Twenty Four Months

(I have had this typed and ready to go since before his birthday and apparently my attempt to be on top of things was a waste because I completely forgot to make it public! So this is all current as of his second birthday!)

Okay enough with the months...here is Noah's TWO YEAR OLD update! 

I think this is the last of Noah's updates. Maybe I'll do another when he's 2 and a half? I don't know, he's starting to learn so many things it might be kind of fun to document them but it's hard to remember to write them all down and does anyone else even care? Probably not.

G R O W T H

• Height: 35 inches
• Weight: 28 pounds
• Clothing Size: Mostly 24 month - 2T, some 3T for pajamas. Pants are hard, the ones from last year are too short but the 2T's I got for this year are super long so you're rocking the rolled up look for awhile...
• Shoe Size: 5 or 6, depends on the brand. 

L I K E S 

• Anything with wheels, I don't anticipate this ever changing. Tractors and construction vehicles are number one on your list though. Then trains. And then everything else.
• Reading books. We generally read 10-20 books a day. Sometimes we even read all of those books twice! And it's not because we don't have more books, those are just your favorites.
• Going to the library. For toddler time, and just to play while I find more books.
• Watching traffic.
• 'Driving' with Daddy. If we are out by the road watching traffic when Dad comes home he will always stop and let Noah drive home. Or if we're just outside he will get in and drive up the driveway or they'll go around the cul de sac. 
• Playing hide and seek! You say BYE! and run in the kitchen while we hide behind the couch or the chair and then you giggle your way back in the living room to come find us. It's pretty hilarious all around. 
• Having 'jobs' to do - carrying your lunch bag, throwing things away, feeding the cats, pulling the garbage and recycling bins out to the road and back.
• Mowing the lawn with Grandpa, mule rides...basically anything with his BFF Grandpa!!

D I S L I K E S

• Having your face/hands wiped after meals.
• Having your nose wiped (which is often with these colds you keep picking up! Endless runny nose!)
• Dinosaurs and elephants. When you see one in a book or wherever else you get scared. Cousin Kam has a stuffed dinosaur and it's hiding in a drawer because you would freak out every time you saw it. 

E A T I N G

• Depends on your mood, some days you'll eat anything and other days you barely get anything of substance down. You keep growing so I guess you're fine.... lol 
• Really need to start branching out with what you eat. Now that Dad is done reffing all the time we can actually cook real food and hopefully find some more things that you like.

S L E E P

• Oh the never ending sleep struggle! It is much better now, but these last two months were ROUGH. 
• Tried 'sleep training' and you would lay in your crib for up to two hours before finally falling asleep. You would only cry for a minute or two when I left the room, so you weren't upset or anything, you just didn't want to fall asleep! This was at naptime and bedtime. Which meant we had some harddddd cranky tired days for awhile. 
• On top of that, if you did happen to fall asleep before I laid you down, as soon as I started to bend over to lay you down you would start to freak out. (Separation anxiety, yikes) 
• Tried the sleep training for almost two months with no sign of anything changing for the better, so I finally put that on the back burner for awhile. Everything I was reading said within 7-10 days at the MOST kids should figure it out and fall asleep in 20 minutes or less. Yeah that wasn't happening with you! 
• I have gone back to rocking you til you are mostly asleep if not completely asleep, and you have been staying asleep just fine. Sometimes I will pat your back for a minute to make sure you're settled but then you're good and will sleep all night. I don't want to rock you forever but I just couldn't handle the lack of sleep for either of us, we were both missing so much sleep and it was taking a toll. Some day you will just go to bed, maybe when you're 10, so whatever. For now this works and I feel much better doing whatever I can to get you to sleep than letting you lay there forever.

D E V E L O P M E N T

• New words: bye, buhbye, more (mo!), eyes, uh oh, help, done, banana. Jibberish 24/7!! 
• Cover your eyes when it's bright (and sometimes when it's all of the sudden dark).
• Pretends to sleep and snore.
• Hold your hands outward and up when you want to be held.
• Thumbs Up!

P E R S O N A L I T Y

• So sweet! You love to give hugs and kisses (to the right people lol).
• Very friendly. The other day we were at Meijer and there was an elderly man in a wheelchair just chilling in the produce section and we had to stop and talk to him for a minute and you showed him all your trucks (we were shopping with 4 that day) and show him your sticker. I'm pretty sure it made his day :) 
• Have your 'terrible two' moments but so far they are pretty mild and you are usually easily distractible.

Things I want to Remember:

• The other night I was rocking you to sleep and two different times you turned your head and grabbed my cheek with your hand to turn my head so you could give me real kisses. I died.
• Your birthday was SO FUN! I should really post some of those pictures. You were really into opening presents and had to completely open and play with each present. You made out with a LOT of new vehicles and it was perfect for you.