kids

kids

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

John is 2!!!


I can't believe it, but our little guy is now two years old!!! This past year went by even more quickly than his first year, I think. It feels like we just celebrated his first birthday.

John's actual second birthday, January 8th, was pretty quiet. We spent the morning at home but ventured out into the cold that afternoon for a trip to Target. It sounds like a boring thing to do on a two-year-old's birthday, but it was a big treat for John really. He ADORES Target because he gets to play in the toy section with one of the adults while the other adult does the shopping. I had a lot of groceries to pick up for his party, so John got to play in the toy section with Grandma and Lila for a very long time.

On the way home from Target, we stopped at Chipotle to pick up some dinner. I didn't think about it at the time, but John actually had Chipotle on his first birthday as well! It was a Chipotle date with his dear friend Elise. Look at this adorable photo of them before they got ridiculously messy eating their lunch!


I didn't take very many photos the day of his birthday, maybe because I knew I'd be snapping a million photos the day after during his party. I did take a few photos of him opening his presents from Great Grandma Schuchard, though, and I took two videos of him opening his presents from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Jeff.

Here is the video of him opening the Thomas the Tank Engine book from Grandma ("Ma") Bonnie and Grandpa ("Papa") Jeff.




This next video shows him playing with his new Leapfrog alphabet magnet set from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Jeff.





Here's John showing Grandma ("Jamma") Kay his new magnet toy.....


And here he is opening his gifts from Great Grandma Schuchard.....a book called The Little Blue Truck and a couple of Thomas the Tank Engine trains!



For the record, John had his two-year doctor's visit on January 19th. He is in the 50th percentile for both his weight (28.5 pounds) and height (34.25 inches) -- completely average for a boy his age! I found that interesting because he's always been a little below average in weight (25th-50th percentile) and a little above average in height (5oth-75th percentile). Anyway, the doctor gave him a clean bill of health (and he told me John was one of the most patient two-year-olds he had ever examined!)


Other things to note about John at age 2:

His schedule: John's schedule hasn't changed a whole lot in the last six months. I've just had to push his naptime and bedtime back slightly to account for the fact that he now wakes up in the morning a little later. A day in the life of John looks like this:

Between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. - John wakes up. Grandma Kay gets him out of his crib, changes his diaper and gets him dressed. They watch an episode or two of a preschool tv show, like The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Caillou, while Mommy and Lila sleep a little longer. (Lila still gets up two or three times every night so Mommy is tired.)

8:00 a.m. - Breakfast

9:00 a.m. - If it's Tuesday, John has school from 9 until 1. If it's Sunday, he's in the church nursery while we're at the church service. Three mornings a week I take him to the gym with me so I can go to the 9:30 workout class. John loves to play in the gym's child care center.

11:30 a.m. - Lunch

12:00 p.m. - Storytime

12:15 p.m. - Naptime

Between 1:30 and 2 p.m. - John wakes up

3:00 p.m. - Usually by this time John is ready to get out of the house for a little trip (especially if we didn't go anywhere that morning). Sometimes I take John by himself somewhere if Grandma is able to watch Lila at home. Sometimes we all go somewhere together.

5:45 p.m. - Dinner

6:15 p.m. - Bathtime

7:00 p.m. - Storytime

7:15 p.m. - Bedtime


Eating habits: John is still an amazingly good eater. He eats almost anything! There are very few things he doesn't like. The only things I can think of off the top of my head that he doesn't like are black olives (i.e. on pizza) and mashed potatoes. He is always willing to try new foods, which is great. I never thought a two-year-old could have such an adventurous palate.

John's favorite breakfast foods include applesauce, strawberries, yogurt, muffins, waffles and cereal (Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, or oatmeal). Although he will eat just plain cereal out of the box, he ADORES eating his cereal with milk in it. Actually, he will tell you (loudly) if he wants milk in it: "Milk in it! Milk in it!"

For lunch, he likes to eat fruit along with either a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or turkey cold cuts with cheese. Sometimes he'll eat leftovers from the night before. For dinner, he normally eats whatever Grandma and I are eating. I always try to give him at least one vegetable with dinner. He likes cut-up fresh veggies with dip, corn, carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes and green beans.

John's favorite snacks to eat are fruit and veggies purees (in those squeeze packets), pretzels, crackers and fruit strips. He usually eats his snacks while we are on the go instead of at the house.


Sleeping habits: Beginning in November, John started waking up really early in the morning (before 6). I thought maybe the problem was that his 7 o'clock bedtime was just too early for him now that he was almost two, so in early December, I moved his bedtime back 15 minutes to 7:15. That has helped a lot. He pretty much wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30 every day now.

Then, because he was waking up later in the morning, I decided to move his naptime back 15 minutes to 12:15 p.m. John never takes super long naps unless he is sick. I would say his naps average about 75-90 minutes. I wish he would nap for two hours, but I can't complain at all.


Potty training? No, not yet. I've been reading a lot about the subject, and John definitely does not meet the two major requirements for being ready to potty train: 1) recognizing the urge to go and 2) being bothered by a wet or poopy diaper. John won't even admit when he's pooped! The good thing is that I always know when he's pooping, and I've started asking him if he'd like to go sit on the toilet to go poop. (Sometimes he actually says yes, but he's never actually gone poop on the toilet.) After he poops in his diaper, I take him into the bathroom so he can flush the poop down the toilet and wash his hands. He likes doing that. This week I am going to buy him a little potty of his own or one of those things that goes on top of the toilet -- I haven't decided yet.

Playing habits: The winter weather has been tough for us because we can't go outside to play as often. Grandma did get John a sled that has a rope attached so we could take him for "walks" on the paths around her house. He loves to play in the snow whenever we're outside, even if we're just walking in the parking lot from the car to a store.

Luckily, John got a ton of cool toys and books for Christmas and his birthday. It's been so nice to have new things to entertain him this last month! His favorite gifts were the Fisher-Price Little People airport Ross and I got him for Christmas and the motorized Thomas the Tank Engine train set that our neighbors got him for his birthday. He has also been obsessed with the Curious George book Uncle Ethan and Aunt Lindsay got him for Christmas. We read it almost every day.

Well........

.....this post is detailed enough to do justice to our little boy's 2nd birthday. At two years old, John is an incredibly sweet and fun-loving boy. He makes me laugh so many times every day with the things he says and does! Even when I am utterly exhausted from taking care of him (Lila is definitely the easy one), he can put a smile on my face. Stay tuned for photos and videos of John's birthday party.....

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