Little Buddy: 2 years

Little Buddy by month 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 

As much as I wish I would have written about your latest accomplishments every single month, I just couldn't keep up with that! So the last Little Buddy post was 6 months ago, at 18 months, forgive me.

You // You are so independent and stubborn. You know what you want and you know how to get it. You will crawl into anyone's lap and make friends with anyone. Some days I think this is a good thing and other days I kind of wish you had a bit of stranger danger! You my son are a true joy. I can't even believe you are already two!

Growing // As of yesterday, at your 2 year check up, you weighed 29 lbs and you were 34.5 inches, which means you were in the 62nd percentile for weight and 54th for height. Your dad has done the math and he's thinking you are going to be a bit taller than him, maybe 5'9"?

Eating + sleeping // You love crackers and only want to eat crackers or cereal. For breakfast, you use to eat eggs, now it's cereal or sometimes oatmeal. For lunch, you just eat crackers and we might get you to eat some cheese or yogurt or some fruit. Some of your favorite foods though when you do eat real food are sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, any type of meat, eggs, cheese, smoothies, peas, green beans, bread, and the list goes on really. But you absolutely love breakfast and you come into our room and we say ...do you want breakfast and you say something that sounds like beetches and smile really big and nod your head.

You are sleeping in your toddler bed and have been for a few months now! The first few weeks were rough as you kept falling out of your bed. And then you got sick and discovered you could get out of bed and open your door and walk into our room. So every morning when you wake up, you walk your little self across the hall and into our room. You walk over to my side of the bed and say mama or mom as you have started to call me...and this is how I have been waking up for the past few weeks, to your little smile calling my name. I love the sound of your little feet padding across the floor, and your dad and I wait in anticipation for your little face to appear in the doorway!

Wearing // I think you are still in some 18 month things and some 24 month things. The majority of the 18 month items are getting too small, but I continue to put you in them. Trying to make the most of all your clothes. Most of your 2T pants are still too big and tend to hang off you but we just roll them up! You still love shoes and you are getting very particular about what you wear, even picking out some of your clothes, and you definitely have favorite clothing items.

Doing // You are our little buddy!!! And you love to help us with anything we are doing. You helped your dad take apart the Christmas tree, you help me clean the house or get diapers for Ryan, or put things away in your room. You love when we give you little tasks.

Loving // Cars, shoes, your stroller, going for walks, crackers, smoothies, cereal, baths, cartoons, helping in any way possible, your bed, your bike, your rain boots, anything with pockets, books. You truly have an obsession with cars and anything with wheels really. You LOVE your bike and you ride it around the house and I finally took you outside with it for the first time and put on your helmet and now you want to wear your helmet in the house with your bike. And you love your rain boots because you love jumping/splashing around in puddles.  And of course you love your brother, at least I think the poking and prodding indicates love.

Loathing // Honestly, there isn't too much you don't like, but you still don't like having your face wiped. You definitely don't like when someone else plays with a toy you were playing with, but I kind of feel like this is normal. Sometimes when you are really particular you hate when we choose for you what you are going to wear. So we have gotten good at picking out two items and letting you pick from those items, that way you are still choosing, but just with less options.

Milestones //  Sleeping in your toddler bed. You had your first overnight with the grandparents to celebrate mom and dad's anniversary and then a month later mom and dad traveled to San Diego to celebrate Bekah getting married! You were a dream for both sets of grandparents. You had your first bowl of cereal with milk and you are officially using utensils. We bought you your first pair of rain boots, and your first bike! And you became a BIG brother!! And you had your first real trip to the zoo, the first time you were just a babe and I can't imagine you remember any of it! And you helped wash the car for the first time too - you loved having control of that hose.

Words // You have so many words I can't even keep track of them all! But your all time favorite words are cars and snackie. You love to say no, and you don't say yes too often, but when I point to something and ask if you want this or this, you just say this and nod your head. And we have this one cupboard in the house that is full of things like crackers and chips and cereal and you stand by the cupboard and say uppy uppy because you want up on the counter to get into the cupboard. You know body parts and clothing items and you call pants trousers and you call your diaper a dappy (a cross between a nappy courtesy of dad and a diaper courtesy of mom). You call water ...waj (I don't even know how to spell that). You are definitely communicating a ton with us and you get frustrated really quickly when we can't understand you.You have acquired so many more words over the past 6 months and you pick up things really fast.

Here are some photos over the past 6 months in no particular order.

 

Little Buddy: 18 Months

Well little person, let's just say you aren't all that little anymore. And we were so blessed to get a photo shoot in with some of our favorite people, Laura and Tim Sullivan with Lightworks360. The fantastic photos below are theirs, the other ones are mine! Check out my Second Time post if you want to see more photos from our shoot.

Growing // At your 18th month checkup you weighed 26.1 lbs and you were 32 inches long, which means you are currently in the 50th percentile for weight and 45th percentile for height. All signs of that preemie are long gone!

Eating + sleeping // You normally eat eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. You still aren't a huge fan of berries or any fruit for that matter, but you do love bananas, and that's about it, maybe apples? You love chips, crackers, bread, etc, really anything with flour in it or anything that has a crunch. You are still doing two naps - morning and afternoon. You sleep really well at night, and you are going to bed around 8 now that summer is upon us and you normally wake up around 6:30/7. We found that with a later bedtime you actually wake up later, which is amazing - no more 5:30/6 AM wake up calls. So I guess you are sleeping around 10.5/11 hours at night.

Wearing // Anything I put on you, and anything grandma buys you! She has made some significant contributions to your closet, and I am so thankful. You have started to transition to some 2T items.

Loving // You love to copy everything your dad does and you love hanging out in the garage! You absolutely LOVE cars, and you especially love your yellow car that has a home at the grandparents house. You love being at the canal and spending time in the water and you love the splash pad and the wading pool at Greenlake. You love splashing around! And running around. And you love going to the park near our house, swinging on the swings and climbing the bleachers, and running around on the baseball fields. And you LOVE your sock monkey!

Loathing // You still hate having your face wiped. And you aren't a huge fan of sunscreen.

Milestones// I bought you your first pair of shoes this month! Found them at Marshall's - pretty pleased with myself. All the other shoes you were wearing were borrowed - so I figured it was time to get you your very own pair!

Words // Shoes is your all time favorite word! And the usual mama, dada, etc. I'm sure there are others at this time, but I truly can't remember as I'm writing this 4 months too late. Maybe you started saying monk? And you are still saying woof woof for dog sounds more like woo woo and making other animal noises like meow for cat. And waving hi!

Little Buddy: 17 months

Child you are currently 21 months old! And so incredibly full of joy and love and life! But this post isn't about where you are at NOW, but rather where you were at 17 months. Let's see how much I can actually remember! Yikes.

Growing // I'm imagining you weigh about 25 lbs or so, and I'm basing this off how much you weighed at your 18 month checkup. You are a growing machine! Packing on the lbs and catching right up with all those other 17 month olds. 

Eating + sleeping // Still eating and sleeping like a champ! You LOVE to eat and snack and eat and snack some more. You are still doing two naps - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Wearing // I think you are still in some 12 month things and some 18 month things. Kind of between sizes. And you love shoes, but if I'm honest, we don't have that many pairs of shoes for you. And I'm starting to have to buy clothes for you, which seems strange, but the beautiful thing is you end up being in those clothes for months and months at a time versus growing out of something in a month. 

Doing // You are fully on the move and taking over the house and I love the sound of your pitter patter on the floor. 

Milestones // If I remember correctly, I think I stopped breastfeeding early this month. It was time, and I was ready. It was hard for me to drop the morning feeding as I feared you would wake up really early in the AM, and your dad and I would have to get out of bed rather than dragging you into bed with us. But you simply started sleeping later, an extra hour or so. And you just needed some extra back pats at nighttime. The transition was so easy that I felt a little bad for prolonging it like I had.

This month we also boarded a plane for a Buskirk family vacation to Maui, and let's just say I was very pleased when we actually landed as your dad and I were quite tired of walking you up and down the aisles. I love that you are walking now, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was cursing your mobility just a little during this flight. You were great in Maui - loved the sand and the water, and slept fairly good at night time. We all went to bed fairly early and woke up early seeing as there is a 3 hour time difference - so 5 AM was your morning wakeup time. We couldn't quite figure out naps for you, so you just kind of slept when you could, but you were such a trooper! And we all had such a great time.

We also celebrated mother's day with the entire family and your dad began his new job with Pilgrim Africa, which meant you started your first day at daycare! The first month was rough, but you are loving it now.