Twenty-four months

Our baby boy is TWO YEARS OLD! Wow, how time flies...

This month has been a whirlwind with lots of changes, visitors, and the big birthday. And Aiden continues to grow way too quickly.

Weight: 26 pounds, 2 ounces
Height: 36 inches
They didn't bother even trying for the head circumference due to his incessant screaming and freaking out over being back in the dr office. You'll see why towards the end of the post.

He's gained three pounds and five inches since he turned 18 months, so I guess the kid IS growing, after all! I've been wondering... He just seems so small to me!

Likes

• Visitors! A couple weeks ago, Mammaw Melly, (Mom's) cousin Michelle, and Michelle's little boy Cody (same age as Aiden) visited for a week. What fun we all had, especially those two little boys! By the end of the week, they were more like brothers! For Aiden's birthday, MaMaw Sharon and David visited, as well. Aiden doesn't take long at all to warm up and loves all the extra attenion. ;)
• His sprinkler/pool. LOVES it!
• Dr. Seuss. We didn't have a Cat in the Hat birthday party for no reason! The kid LOVES him some Dr. Seuss. He knows a lot of the parts in the Cat in the Hat, and after we told him he was having a Cat in the Hat party, anytime we would say birthday, he would exclaim "CAT IN THE HAT!!"
• The big P.F. Chang's horses that are outside of the restaurants.
• Acting like his stuffed animals do real things...like poop, sleep, nurse, etc. One day he thought both Puppy and Bunny needed diapers. We got some cute pictures out of that!
• Sports Signing Time video.
• Lining up throw pillows on the floor and then falling onto them (more like jumping onto them, landing on his tummy).
  
• Mama's granola. Mama's fruit "juices" that I make instead of giving him actual juice. Coconut milk. Good thing, too, since he's off dairy for a while. He's into pears right now (we just took him off citrus foods and berries as we try to sort out some possible food allergies, so many of his favorite fruits are off the table, so to speak). Also, he loves frozen blueberries or frozen grapes (grapes are cut before freezing).
• Tickling us. He's not really into us tickling him, but he likes to tickle us (or his stuffed animals). When he tickles his animals, he bursts out with these high pitched giggles, pretending the animals are laughing.
• Dancing. He asks for music ALL THE TIME. It's like it's suddenly a crime to not have music playing. And he's very specific about what he wants to hear (usually choosing between Toby Mac, Veggie Tales - he calls them "tomato," Wiggles, and a cd we have with various children's songs - he calls it the animal songs or he'll name certain songs on the cd).
• Coloring. We've noticed he's becoming more intentional about drawing, too, and is more focused when he does it. (Apparently he doesn't think crayons should have the paper wrapped around them, though. He's been more into pencils until lately, and now that he'll use crayons, he spends more time tearing the paper off than drawing, it seems!)
  
• Sports or balls related to sports. He's all boy, that's for sure!

Dislikes

• The ocean. Still. We went while Cody was visiting so he could see the ocean for the first time, and while Cody loved it, Aiden still was scared of it. At one point, I debated...risking traumatizing him more by bringing him in the water anyway or possibly helping him realize it was calmer once we got past the waves at the shore. I brought him out, and he did end up liking it. He even smiled a bit and splashed the water. It lasted a few minutes. Hopefully next trip won't be as bad, and he'll like it more each time. He still says he likes and wants to see the "big sand" but NOT the ocean or waves...
• Putting his feet on his high chair seat when we're getting him out. We have him stand up to wipe off any food that got on his clothes, and he now will try not to stand so that his feet won't touch any food that might be on the seat!
• Anyone but him dancing. He doesn't mind a lot, but when you first put on music, if you start dancing along, too, he'll say "NO!" We simply say "YES! We can dance, too," and continue on. He gets over it. He does, however, love to chase me around in circles while we dance to the music.
  
• Bananas. I think he's just gotten tired of eating plain ol' bananas most mornings. He'll still ask for them but will eat the first bite or two and then break and smoosh it all apart, wasting the whole thing. We're finding other ways to eat bananas these days.
• Knowing he needs his diaper changed. He'll run away and sometimes cry b/c it means he has to stop his playtime or delay getting mama's milk to have his diaper changed. If it means delaying getting the milk, he'll kick and scream and throw the biggest fit the whole time.
• Meat by itself. Still not a fan. Give him some chicken salad or taco soup, and he's all about it. He sometimes likes bratwurst. A burger by itself, he might eat it or might not. But any other meat by itself, nope.
• Stairs. Still. He can go up barely using his hands at all, but going down...while I'm sure he can do it just fine, he rarely will. He'll stand at the top, frozen, and insist "Carry, Mommy!" I'm not pushing him to do it himself yet. If I try, he just gets scared, and it's not worth it to scare him. He'll get it.
• Seeing mama sleeping. Ryan brings him to our bed when Aiden wakes in the morning, so he can nurse while Daddy gets up to shower (or snoozes...), and if I'm still lying there like I'm asleep, he gets pretty upset about it.

New Developments

• Moved to the TODDLER BED. This was not by choice. Aiden was leaning over the rail and we knew it was just a matter of pushing up on his toes a tiny bit more before he fell out and landed on his head. He wasn't trying to *climb* out yet, but we did not feel it was safe to keep him in any longer. So, we converted the bed to a toddler bed. Way sooner than we wanted...
• Hives... Ugh. They've been around for too long lately, and we just can't seem to figure out what is causing them. We're still trying, and it means both Aiden and Mommy are on a rather strict diet right now in order to hopefully get rid of the hives and then figure out what the culprit is. Wish us luck.
• Aiden's getting to be quite the sneaky kid when he wants to get into something he knows is off limits. One day he repeatedly kept getting something out and trying to walk past me with it. He would put it back when I told him to do so, and then take it again...walking past me with his head down as low as possible, almost as if he thought if he couldn't see me, I couldn't see him!
• Feelings. Not that he's just now aware of different feelings, but we've been working on recognizing them. We make a game out of acting various feelings out. He likes to do sad followed by silly. He'll make the sign for sad, speak with a really slow, sad voice, and make a big frown while he does it. And then he'll make a silly face, shake his head, and say in a really high-pitched voice "silly!" He also likes to bunch up his fists, scrunch his face, and do "angry."
• Whispering. Sometimes he must think he'll get his way more if he whispers what he wants or the answer to a question, even if he's across the room. For example, when asking if he's ready to go to bed or if he's tired....a whispered "no" is not an uncommon response. It's pretty cute.
• Rolling the balls in the house. This is actually just an indication he is learning rules and following them. If he is, by chance, caught tossing a ball and is reminded we don't throw (we have a no-throwing-the-ball in the house rule...we only roll them inside), Aiden will say "roll the ball" and proceed to do that. Or sometimes he'll just say it when he rolls it.
• Repeating what we say or what he hears. Not that this is entirely new, but he'll repeat much longer phrases. If he's listening to music or we're reading a story, it's often the last line he hears. It's funny most of the time and incredible to hear him say such long sentences. Ryan says it's annoying sometimes when he's trying to, say, brush Aiden's teeth. Ryan: "Ok, open your mouth." Aiden: "Ok, open your mouth." Haha!
• On that note, he's also saying much longer sentences these days. I think we don't give him enough credit sometimes, too. The other day, he was asking for something. He said, "Book please." I told him sooner he would need to ask by saying, "May I have the book please?" to which he responded, "I have the book please?"
• Memory. Wow, he's remembering so much more these days. Again, nothing too new, but it's growing all the time. I'll mention before bed that we'll be going somewhere the next day, and he'll wake up bright and early asking if it's time already. Or we'll have a friend over one day, and he'll be talking about that person weeks later, asking if they will be coming to play (and apparently, even months later, in some cases!). Another example...He received some shots a little over a month ago. He did not enjoy the experience, and yelled at the nurse, "ALL DONE, ALL DONE!!" and gave her the meanest look. We went for his 2-yr check-up recently, and as soon as the nurse called us back, the screaming began... Since we had some other issues going on, we were not giving him shots at this visit (even the dr agreed to wait), and even constant assurance there would be no shots and "no hurts," the child would not calm down until we left.
• Tip-toe-ing. I don't know why, but we constantly see Aiden walking around on his tip-toes. He can do it for quite a long time, too! The other day, he was trying to get something from higher up on a shelf, and he was actually standing on the very tips of his toes, with them straight up like a ballerina would do. It was wild to watch!
• He's gotten rather good at buckling things. He likes to buckle the large chest buckle in his car seat and the buckles in his high chair and booster seat. The last two he can also UNbuckle...
  

No pictures yet. Again. I was going to take them this morning, but his hives are reappearing on his face and are pretty bright, so we're going to wait until that's not showing for pictures. He broke out in hives the other day, big time, and they're still showing up on and off from that. (More on that soon.) Plus, he woke up super early this morning and has been THE grumpiest kid since. I'm certain any pictures I might succeed in actually taking would not turn out so great. I know he would not smile or cooperate... We'll wait for another more pleasant and hive-free day. :)