Sunday, January 13, 2013

Twenty-Four Months Old!

Today The Bean is twenty-four months old!  
 

As our regular readers know, this past month has been an extremely eventful one.  We're happy to say that The Bean seems to be taking things in stride.  
-We've switched our evenings around and The Bean seems to have taken to the new schedule nicely.  We used to do a bath directly after dinner, but now he gets to play for a bit while Mommy cleans up the kitchen and Mama wrangles both kids in the living room.  When it's time to go in for the bath, we give him a five minute warning and usually he just walks right into the bathroom and tries climbing into the tub.
-He started having more difficulty going to bed shortly before Sprout's birth and that's continued, but so far it's been reasonable.    He's started to get four books (vs. three) and four songs while Mommy rocks him in the rocking chair.     
-Over the last month he has started developing attachment to a "transitional object."  There's a particular receiving blanket that we'd been putting on him at bedtime that he's now bonded to.  He'll often want to take it out of bed with him in the mornings, but so far we have been encouraging him to leave it in the bed and he usually does so with only a little suggesting.  We haven't talked much about our philosophy on having it out in the apartment, but we're on the same page about trying to make sure it doesn't leave home regularly.  Any opinions/advice on things you've done in this area?
-Our daycare provider has done a lot of talking about big brothers lately, and The Bean is acting the part of proud big brother while he is there.  This week, she asked who in the class was a big brother, The Bean and one other boy (senior/half-day kindergarten age) were the big bros in the crowd so they were paired together for math work that day.  I feel like she's doing a lot to help him with the transition. 
-We are trying to give him a little more control over his world, especially when it comes to food and clothing.  We'll offer him two choices and encourage him to pick the one that he prefers.
-The Bean has become quite opinionated on how he would like the flow of events to proceed.  For example, when listening to music, he'll be very emphatic as to who is to dance and where there are to do it.  He'll also let us know who he wants to sing songs to him and who should "stop singing!" (Picture a "talk to the hand" sign thrown in there for that last bit.)
 -Some of the nicer phrases he's taken to saying are "Thank you Mama!" (or Mommy) and "I love you MUCH!" which is just about as adorable as you can imagine.  In fact, it's what he was saying when his 24 month photo was taken.  The arms thrown wide show just how much.  He also is into giving compliments.  In fact, just the other day he told me, "Nice PJs, Mama.  Nice penguins."  (And in case there was doubt, I was indeed wearing penguin pajamas.)
-He still loves music and dancing.  His new favourite song is "Jingle Bell Rock".  We probably listened to it at least 500 times in the past month.  He got various percussion instruments (and a harmonica) for Christmas that he often uses to accompany the music we are listening to.    
 
-Christmas with The Bean this year was a blast.  He's such a social guy and loved having family and friends over.  He also is just starting to get into the present thing and loved opening his gifts and playing with them. 
 
- Even though we've never really let him watch shows more then twice in one week, The Bean will ask to watch Blue's Clues (we have a DVD) most days (he requests it complete with the sign of hands opening and closing by his face).  It surprises us how often he asks for it. Santa brought Jen a new tech device for Christmas that will let us pull video snippets from YouTube and play them on the TV.  We've been looking at expanding his viewing options to include Sesame Street and other educational things like National Geographic, though the latter is still a bit beyond him at this point.  Unfortunately, there aren't may full episodes of Blues Clues on there. 
 
-Lift-the-flap books have become very popular over the last little bit.  He got Biscuit's Snowy Day as a Christmas gift, and that was also quite popular for a little bit along with Duck and Goose -It's Time for Christmas.
 
-He's still between sizes on clothes.  Size 2 tops fit a little big, but not crazily so.  12 month pants are perfect (or sometimes a little big) in the waist, but too short, so we've moved him up to 18 month ones.  They barely stay on.  My aunt noticed this and got him suspenders ("Penders!") for Christmas.  Good thing the boy loves his accessories.

-Edited to add: At his two-year check up The Bean was 24lbs and 2'9".  That's about the 7th and 13th percentile, respectively and somewhere around the 25th percentile for weight vs. height.
 
Even with Sprout's arrival, I still think of The Bean as our baby.  It's hard to believe that it's already been two years since he was born.  It's been such an amazing two years and I absolutely cannot imagine our lives without him.  

11 comments:

  1. I was in the middle of a post and it disappeared so I will start again. Great update and that is the cutest picture! He's growing so fast.

    Just curious why you don't want him to have a comfort item outside home. Is it bad for them in some way, or just a pain to keep track of etc. Both our boys have comfort items. We let them take them pretty much wherever they want. Erik had his in his backpack when he started kindergarten. Ian still carries his around frequently but Erik usually only has his in bed, and he's getting to the point where if its not there, he doesn't always notice, but there are still some situations where he makes sure he has it, like sleeping away from home. We're all for comfort items. They've become like part of the family almost. When they're ready, they'll give them up, and Erik is showing signs that he might not need his for much longer. It's a nice and memorable part of childhood. Ian often incorporates his into his games, using it as his hair to pretend he's a girl, wrapping toys and pretend Christmas presents in it, etc.

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  2. Happy birthday Bean! Such a handsome little boy.

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  3. Hi - I have never commented before, just read along, quietly lurking - BUT I wanted to share an exceptional show you may want to look into for your Bean. See if you can get episodes of Jacks Big Music Show. The songs are adorable, they teach small lessons as they go along, the characters are so sweet, and they frequently have guest acts - like Laurie Berkner - who also do awesome songs. My Daughter LOVED this show, so much that she named one of her stuffed dogs "MEL" after the dog character.

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  4. Forgot to say, I think we have a couple of Blue's Clues here, although I don't even know if they're DVD or VHS. I will check and you can have them if they're of any use to you. I'm sure VHS might be pushing it... lol.

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  5. That picture is the CUTEST EVER!!!! Happy Birthday Bean!!! Sounds like he is doing wonderful.

    As you know, we have "Blanket" in our family and although the relationship has changed through the last 2.5 years since attachment started, Blanket has steadfastly held on in Little Monster's life. If Kris had her way, Blanket would be allowed EVERY.WHERE, but I do not want it to become a crutch, for lack of a better word, because really that is what it is, and so rules were implemented early on as to where Blanket can go. What worked for us is making the separation from Blanket a part of the daily routine, it seems silly to some people, but I have discovered that those people typically do not have children, or at least ones with attachment objects. For example, when time to go somewhere, IF he has Blanket (it is not a carry around all the time situation in our house thank goodness) then we say, "Okay, put Blanket in bed, let's put on our shoes, and go outside, leave for school, go shopping, etc...." We make it just a natural step to what has to happen in order for the next step to happen, just like we have to put shoes and coat on to go outside, we have to put Blanket away to do it as well. There have been a few RARE occasions when Blanket sneaked out and made it into the car (not going to lie, this is usually when Kris is getting him ready) and when that happens we just explain that it has to stay in the car as not to be lost or get yucky. We do allow him to take it to the doctor or somewhere we think he may be uncomfortable and of course it ALWAYS goes on overnight trips with us...I am firm, but not stupid ;)

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  6. Look at how big he is getting! So sweet and so adorable! Happy birth day to him and happy birthing day to you guys! In regards to the comfort object, our son Matteo is firmly attached to his blankie. When he was younger, probably until he was about 2.5, we let him take it out of the house - it was a way for him to still feel safe and comfortable where ever he was. As he got older we encouraged him to keep it at home, and eventually set a rule that he was to keep it at home but that it would be waiting for him where ever he wanted to put it. We did this because we wanted to encourage him to rely on his own self comforting abilities. Not that we thought he would be 20 and carrying it around or anything. He is just over 4 now and we still haven't restricted it to his bed. The other kids carry around and play with their babies (as toys and comfort objects) and he hasn't personified a baby, he has done that with blankie - so who are we to say that a blankie cannot be used as a toy like a baby is yk?

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  7. Happy 2 years to him! He looks like he's singing "the hiiiiills are aliiiiive, with the sound of muuuusic!" ;-)

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  8. Happy belated birthday from Germany!

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  9. Happy birthday to The Bean! I am sure he is doing very well as a big brother. Peyton loves Blues Clues and we use Netflix for it. The entire series is on there. We also recommend Sid the Science Kid and Super Why, both from PBS and very educational.

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  10. Happy birthday, Bean!!! He looks so big now!!

    I loved the update. I can't help but compare with Quinn who is not that much younger. It's crazy how Quinn can't even really speak and the Bean is pulling off sentences. I know with Riley and Jackson I would offer clothing choices and everything but since Quinn doesn't speak, I guess I don't think of it, as if he's too young for such things. It's crazy how speech can make you think of your child as older/younger.

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