C at 2

C at age 2 is a lot of fun.  He is so much fun, but he also takes a lot of my energy.  I joke that if he were in school he'd have a one-on-one aide.  Mischief always seems to land in his lap.  Part of that is just the normal 2 year old curiosity about life and part of that is normal boy, but I think C might have received an extra spoonful of 'mischief ' when he was getting his attributes assigned.  I just found another place that he colored all over the carpet with a marker (thankfully it is washable...and grr to his sister for not taking care of things!)  He loves coloring...on everything...if it is someone else's paper or something other than his own paper, it is even more enjoyable.

He's just starting to say letters and point to words.  Now, the letters don't correspond to the words, but he's starting to become interested.  He loves doing 'school' with us...if that involves coloring or his own 'worksheets'.  He loves the dry erase boards.  He always asks for 'green' but only about half the time does he really get green out when he asks for it.  But, it is always exciting to see that initial learning occurring.

Trains are a favorite.  He loves, loves, loves Thomas.  He seems to always have an engine in his hand.  We read lots of Thomas books.  However, he does play with all of the different types of trains that are around the house...Big trains, little trains...the boy just loves trains.  He loves anything with wheels really...matchbox cars, tractors, trucks, construction vehicles.  Right now he loves the tractor and combine.  G'pa is harvesting using both and so C has spent quite a bit of time playing with his too.  He also loves playing with Duplos and building stacks.  His imaginative play is beginning to develop and I'll hear him talking with his toys.  He is at such a fun stage.

C's vocabulary is exploding like crazy.  His sentences are typically around 3 words..."Moon up sky" or "Need drink, Mom." or "Watch 'coveries, Mom" (The Great Discovery) or "Dad home?  No church.".  He LOVES to talk.  He loves that he can communicate his wishes.  He just started tattling on his older siblings.  I hear, "Mom, Nander blah, blah, blah" , or "Mom, Espeth blah, blah, blah."  I can usually only understand the first two words and then he goes on talking but I can't decipher what he's saying but I can tell by his voice inflections that he's tattling on his brother.  If the olders are excited talking about something, he has to be right there talking too.

He runs everywhere.  He's lost that toddler gait...he's all boy running.  He loves to jump...loves to jump off things (especially the furniture).  If he's not jumping off things, then he's climbing up on to things.  He has the cutest gallop.

He still likes to rock at nap and bedtime.  But, many times, he'll look at you after a few rocks and say, "crib".  And that means cuddle time is up and he's ready for bed.  Most nights he'll put himself to sleep but sometimes we end up in there for quite a while because he doesn't want to be alone while he gets himself to sleep...but that is happening less and less frequently (but it happened tonight).

His favorite book right now is a non-fiction children's book called Eruption.  It is all about volcanoes and how scientists decide to evacuate an area.  It has great pics of volcanoes but isn't your typical book that 2 year olds would enjoy.  He likes looking at the maps and point to them and say, "Casey Thailand".  He can generally point to SE Asia where Lindsey is.  But, his love of that book amazes me.  He has chosen to read it almost every nap time and bedtime for the last week.

C is currently adamant that he wants to wear undies.  But, he has no real concept about using the potty.  He's had a couple #2 successes on the potty, and he goes everyday that he naps when I wake him up but he doesn't really get it.  .  However, that doesn't stop him from refusing to wear a diaper and pulling out X's undies and putting them on.  Thankfully, he typically has very small accidents that only wet his undies when he's wearing undies, but after the second pair of undies in a morning, I get fed up with changing wet undies and force the diaper issue.  Tonight we solved the underwear issue by wearing them on the outside of his clothes...looked rather funny but much easier to clean up.

C can be a rather shy guy.  Object permanence hasn't become a reality in his world yet.  So, he shuts his eyes when he doesn't want you to see him..  He'll get shy with people and bury his head in my legs or turn his head so that he can't see them when he wants to be coy...or is feeling a bit sheepish or shy.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to him...and either our singing was awful or he didn't like the attention or something, he was quite distressed through the whole thing.  He wanted nothing to do with the candles, either.  He perked right up when he was given his piece of cake, though.  We'll see how he does this weekend for his and X's b'day party.

One last note:  C outweighs X by 1.5 lbs...he's roughly 37.5 lbs, but he's still a couple inches shorter than his big brother...so X is still mostly a clothing size ahead of him.