Sunday, April 1, 2012

2 Years 6 Months

Ryan is officially 2 and a half! He has grown up in so many ways and it is fun seeing him explore new things!

He is definitely in a phase where the slightest thing can set him off on a raging tantrum but he can also be very loving and sweet. He is also a little contrarian, saying he wants one thing and then immediately saying he wants the complete opposite. My favorite development, though, is when we tell him something he is happy to hear, he gasps, gets the hugest grin on his face and claps his hands, like he's too overwhelmed to speak.

My favorite part of the morning is when we do a "family hug" before going our separate ways and he insists on taking turns being in the middle to make a "Mommy sammich", "Daddy sammic," or "Ryno sammich."
Current Favorites...
Outdoor Activity: soccer or playing at the park
Indoor Activity: wrestling Daddy
Video: Action Bible Songs
Song to Sing: "I'm in the Lord's Army"
Song to Listen To: "B-I-B-L-E" by Go Fish
Food: cheese, ice cream cones
Books: Curious George books, Farmer Brown goes Round and Round, "I Heard" said the bird
Character to act out: "Daven and Goliaf", Buzz Lightyear, Batman
Phrase: "Fee, Five, Fo, Fum, I smell an Englishman"


Skills:
  • Counts from 1 to 12 either verbally or points to objects as he counts
  • Knows his name, what town he lives in, mommy and daddy's names, and where we work. He also can name all of his extended family.
  • Recognizes many places by sight and can name them: Grandpa & Grandmas', Aunt Abbie &Uncle Wade's, the house where he goes to daycare, Church, Northwestern College, grocery store, football field, ALCO, soccer field, 3 different parks, where they drop off another daycare kid at preschool
  • Can find matches in Memory game and can name most of the cards
  • Knows some shapes: square, circle, triangle, diamond, star and hexagon (there is a hexagon in our Memory game and I think he knows it more by the color it is than as a 6-sided object)
  • Knows most colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white)
  • Uses pronouns (I, me, his, her, she, he, they, you, we, us)
  • Uses longer sentences but doesn't fill in all the words. For example, instead of saying "Mommy- UP!" he now says, "Mommy, you pick me up, please?"
  • Can alert us if something is wrong. "Mommy, I spilled my milk. Mommy, I scraped my hand on the drawer. Mommy, I bumped my knee on the cement."
  • Can jump with 2 feet and jumps down from steps, etc.
  • Can bat off a tee or sometimes from a soft toss. Can control a kick-ball really well when playing soccer--he dribbles it all around the backyard.
 Skills Not Yet Gained
  • Coloring: he cannot yet draw any distinguishable shapes
  • Dressing: he doesn't really show interest or ability to dress himself. It's hard for ME to get shirts over his head and pants up over his thighs, so it's probably a little too hard for him. He can take off his shoes, coat, and pants. He apparently thinks it's more "snuggly" to sleep without pants.
  • Potty-training: hit-and-miss. He usually screams and cries the minute we mention going to the potty but sometimes successfully goes. Once in a while he'll ask to go but mostly he tantrums at the thought.
Funny sayings:
  • Calls us "you guys" as in, "Hey, you guys, you wanna come play wif me?"
  • When at the park with Adam's dad, he said he couldn't give him an "underdog" and Ryan said, "Grandma BOOTE gives me underdogs!"  To be fair, they were at different parks and the swings are really low at that park.
  • Asks "Where am I going today?" in the morning because 4 days he goes to an in-home daycare and one day he stays home with my mom or goes to her house. Saturdays we usually stay home or have some place to go and Sundays we go to church. Sometimes I forget that he can't really "map" out more than a day at a time and doesn't think about what is going on tomorrow. 
  • I asked him if he wanted to put on some shorts and he said, "That would be AWESOME!"
  • His prayers are getting pretty entertaining. They usually include, "Thank-you God for this glorious, glorious day. Thank you K (daycare girl) goes to school. Thank you (T) goes to preschool." A few times he's ventured into repentance as he admitted, "Today I not listen to Daddy."  We also prayed for a particular violet-colored new shirt that belongs to a girl at daycare. You just never know what's going to make it into prayer.
  • If I ever use the general term "car", like, "It's time to get in the car," he always corrects me by saying, "Silly mommy! We NOT have car. Man came and take Mommy's car!"

No comments: