We've had a wonderful summer, and for the first time in a long while, nobody is headed to school this fall!!! FREEDOM!!!!
Matt is 2.5 (+) years old!!!! We've been doing this whole parenting thing for 32 months with arguable and varying amounts of success...if success is growing, learning new things and not having any catastrophic injuries due to our negligence...
I was organizing my storage areas and came across my baby book. When I was Matt's age, I was fluent in English and potty-trained. Matt's not. Matt has plenty of words and uses them in sentences...when it pleases him. Most of the time he still rocks a Swedish Chef dialect "Bork, Bork, Bork" He's so expressive though...I wonder where he gets that from. His little arms stretch out wide to his side and throws his head back as he says "Oh, NO!!!" It's pretty funny... His biggest language breakthrough is prepositions. With, here, at, for...they are very useful words.
Occasionally he says something complete new and in English. Like the other night he said, "It is nighttime," clear as a bell, and my reaction is "Who even are you?" He randomly says complete sentences, but they are usually lies. He told me, "I can read". To this day, I've never seen him read more than a few letters...He's also mastered the art of manipulation. He'll Swedish chef through a few words and then you'll try to clarify a word you thought you heard that was English. For example, Matt might say "Berfen choo doma?" To which I will respond, "Did you say donut?" Matt will respond, "OK", as if it was my idea...
Occasionally he says something complete new and in English. Like the other night he said, "It is nighttime," clear as a bell, and my reaction is "Who even are you?" He randomly says complete sentences, but they are usually lies. He told me, "I can read". To this day, I've never seen him read more than a few letters...He's also mastered the art of manipulation. He'll Swedish chef through a few words and then you'll try to clarify a word you thought you heard that was English. For example, Matt might say "Berfen choo doma?" To which I will respond, "Did you say donut?" Matt will respond, "OK", as if it was my idea...
He has managed to regress on the potty training thing. He used to sit on his toddler sized potty for us, but now he refuses. He still flushes for us, sometimes. Occasionally he'll throw in some extra toilet paper for good measure. He has no desire, curiosity, concern, or interest in using a potty, and no compunction about going in his diapers. I let him try the naked weekend and made it 1.5 hours. After watching him pee in his booster seat and then sit in a puddle with no signs of distress, I thought, 'this is not the time.' His babysitter is sort of getting him in a routine, and he sits on the potty for a sticker for HER. He has even peed a few times in it for her - probably an accident... If I offer him a sticker he yells, "No, no NO!" like I'm about waterboard him. He fights like trying to put a cat in the tub if you hold him over his toddler potty or the potty with an adaptor. He does not want stickers or M&Ms. He does not want our blood money, apparently... Matt has decided that the potty is where toddlers go to die...
We definitely have 'why is my child crying' moments almost everyday. And of course, being the awesome parents we are, we just laugh. Like the other night he had a battery operated candle and was trying to get Emma, our golden retriever, to "blow" it out. He was very frustrated. He was also very frustrated when Emma wouldn't drink on command.
He's still so stinking cute, though. He can be cute and cuddly and loves to snuggle with us in bed in the evening while he winds down before going to bed in his room. The "I love Mommy"s and the "I Love Da-da"s are just blissful. He's still in his crib as he hasn't offered to climb out. We'll take the breaks where we can get 'em! He sleeps through 4 of 5 nights/week at this point, but if he could get out of his crib, I'm sure we'd be back to newborn level purgatory. Suffice it to say, I'm in no rush to put him in a toddler bed.
He randomonly eats a couple times a week whether he needs to or not. Amazingly, by his two year-old appointment that was a couple months late, he was 50%ile for height. It is a new family record. Neither BJ or I have ever seen that stat, and since his borrowed genetic material was also my height, I'm going to guess the record still holds. Like any toddler he's randomly picky. BJ and I strive not to make a big deal about it. We could make more of an effort, to keep him hungrier for food by taking away some of his meal replacement shakes, but when we've tried that he's starving at 2:00am, and I feel like we deserve to sleep and he's not being harmed. He'll eat when he's hungry, which is ultimately what we as humans should be doing anyway.
Now that I am working full-time again, and Matt will be 3 next fall, we wanted to officially institutionalize him full-time. We are basically applying to the prep school of preschools because I love it, one. Two, it actually has better hours than most daycares for not a significant difference in cost, and three, it is only a mile from my office. It is daunting applying for preschools, however. Matt had quite the application to fill out, and he did not seem very enthused about the process. He did not really offer to help me with any of it. I'm doubting his commitment. We have to do a campus visit, AND depending on how that goes, he will have to do an hour long interview by himself. On his application, he was asked, "What is his favorite book?". I asked him to go pick out a book because he does have a few go-tos, as any young child does. He brought me "Everyone Poops". While I appreciate his honesty, Matt does not seem to understand the importance of self-promotion. Obviously, for his "interview", I have concerns.
He still remains the biggest blessing in our life, and we are still so thankful for this little miracle. I am seriously super thankful for every diaper I get to change, every great emotional upset I have to attend, and, of course, all of the poop books I have to read to him.
Matt Facts:
Wt. 27lbs
Clothing size - 24mos
Fave Toy - Lightening McQueen aka Lyin' MaQuee
Fave Food- "Peetza" at least that is the most requested.
Fave Beverage - Soup-man Ju. Which is Instant Carnation Breakfast mixed up in a shaker with a Superman logo.
Fave Animals - I-sores aka "Dinosaurs"
Fave Show- Alien Monkey... Amazon Prime...look it up for yourself...it's Japanese...that's all I can say
New Skills: Counts to 10, walks on a low beam, spider crawls across preschool uneven bars, back extension rolls on a wedge because that's how he does backward rolls (I'm a little proud).
Fave Movie: J/K...as if he'd hold still to watch an entire movie!!!
Fave Book: Goodnight, Gorilla (Thanks, Dolly!), Where the Wild Things Are, and...Everyone Poops...apparently *SIGH*
Fave Song: Baby Shark...funny enough, I do not feel the same.
Life skills: None...He remains incontinent, illiterate, mostly non-English speaking, single, unemployed and not attending school. Also he still lives with his parents. He did allow me to complete his application, like I'm some kind of helicopter parent...but with the everyone poops answer, he may be trying to sabotage this effort. It remains to be seen...
Future Career: Ice Cream Scooper...so for as much as he refuses to eat ice cream, he sure talks about it a lot...
We definitely have 'why is my child crying' moments almost everyday. And of course, being the awesome parents we are, we just laugh. Like the other night he had a battery operated candle and was trying to get Emma, our golden retriever, to "blow" it out. He was very frustrated. He was also very frustrated when Emma wouldn't drink on command.
He's still so stinking cute, though. He can be cute and cuddly and loves to snuggle with us in bed in the evening while he winds down before going to bed in his room. The "I love Mommy"s and the "I Love Da-da"s are just blissful. He's still in his crib as he hasn't offered to climb out. We'll take the breaks where we can get 'em! He sleeps through 4 of 5 nights/week at this point, but if he could get out of his crib, I'm sure we'd be back to newborn level purgatory. Suffice it to say, I'm in no rush to put him in a toddler bed.
He randomonly eats a couple times a week whether he needs to or not. Amazingly, by his two year-old appointment that was a couple months late, he was 50%ile for height. It is a new family record. Neither BJ or I have ever seen that stat, and since his borrowed genetic material was also my height, I'm going to guess the record still holds. Like any toddler he's randomly picky. BJ and I strive not to make a big deal about it. We could make more of an effort, to keep him hungrier for food by taking away some of his meal replacement shakes, but when we've tried that he's starving at 2:00am, and I feel like we deserve to sleep and he's not being harmed. He'll eat when he's hungry, which is ultimately what we as humans should be doing anyway.
Now that I am working full-time again, and Matt will be 3 next fall, we wanted to officially institutionalize him full-time. We are basically applying to the prep school of preschools because I love it, one. Two, it actually has better hours than most daycares for not a significant difference in cost, and three, it is only a mile from my office. It is daunting applying for preschools, however. Matt had quite the application to fill out, and he did not seem very enthused about the process. He did not really offer to help me with any of it. I'm doubting his commitment. We have to do a campus visit, AND depending on how that goes, he will have to do an hour long interview by himself. On his application, he was asked, "What is his favorite book?". I asked him to go pick out a book because he does have a few go-tos, as any young child does. He brought me "Everyone Poops". While I appreciate his honesty, Matt does not seem to understand the importance of self-promotion. Obviously, for his "interview", I have concerns.
He still remains the biggest blessing in our life, and we are still so thankful for this little miracle. I am seriously super thankful for every diaper I get to change, every great emotional upset I have to attend, and, of course, all of the poop books I have to read to him.
Matt Facts:
Wt. 27lbs
Clothing size - 24mos
Fave Toy - Lightening McQueen aka Lyin' MaQuee
Fave Food- "Peetza" at least that is the most requested.
Fave Beverage - Soup-man Ju. Which is Instant Carnation Breakfast mixed up in a shaker with a Superman logo.
Fave Animals - I-sores aka "Dinosaurs"
Fave Show- Alien Monkey... Amazon Prime...look it up for yourself...it's Japanese...that's all I can say
New Skills: Counts to 10, walks on a low beam, spider crawls across preschool uneven bars, back extension rolls on a wedge because that's how he does backward rolls (I'm a little proud).
Fave Movie: J/K...as if he'd hold still to watch an entire movie!!!
Fave Book: Goodnight, Gorilla (Thanks, Dolly!), Where the Wild Things Are, and...Everyone Poops...apparently *SIGH*
Fave Song: Baby Shark...funny enough, I do not feel the same.
Life skills: None...He remains incontinent, illiterate, mostly non-English speaking, single, unemployed and not attending school. Also he still lives with his parents. He did allow me to complete his application, like I'm some kind of helicopter parent...but with the everyone poops answer, he may be trying to sabotage this effort. It remains to be seen...
Future Career: Ice Cream Scooper...so for as much as he refuses to eat ice cream, he sure talks about it a lot...
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