Two and a Half Year Old Recap:
Likes: iPad, baths, playing outside (especially swings & slides), snacks, babies, Minnie Mouse, play dough, coloring, hide-and-seek
Dislikes: When you take the iPad away, when she first gets up from sleeping (horrible mood!!), when she doesn't get to wear the shoes she wants or doesn't get to wear a jacket, sharing
Sleep: Hollon wakes up between 6:00-7:00. She is usually in a horrible mood, so everyone just tries to steer clear. When we get home Mother's Day Out (around 1:15) she will go down for a nap. Sometimes she goes straight to sleep, sometimes she plays for an hour and then goes to sleep. Usually sleeps for about 2 hours. Wakes up in a horrible mood. Once she has had a while to chill out, she is usually fine and we go on to have a great afternoon. She goes to bed around 8:00. She always wants to take lots of things with her to bed. Books, dolls, coloring book, shoes. She has 4 things she must sleep with - a stuffed pig to use as a pillow, Minnie Mouse doll, Good Night Moon book and a muslin blanket covering her. She goes to bed pretty easily. I always have to read Good Night Moon to her before she goes to bed (she doesn't make Robbie or anyone else read it if they take her to bed). She is still in her crib. She was trying to climb out, so we dropped the mattress to the floor. Some time this year, we'll move her to a toddler bed, but for now, we are content with the crib. A few nights a week, she will still get up around 2 AM. She'll cry out, but I usually refuse to get her (whenever we do go get her when she wakes up in the middle of the night, it turns into a worse situation). Lately, she wakes up saying she's hungry (see next category below).
Eat: Still a so-so eater. Sometimes she eats great, other times horrible. She has definitely gotten pickier and usually will not eat what we are eating for dinner. It is furstrating. She won't eat anything for dinner. We'll try and try and she just pushes it away. Then around 2 AM she wakes up saying she is hungry. I want to scream at her "THAT'S WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE EATEN DINNER!!!". I at least try to give her an apple and big glass of milk before bed. She eats the normal toddler food - pizza, chicken nuggets, fries, gummies, goldfish, fruit, applesauce. She drinks 3 sippy cups of milk and the rest of the time water.
Size: She is pretty standard size wise. She wears a 2T, but can wear a 3T in some things and 18M in others. She wears a size 7 shoes and size 5 diaper.
Personality: One on one with someone, she acts shy. But in a group or if she is the center of attention, she loves to show off. We are definitely in the midst of toddler tantrums. She can be very hard headed. She likes playing with other kids, but doesn't like sharing with them. She can be very bossy. When she wants to be, she can be very affectionate and loving. But other times, she can be kind of mean (especially to brother). She LOVES to sing, dance and perform.
Clothes: We have entered the opinion stage. I knew it was coming, but it is still hard when it hits. Thankfully right now, mostly her opinion is on what shoes she wears. But occasionally we'll disagree on an outfit. She likes anything pink, dresses or things she thinks is pretty.
Talking: She is talking so much more now. You can actually have somewhat of a conversation with her. I love the way she pronounces things. My favorite is how she says her name, Hollon (hall-i) and Sofia (fe-fe). I also like when I ask her if she is a baby. She'll say "no, I'm not a baby". Then I'll ask her if she is a big girl. She'll say "no, I'm not a big girl". So I ask what is she? She'll say "I'm a Hollon!".
Favorites:
-Books: Good Night Moon, Pete the Cat (until she ripped it apart), Minnie Mouse, Richard Scarry Best Word Book Ever
-Songs: Jesus Loves Me, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wheels on the Bus
-Shows/Movies: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, PAW Patrol, Peppa Pig, Sofia the First Cinderella, Little Mermaid
-Toys: Kitchen, babies, Elmo alphabet letters, doctor kit, little people house and bus, Peppa Pig and bus, PAW Patrol mini figures, play dough, puzzles
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I was looking back at my blog when Jake was this age. I wrote about it {here}. Since he was 30 months, I wrote 30 things about him. I thought it would be neat to compare his 30 things to Hollon's. Hollon's are in red.
2) Granddad got him Cars the other day & he really enjoyed watching it too. He calls Lightening McQueen "Queen" & Mator "Lator". (He was obsessed with everything Cars related last week. But that was last week.) Hollon is not interested in Cars. But she has recently discovered Barbies and loves them.
3) Now he loves Gnomeo & Juliet this week. For some reason, he calls Gnomeo "Pinocchio" and Juliet "Julia". So he will always ask if he can watch "Pinocchio & Julia". Jake & I watched this movie with Hollon the other day and she was not interested.
4) I swear our child is not a couch potato! A lot of times it will be on & he will start watching it, but then start playing. I think he really likes the music parts of the movies. I'd love it if he never watched TV, but it is a LIFE SAVER for car rides & conference calls! Same for Hollon!
5) He loves to play outside. He asks to go "outside" at least 20 times a day. He of course has outdoor time at school & then I try to take him out around 4:00 if work permits. Even at 4:00, he is still pouring sweat. Poor thing! Hollon loves outside as well. Thankfully she is not as hot-natured as Jake was.
6) He loves to go to the park. His favorite are the swings. Hollon's favorite too. Also the slide.
7) He loves to color. He gets such look of concentration. I love to watch him color, but I hate the mess. Yes, crayons have created some of our biggest messes. Jake loves to dump them out of the box, so they always get stepped on. He also loves to color in the car. Which we always forget & then in return get a huge melted mess. Hollon loves to color as well.
8) He loves for you to read to him. He loves to "read" his favorite books back to you. Same with Hollon.
9) His eating is okay. Sometimes he will not eat anything, other times he eats everything. Same with Hollon.
10) His new treat & favorite thing is popcorn. He also especially loves gummies & yogurt (which he calls "sogurt". He combined the words 'so good' & 'yogurt'). Hollon likes popcorn, but we hardly ever have it around.
11) Sometimes he will still take a mid-day nap, but not usually. I don't fight him too hard on it, because he goes to bed so much better if he doesn't take a nap. I do make him lie down & rest though for at least an hour. (He stayed with my mom this week & she got him back on a nap schedule. Yea mom!!) Hollon is still napping and I will hang on to the nap for as long as possible!
12) We stink at potty training. I'm actually going to break down & buy a advice book. I think that we are going with Potty Wise. I'm really not in panic mood yet, I feel like we have time. I'm just frustrated, because he shows all of the signs that he is ready. He just likes peeing in a diaper I guess. (Our sweet friends Gary & Summer let us borrow their potty training book 'Potty Wise'. I feel pretty comfortable using ANYthing they suggest because they have 2 of the sweetest kindest most well behaved kids! I've read the book, so we are going to start trying! We'll see how it goes!) I am not interested in potty training Hollon right now. My plan is for her to be in diapers while we are at Disney. When we get back, but before she starts summer daycare, we'll go through potty training boot camp.
13) He is enjoying his new Mom's Day Out program. His favorite things are the playground & the buggy rides. This was a MDO program close to the Bush's house (we were living with them waiting on our Chattanooga house to sell when Jake was Hollon's age). Hollon likes MDO. Her favorite things are painting and the playground.
14) He loves the Bush's cat, named Tiger. Since the cat's name is Tiger, Jake feels like he needs to growl at Tiger (in a friendly way). Tiger & Jake have a love/hate relationship. Jake loves Tiger & Tiger hates Jake. Hollon LOVES Tiger too.
15) Jake is bossy. His favorite person to boss around is me. Throughout the day I hear "come on mommy", "stop it mommy", "over here mommy", "no mommy", etc... Maybe I just have bossy children? Hollon is bossy too.
16) Next favorite to boss are the Bush's 2 dogs, Champ & Bruiser. He is very bossy. They will be no where close & Jake will start bossing them. The Bush's only have 1 dog now, Bruiser. Hollon is pretty bossy with him as well.
17) He doesn't like to sing or dance too much. (Can't blame him, neither do I.) But I love it when I do catch him doing either one. Hollon LOVES to sing and dance.
18) He loves for you to sing to him. But only the songs he requests. And he requests the same ones in the same order every time. Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children & Swing Low. Hollon likes the same ones.
19) He usually wakes up around 4:00 AM & wants to get in bed with us. I don't fight it, because selfishly, I want the additional 2 hours of sleep & I know that he will fall back asleep. Nope, nope and nope. Hollon wakes up at 2 AM. But she doesn't want to get in bed with us and she will not fall back to sleep.
20) We start getting ready for bed around 7:30 PM. We take a bath, read books & then lay down. Our sleeping arrangement is not ideal, but we are doing the best we can. Jake is upstairs in the huge bonus room, while we are all downstairs. I think that is why he has had so many sleeping problems since we moved in the Bush's. So for now, to get him to go to sleep, you just have to be upstairs. Usually, I'll just work on some work stuff out of his sight while he falls asleep. He can't see me, but he can hear me if I try to leave before he is asleep! We can't let him just cry it out, because he will climb out of his crib (which we need to bite the bullet & go ahead & turn it into a toddler bed). It think if he was in his own room, he would be fine. But he is in the big bonus room (which also houses my office & his playroom). So, we are just doing the best we can. (We broke down & converted the crib to a toddler bed. We are trying it out for the first time tonight.) So thankful that Hollon is in her regular room. This was such a hard time trying to figure out what was best for Jake.
21) He calls DVDs 'DDDs'. He is every DVD's nightmare. I don't know how many DVD's he has ruined. He is obsessed with carrying them around. I don't think we have 1 DVD that still works without skipping. Hollon doesn't care about the DVD, but loves to look at DVD cases.
22) He can say his whole name. He'll either tell you his name is Jake Bush or Jacob William. He'll also tell you how old he is. Hollon will not say her middle name. She usually just says her first name, but will sometimes say her first and last name.
23) He can say his ABCs & pick out all of the letters & numbers. He will spell out STOP, Netflix, etc... Same with Hollon
24) He LOVES trains. He would rather watch Chuggington then Thomas, but he loves playing with the Thomas trains. He gets so excited if he sees any kind of train & you read him a book about trains. He loves when we pass railroad tracks. How come before I had him, it seemed like I would get stopped by trains ALL the time. I've been so hoping to get stopped by a train with Jake with me, and of course it hasn't happened. I guess Birmingham doesn't have as many train tracks as Chattanooga. Hollon is not really interested in trains. But she loves her kitchen and babies.
25) His love of garbage trucks comes a close second to trains. Nope
26) He repeats everything. Usually it is pretty funny. Sometimes it is kind of embarrassing. Yep
27) I love watching him in the mornings when Robbie leaves. He has to hug him, then chest bump him, then hand blow it up. Next he has to tell him he loves him & lastly tell him 'have a good day!'. I love it! If Hollon is in a good mood, she'll do all of this. But if she is not, she'll just push Rob away.
28) He gets things easily confused. Like if he wants you to hold him, he says 'hold you'. And if we are upstairs, he'll tell me 'go upstairs'. Hollon says "hold you" too if she wants to be picked up. My favorite!
29) My very favorite thing he says is "Hey MOMMY!" in a high pitch voice whenever he sees me. It doesn't matter if he hasn't seen me in a few days or in a few seconds. You still get the excited face, hug & welcome. Hollon gets very excited as well whenever she sees me. It melts my heart and [almost] makes me forget the tantrum she threw just a few hours before.
30) He makes us laugh, he makes us worry, he makes us feel loved. And we sure do love that sweet little boy back. I feel extremely lucky to have 2 precious children that I love so very very much.
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