2 Years + 3 Months Old

Ryan had a fun month with Christmas and lots of family time. One of the best memories was sitting at the dining table on Christmas night with my family and he went into a long, drawn-out speech after which he announced in his best preacher voice, "Now we pray!"  He talks a lot but has a few "miscues" including calling pears "parrots", chocolate milk "chlockate chip melk", lemonade "ehmalade" and M&M's "lemon-ems". One thing we've noticed is his use of pronouns. He started saying "He has one, she has one, and I have one" instead of "Daddy have one, Mommy have one, Ryan have one." We're still working on colors, letters, and counting, but have seen a little progress.

He's loving the new toys he got for Christmas, especially his Hot Wheels cars and race track. He also loves the additions to his farm animal collection. With the odd weather this winter, I can see how he is confused because sometimes he'll ask to go outside and play in the (non-existent) snow and other times he wants to go play soccer or football. He loves chasing Nika around, wrestling, and playing downstairs in his toy room.

Ryan's become a bit clingy lately, especially to me. He used to go to nursery willingly but now it's virtually impossible to peel him off us to leave him, so he's sat through church the last two Sundays. We hope this is just a phase. He also has new excuses of why he doesn't want to do things (like sit on the potty) which include "because because I too scared", "because because I too sad" or "because because I crying". He never says "because" just once!


Ryan's favorite restaurants are "Old Donald's" (brought on by a few road trips) and Pizza Ranch! His eating habits at home are generally good, especially liking vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, but not green beans), mashed potatoes, cheese in any form, muffins,  but like most kids, he's constantly negotiating for ice cream cones, cookies, fruit snacks, or other  "sthnackths".

What a funny little dude we have. Despite all that comes along with the typical "two's" we have having fun watching him discover new things and learn new skills. We're looking forward to a great new year!