Two Years Four Months

Dear Roman,
January was a lousy month. We were just settling into our new house when we discovered  a major leak that has led to a series of random professionals/workers/people entering our house to work/fix/disrupt our little routine. Plus Dad was out of town for part of the month and you and I got colds. Through it all you have been amazingly flexible. You’ve been able to sleep through sawing, drilling, hammering and industrial fans blowing. When a worker comes over you greet them with excitement and show them where the problem area is. I am pretty sure you think you are actually helping them because you’ll go and get your tools and imitate what they are doing. You’ve adjusted and readjusted and readjusted again with ease. We are so proud of you!

Last month you were stringing full sentences together and this month you continued, plus you’ve started making up conversations between toys (like two lego men) and you are starting to have conversations with your friends. My favorite part of this skill is that you are able to remember events and talk about them in full detail. So if you go somewhere with your dad you can come home and tell me all about it. Every night after we’ve read books we sit and cuddle and I ask you what your favorite part of the day was. I LOVE hearing your response- it’s such insight into your thoughts.

Besides talking, hear is the list of your likes… and your dislikes this month-

LIKES:
*Curious George- absolute favorite and pretty much the only show you watch.
*Legos- duplos really, but you will sit for long periods and build all sorts of things. Castles, towers, cranes, rockets, crabs and robots are a few of the objects you’ve told us you are building.
*Waffles- sunday morning waffles compliments of dad are still a favorite.
*Astronauts
*Playing ball
*Scuba divers
*Books, reading- favorites right now are Bernstein Bears New Baby, One Fish Two Fish, Maisy, Curious George, Rolie Polie Olie.
*Tag and pacifier- anytime you are tired or sick you just want to get your tag (blanket), pacifier and cuddle up. but you’ve been pretty good at sticking to the rule that these two items are reserved for the bed only.
*Going out- “where are we going now mama” is something i hear constantly. after breakfast as we get ready for the day you’ll start asking me what the plan is. even if we’re out at a class or with a friend you’ll ask me what we are doing next. You just don’t want the fun to end and you love being in the know.
*Mini doughnuts- with a smile on your face you’ll say “mini doughnuts from Starbucks please.” So we go once a week and sit together chatting about who knows what. It’s actually really fun!
*Helping dad fix stuff
*Hide and seek
*Cleaning up
*Friends- you call most kids that you encounter at the park “my friends” which we just find adorable. You love your actual friends and talk about them all the time. “I ready to see Izzie” or Zoe/Evan/Alec/Shoshanna.
*Swimming- while we were out of our house this past week (construction) we stayed with Nana and Poppi who have a pool. Every night when your dad would get home from work he’d take you swimming. It was the best part of your day. You got so good at swimming by end of week you were using your arms and legs just like a swimmer with little assistance from dad plus you didn’t mind going under water.

DISLIKES:
*Washing hair
*Food- you say “I don’t like it” to just about every food. Honestly I think the only things you will eat consistently are: yogurt, bread product and milk. Of course any sweet goes straight into your mouth without hesitation. We’ve pretty much accepted the fact that you are the pickiest kid ever and supplement with vitamins and nutritional powder that gets mixed into your milk.
*Hands dirty- you hate, hate, hate having your hands sticky or messy. Even when painting you’ll go wash off your hands before continuing the picture. After every meal you’ll say, “I need my hands wiped off” before you ask to get down from your chair.
*Being inside too long- nothing makes you crabbier. You are just a kid who needs space and change.

Superhero

This Month

Dear Roman,
For a kid who waited until he was two to utter a few words you are sure making up for lost time.  I hadn’t even realized how chatty you have become until someone stopped me in a store the other day to let me know how “verbal” you were. I had to do a double take to make sure she was talking to me and speaking about YOU. Sure enough she meant you- the kid who now talks non stop, constantly, about all sorts of things.

There’s been lots of negotiating going on lately. If your parents set a boundary you like to try and add to or change our response. Like if we say, “one more book” you’ll come back with “two books, okay?”

You want to hear the same answer from both of us. So if you ask me something like “can I have a snack” and I say “yes” you’ll turn to your Dad and ask the same question. If he responds “yes” you’ll come to me and say, “Daddy says yes.” Often when you and I are alone you’ll try to convince me that Nana lets you do something that you know is not okay like stand on a chair or throw a toy. So I’ll just say “well Mama says NO” and you seem to accept that for now.

Oh and you aren’t so accepting of the answers I give. The other day you saw a Starbucks bag in the car and asked me what it was. I told you it was an empty bag and you responded, “I check okay Mama” full well knowing that there was at one time a treat inside and that there still could be something yummy to eat. Basically everything I tell you is followed with an “I check okay Mama.”

There are a lot of time warnings in our house which are very effective with transitions. So all day you hear from me “5 more minutes until we…” and you always respond by repeating “okay Mama, 5 more mittens.” It’s my favorite!

What I have realized is your imagination is running wild and I get such a kick out of listening to what you come up with next. Examples:

- The drummers at Snowflake Lane in Bellevue. You pretend to put on a drum around your neck and you grab your real drum sticks. Then you march around the house singing “Jingle Bells” and saying “I’m a drummer” while pretending to hand out lolly pops and candy canes to an imaginary crowd.

- Scuba diver- you get on the ground which you call “the ocean” and pretend to swim but it really looks like an army crawl as you shout “oh look sea turtles” or “I find baby sea shells.”

- Astronaut- still a favorite to play, you put on your helmet and pretend to fly around looking for moon rocks to put in your pockets.

- Parties- you like to have “parties” where you sing Happy Birthday and then blow out imaginary candles.

Anything can become an instrument. You are completely obsessed with all things musical so if you don’t have your drum sticks or guitar handy you’ll make an instrument out of anything from a book to a banana.

I feel like there is so much more to say about you at this age so I’ll just say to be continued for now…
xo,
Mom

Snowflake Lane

New House

Dear Roman,
We did it! We moved into our new home successfully without losing much along the way except maybe a little sanity here and there. It was a crazy couple of weeks trying to pack boxes and coordinate in between your trying to unpack the boxes and create as much chaos as possible. Then you and I caught a nasty cold and you started climbing out of your crib again and nobody in our house was sleeping!
Just as I thought you couldn’t possibly find another way to act out (throwing, screaming, clinging, climbing) and I couldn’t possibly stand another day trying to keep a sick little boy occupied with all his toys packed away the BIG MOVING DAY arrived! “Hi movers” you would say as the men came in and out of the house with furniture. Immediately you felt at home and what’s not to love. You have a big playroom where you can run around and mess everything up. You have a cozy little bedroom with your crib next to the window. I have caught you standing and looking outside where you spotted the trampoline in the neighbor’s yard and said, “I want to go there.” You are sleeping again and we couldn’t be happier!

Now we can focus on Christmas!

*Photo taken on one of the last days at the old house- without any toys you ended up playing in clothing drawers. You called yourself an “astronaut” and a “diver” in this particular ensemble.

Two Years and Two Months

Dear Roman,

Right now you are really into playing with toys. You say, “play with me Mama” and then instruct me on what we are going to play.

Lately it is a lot of building with blocks- “houses” and “rockets” are what you tell me we are going to build. Then an “astronaut” or “knight” (imaginary) join in the fun.

Another thing you still like playing with is your play food/kitchen. You ask me to sit at your little table and serve “tea” and “grilled cheese” sandwiches. Sometimes you’ll make some “treats” for us to eat too.

“Play cars” is usually something you want to do with your dad when he gets home from work. Playing cars consists of you dumping the bucket of cars out and distributing a car to each of your stuffed animals. “Here you go kitty cat, dog, orangutan” as you hand out various colored cars.

You are obsessed with clasps and latches like the ones on your booster seat, car seat and stroller. You HAVE to “help” me strap you in. Along the same lines you have now found huge interest with trying to take your toys apart. You’ll turn them over, run to get a screwdriver and twist away hard at work and deep in concentration. You really like trying to figure things out.

At preschool you LOVE the sensory room and spend most of your time at the paint, playdoh, water and sand stations. Today at school you rolled blue paint all over paper ducks and would stop everything to go wash your hands if paint got on them.

Evenings are spent with you getting quality time with your dad. The two of you go upstairs and get creative. I can hear the two of you playing that you are in a spaceship going to the moon. There’s lots of running and physical play and you LOVE it! I think your dad does too.

As you can tell you want your parents involved in your play time. For awhile you were going off on your own sometimes for up to 20 or 30 minutes, but these days you are all about having us near by and involved.

Besides playing you are are busy stringing words together and making sentences- although sometimes they are a little confusing for us to understand and you talk non stop, usually very enthusiastically and often using little sayings like “no way” “oh nice” and “no thank you please.” You try to count, but it comes out like 1, 3, 10…. and you try to say your ABCs which are also all jumbled up, but very cute to hear.

You LOVE singing songs right now. “Sing Mama” you’ll exclaim and then I’ll start singing a song and you’ll tell me “yeah” or “no” if you want me to continue. Songs you like to sing along to are Rain Rain Go Away and Row Row Row Your Boat.

You still adore rocking and reading books- especially before bedtime. There are definite favorites, currently you are loving anything illustrated by J Otto Siebold. You’ll stare at each picture and point to an image and say, “what’s that Mommy/Daddy?” over and over again.

You go to the potty on the toilet every night before bed. This has been going on for a couple months and has become part of your routine- go potty, brush teeth, put pjs on. You really feel like a big boy sitting on the toilet.

All in all you are still a very easy going child who is usually pretty happy which is saying a lot considering you are two!

Changes

Dear Roman,
There seems to be a lot going on right now for our family-

We found out that “Baby Bean” is a girl! A revelation that you have apparently known for awhile. Constantly you would tell me Baby Bean was a girl. Even if I’d try to explain that the baby could be a boy you’d persist with a confident- NO MAMA A GIRL!!! I was relieved to find out you were correct and I wasn’t going to have to argue with you anymore. You’ll give my belly lots of pats, hugs and kisses. And you try to share all your favorite things with her by shoving them at my belly and saying, “Please Baby Bean take this.”  But my favorite thing is when you tell me, “Baby Bean come out so I hold you.”

We started to look for a bigger house and you totally caught on to what was going on. We’d drive by houses and you’d say, “that my house?” Or you’d look and decide if it were a “nice” house or a “yuck” house. I actually started taking your opinion into consideration.  I’ve caught you calling Ben (our Realtor) on your play phone and having conversations about houses. It was all kind of amusing at first, but now I think you are tired of having your time taken up with looking inside houses where I run behind you saying NO TOUCH. You’d rather be at the park. So it’s probably a good thing that we ended up finding a new home.

I just apologize in advance for the coming months when your life gets turned upside down with packing, boxes, new rooms. Hopefully you’ll adjust to it all before we throw another curve ball your way. She’s due to arrive at the end of March…

Happy Halloween

Dear Roman,

This Halloween was so much fun. Right away you caught on that this holiday was something you were going to be into- mostly because it involved treats. The days leading up to October 31st you’d talk about candy. Anytime you saw a pumpkin you would exclaim “treat” as though it was a reminder of what was to come.

So it wasn’t surprising when we took you trick or treating tonight and you walked right up to each house, knocked on the door and said, “treat please” as though you were an old pro. Looking adorable in your astronaut costume people couldn’t resist and offered you multiple sweets from their candy bowels. And you really knew how to work the person at the door by politely asking for an extra piece of candy for “Mama” or “Kitty Cat.” I swear there was no coaching involved.

After a big night of going door to door you were completely content with a single lolly pop and your Dad and I are devouring the rest of your haul…

We love you!

 

Astronaut

dear roman,
your imagination is running wild lately. sometimes i think you just aren’t sure what you are talking about and other times i think you should pursue a career in creative writing.

something you are really into is pretending that you are an astronaut flying to the moon on a rocket ship to look for moon rocks. you will run up to tell me that you are an “astanaut” and then you take your hands and pretend to fly. Once landed on the “moon” you look for “moon rocks” and pick tiny pieces of nothing off the ground and put them in your pockets. We were walking down a city street the other day and out of the blue you took on your astronaut persona picking up moon rocks off the ground. you even held some up to a group of guys walking by shouting, “look moon rocks” as they smiled and laughed at you.

your kitchen set is another favorite pretend spot as you’ll make “soup” or “treats” or “cheese sandwiches” for your parents, stuffed animals or friends. And you love, love, love to serve tea. You will get a cup and saucer and hand it to me saying, “please mama tea” while pouring and re pouring from a tea pot.

then there are the stories you tell. You’ll talk about flying baby bumble bees and the neighborhood cat. You tell me stories about the people you love and what they are doing.

this part of your development has been fantastic to watch and we can only “imagine” it’s going to get even better!

Preschool

Dear Roman,
Today was the first day of preschool and you had a blast! Not too much of a surprise that you jumped right in. You wasted no time saying “hi” to teachers, exploring the five rooms and making yourself completely at home.

Your favorite room was the “craft room” that had multiple sensory tables filled with oatmeal and scoopers, play doh and cookie cutters and a water table with doll babies and wash rags. You played a lot at the play doh table and pretended to look for “baby seashells” at the oatmeal table like you would with sand at the beach. The funniest moment was when you handed wash rags out to your teachers and instructed them on how to clean a baby at the water table. Of course they were good sports and played along.  Besides the craft room you spent a lot of time at the play kitchen. Two little boys sat at a table while you served them play food and you all did a very good job of pretending to eat!

At the end of class we sang the goodbye song, you got a stamp on your hand and then started crying “no go home Mama” over and over. Luckily you and I get to go back every Monday for the rest of the school year.