September 6, 2016

Jenson update: 2.75 years

Jenson is nearing 3 and I can’t believe it. He’s turned into a little boy in the last few months. I look at pictures from earlier in the year and can’t believe how much he’s changed! He doesn’t look like a toddler anymore – he’s a boy. I miss his little chubby toddler face, but he’s such an awesome kid that its awesome to see him grow up too. We’ve even been getting his hair cut a little shorter, so that makes him look less babyish too. He’s super smart and has an incredible memory. He’ll talk about something random that he did last year, and remember all of the details. He’ll remember who was there, what he ate, what he did…. He talks about the pumpkin patch, the circus, going to people’s house – all from nearly a year ago. When we brought out a toy for Marlowe that he used to play with when he was a baby, he said “when I was a baby I played with that at someone’s house”. “Someone’s house” is actually our old house in Dublin, so he remembers being there. Sometimes he says “when I’m a baby again, I’ll do ___”. I just tell him that he’s not going to be a baby again…he’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger. We had a busy spring and summer, so be ready for lots of pictures!

He’s really well behaved for the most part and is doing great with using his manners. He’s still quite shy with new people, especially adults, but he does well once he warms up. He plays really well with other kids, and talks about them for days after. He’s doing better with standing up for himself if a kid tries to take something from his or is mean to him. He does get upset when we have to leave somewhere and he’s having fun, but other than saying “Noooo – I don’t want to!” and trying to get away from me, or occasionally laying facedown on the floor; he complies and gets over it pretty quickly. When we get in the car, he always says “I want to go back to there one day”. Sometimes he can be pretty difficult, but he’s at that age…I try not to get too frustrated. When he’s doing something he knows he’s not allowed, as soon as I look at him or tell him not to do that, he says “I’m not going to do that again mommy, okay?”, or he’ll apologize right away. If he won’t stop a behavior that he’s not allowed to do, just asking him if he wants to go to bed is usually enough to stop it. I’ve put him in his crib a couple of times when he’s acting out and left him in there for a minute or two, and that’s enough for him. He’s sensitive too, so I try not to be too hard on him – after all, he’s pretty well behaved – especially in public.

He’s a good big brother – he and Marlowe both adore each other equally. During this time, he’s become a little more jealous of her though. Now that she’s sitting up and playing, and to be honest – just more interesting and fun, he’s a little jealous when she’s getting attention. He doesn’t act out towards her, but he wants held and carried more often, and if I do anything to her (tickle her, blow raspberries, lift her high in the air, or anything), he says “do that to me now”. He takes her toys still, but he’s learning that he needs to give her something else if he takes one from her. He’s very sweet with her typically, and will play with her, read to her, and talk to her.

Jenson update: April 7, 2016 – August 6, 2016 (technically past 2.75 years)

Age: 2.75 years old
Weight: 31 lbs.
Length: 37 inches
Size: 2T clothing…he’s still a little guy

Sleeping: He is in his crib from about 7:45 pm -7:45 am. Time actually sleeping varies because sometimes he plays in his crib for an hour before falling asleep and when waking up in the morning. We have this Ok to Wake alarm clock and it, along with daylight savings time, saved our lives, or at least our sleep. He knows if the light is red, he has to stay in bed. When it turns green, we’ll come to get him. When we come in to get him, he says “I see the green light!”. He’s in his crib for approximately 2 hours for nap too, again, actual sleeping time varies, but he stays there without fussing until the light comes on.

Eating: Not much change here…again – his list of food hasn’t grown any, except for the addition of chicken nuggets (sometimes). All fruit, plain yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, bread, applesauce, pouches, smoothies, waffles, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, and cheese pizza. He usually has some dry cereal in a cup while he watches a show or two in the morning. After that he oatmeal, a waffles, or toast, with yogurt and maybe fruit. Lunch is usually a sandwich (PBJ, grilled cheese), maybe a piece of cheese and/or a few pretzels, and fruit. Dinner is usually similar to lunch, unless we are eating one of the few things he’ll eat, which is rare. He honestly doesn’t snack much…but if so, usually crackers, pretzels, or fresh or dried fruit. I feel like its a constant battle to get him to eat enough (and the “right” things), and I’m trying to let go about that some. He’ll eat when he’s hungry I guess. Sometimes I get him to lick some sort of food that he doesn’t normally eat, and I count that as a win. I never thought I’d be excited that my kid ate a chicken nugget. He doesn’t fall asleep at lunch anymore…those days are over.

Word Up: He talks so much and is hilarious. We turned his carseat around after too many bouts of car sickness, and he talks constantly while we are driving (unless he’s reading). “I see a mailbox. I like mailboxes”. “There’s a truck. It’s black” It’s fantastic. He’s shy around other people at first, so I don’t know that most people realize how much he actually talks unless they’ve been around him for 4+ hours. He’s quite a chatterbox – especially at home or to himself in his crib when he’s trying to go to sleep. He loves singing songs still. He can count to 30 and knows all of his letters and likes to spell out words that he sees. He’ll “read” books to himself and make up the words based on the pictures, so that’s adorable. Some of the books he has the words memorized, so he actually knows all of the words. Of course, that means we can’t make up the words or skip things. He’ll even read to Marlowe on occasion. When we ask him a question, he starts with “Ummm…” like he’s really considering his options. He’ll also hold conversations with himself (especially in the crib). He’ll ask himself questions and answer them himself. I love it.

Milestones:

Potty-training is nearly complete (spoiler alert – it now is). This is huge. It took a few months for sure, but he finally got the hang of it and he regularly wears underwear. It took a lot of naked time at home, which then morphed into wearing underpants at home (but diapers when we left the house) by late spring, and plenty of sticker and small cookie rewards. We then switched to pullups when we were leaving the house and tried to get him to use the bathroom when we were out, but he usually wasn’t willing. By mid-summer, he would keep his pull up dry while we were out of the house and he started leaving the house in underpants for short trips. He started going to the bathroom while we were out too. He never had an accident while we were out, and rarely at home – usually was busy playing and didn’t think about it until it was a little too late. But he was always able to stop himself and make it to the bathroom. He saved his #2’s for when he was wearing a diaper for nap or for night. We needed him to be mostly potty-trained before he started preschool (at least in pullups), so it was just in time! Which leads to….
Registered for preschool! We decided to send him to a 1 day a week preschool at a local church. It’s just a 3 hour day, so it’s like preschool-lite. Because his birthday is in October, he won’t start kindergarten until he’s nearly 6, so I didn’t want him in 3 years of full preschool. I did want to give him the chance to interact with more kids, and in a learning environment. Plus his friend Myla is in his class, so I think he’ll be comfortable and love it.
Registered for gymnastics! We thought it would be good for him, like the preschool. It’s at a local studio nearby and if he hates it, we can stop after a month.
Facing forward in his carseat. We finally switched him after he got carsick too many times. He loves it.

Favorite Toys/Activities:

Books and puzzles, of course

Going to the library or coffee shop for story time.

Bathtime
Playing with his tools and Dr. kit, and sometimes both

Going to the Zoo (which we did less than we should have…it was SO hot this summer)
Going to The Works. It’s a small science and technology museum with a great little toddler area. It’s 2 miles from the house and the membership was totally reasonable. It’s just a good place to play when we don’t want to be at home anymore
Playing outside or at the playground and going down to “the water”

Matchbox cars, trains, trucks and sensory rice bin
Play food and picnics. We had a couple of picnics in early spring and he’s been obsessed with real picnics and fake ones

Watching a few shows in the morning – stuff on PBS kids or Disney. He has a bigger variety now.
Coloring. “Do you want to color with me?” is a pretty common question
Playdates. We’ve started getting together with friends a little more once Marlowe was older, so he’s had a variety of playdates and talks about his friends constantly after that. He’ll randomly be like “I want to go to Derrick’s house again”. Or “Brady and I played in the sand”. Sometimes he just likes to go through the list of his friends’ names.
Helping daddy

Going to the Dawes Arboretum. We discovered that they have a great kids’ area in the basement of the visitor’s center, so he loves going down there. We also go walking there once or twice a week with Megan, Nolan, and Myla. While he doesn’t always want to ride in the stroller, he loves seeing Myla so often.

Copying yoga poses – he loves “apple tree” which is actually tree pose

Favorite friends:

Myla – its so nice to have a friend his age nearby! They get along SO well.
Cousins: Max and Sadie…he got to see Max too!
Jaxon and Emmy
A couple of the regulars at the library
Braxton, Derrick, and Drew (though he desperately misses Braxton, Rachel!)
His Daniel Tiger figures
Marlowe

Dislikes:

Meat and veggies
Leaving places where he’s having fun. He throws himself on the floor sometimes, but doesn’t usually cause too big of a scene.
Riding in the double stroller. Unless I only have the single stroller for Marlowe, and then he wants to ride because he can’t. So otherwise, being 2/3 years old. He rides pretty well on our walks at Dawes, but he regularly complains that he wants out.

Looking forward to:

Starting preschool. I think he’ll do really well and I’ll be more nervous about it than he.
Fall season! There’s so much fun stuff to do in the fall, and the weather is my favorite.
Jenson turning 3!

Scenes from April:

Visit from the Taliaferro’s
Crew games. We all went as a family and then he went again with just Lo
Hoot Family Film Series at Gateway Film Center. It’s a themed monthly program for kids with crafts, music, and short films and he LOVES it. We went twice, but haven’t been able to go for the past couple because we’ve been out of town the last weekend of the month a few times. He talks about going to the movies regularly.

Scenes from May:

Gramma, Papaw, and Lydia visit for Lydia’s volleyball tournament over Memorial Weekend
Mother’s Day picnic
Visit to Lo’s family and Jenson stayed the weekend
Zoo, Food Truck Festival, and Hoot Family Film Series
Young’s Dairy with Nana over Memorial Weekend

Scenes from June:

Lo’s birthday (Jenson is obsessed with birthdays)
Touch-a-Truck and Strawberry Festival
Idlewild Park for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and visit with family
Gannon stayed with us for a week
Visit to Gramma and Papap’s for Brady’s grad party
Emma, Lydia and Gannon stayed with us for a few days

Scenes from July:

Jenson stayed the weekend at Nana and Papaw’s
Gramma and Papap visit (Commons for Kids, Canal Street Farmer’s Market, Johnstown Fireman Parade)
Blackberry Picking and Alexandria Festival
Nana and Papaw’s July BBQ
Summer and Max’s visit (Zoo, Dawe’s Arboretum, Storytime at the Mall)
Visit at my parents with Summer and Max