it when he wants it and understands he can only watch it at the times we allow. We also go and do a lot more than we used to. Kye's at an "easy age" as far as all of that goes and I enjoy our times out of the house!

It's not where I WANT to be with his schedule...but it's getting there. I'm thankful that we're never moving again so all my other children will be easier to keep on the hardcore schedule I love!