Two Years Old!!

Calin is 2 Years Old!! 

We tried to get him to hold two fingers together but it didn't work out.  This looks like he is one...;) 

Weight: 26.01 lbs (25%)

Height: 33.86 in. (35%)

Head: 18.4 in. (8%)

How did our little baby boy get to be 2!?? It is so crazy to me that it has already been two years with this wonderful little boy!  Calin is such an amazing little boy and we are so proud of him and the fun little boy he is growing up to be!  

There are so many things I could say about our little 2 year old, he definitely keeps us on our toes! Mostly though, I am amazed every day at how smart he is and the things that he is able to do.  I'm going to try to list all the amazing things our little boy does and as much as I can about him, so this may get a little long! ;) 

-Can spell his name.  Also, if you spell out "dad", "mom", or "clara" he can tell you what it spells.

-Can count to 12 on his own and knows that "teen" numbers come after that but doesn't get them in the right order, but does know that 20 comes after 19.  

-Knows all of his colors and even can distinguish and tell you if something is "light blue" or "dark blue".  Also, if something is kind of an in-between color he will say "orangish yellow" or "greenish blue".  It's pretty cute.  

-Is starting to recognize letters.  His only letter he can get almost always is the letter c.  I think he'd have them down by now though if I worked with him more on it.  

-Knows a square, triangle, circle, oval, rectangle, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, and trapezoid.  

-He can find the words on a page of a book and knows that they are letters.  

-He memorizes books and I often find him "reading" or reciting parts of books as he is looking at the book or even while he is playing with something else.  It amazes me how quickly he can pick up on a book and memorize it!

-He loves books!!! He likes "reading" them and being read to.

-He is a great eater most of the time as long as he is in his high chair (so he isn't up/down and all over the place).  He eats pretty much anything and everything as long as that's what everyone else is eating too.  He definitely has his favorites that he loves to eat (noodles-especially Ramen noodles-, tortillas, teddy grahams) and we sometimes have to work a little harder to get him to eat his fruits and vegetables, but most of the time he does great! 

-He puts many words together and can speak in almost complete sentences.   "jump high to the basketball hoop like that"  "I missed again"  "want to go outside and do some jumping" 

-He confuses pronouns and says it the way we say it to him.  So when he is talking about himself he says "you want a drink of water".  When he is talking about someone else to that person he'll say "want to come with me".  He also refers to himself in 3rd person and says it how we would say it.  So if he wants something he might say "want to go to the park Calin".  He states it like how we would ask him "Do you want to go to the park Calin?"  It often can get confusing, but is also really cute because of how it ends up coming out sometimes! I will be proud once he starts figuring it out correctly, but I will miss him saying things like this!  

-Often when he says something is "big" it is also "scary".  "That big scary truck".

-He is still very snuggly especially after he wakes up in the morning and after naps.  He will come and sit on our laps for a little while while he is waking up a little more.

-He likes to give hugs and kisses.  He will give them most of the time when you ask for them, but the best are when he just comes over and gives us a hug or kiss just because he wanted to.  These are much more rare, but we love it when they do happen!

-Clara however, gets smothered with kisses and hugs all day long whether she wants them or not.   He also loves to hug kids around him, especially those that are his size.

-He has become a little more aggressive in the last month or two and will give other kids a "hug" and then pull them down to the ground.  He also will push or pull if he wants a toy or another kid is in the way of what he wants.  This has been a VERY frustrating behavior and we are working on it and talking about it every day.  Hopefully it is just a phase and it will get better soon and he can learn to play nice!

This is the face he gets when he is mad or when I'm telling him to stop doing something.  

-He does ok with sharing toys after we talk to him and remind him, and convince him that we can take turns.  Some days are harder than others, but I do think he is getting better.

-Likes to play with blocks, duplos, animals, balls, cars, books, but especially likes to have someone playing those things with him.

-Likes to color and is quite the artist.  He can draw a circle, triangle, moon, line, sun, swirls, sometimes a square or rectangle, to actually look like those things, and then lots of other things that are not as recognizable.

-He talks on his play phone and always says "hello, we welcome you today".

-We often call him "Mr. Calin" and call Clara "Miss Clara".  I often hear him calling her "Mr. Clara".

-Calin does much better being left with babysitters these days.  He goes to nursery (sometimes cries a little at the beginning) and does well the whole time in there! However, when we are gone I usually find that he has held on to the same toy or book while we are gone.  I think this is his way of comforting himself when he is feeling sad or vulnerable.  He will also do this when we are around when he is upset or tired.

-Wants to share food with Clara but we told him he can't because she doesn't have any teeth.  He always says we need to "go at the store and buy some".

-Knows when he has done something wrong and already knows how to put on the sweet charm (mostly when he colors on something he shouldn't).  He will come over to me all meek with a little smile and I immediately know he did something.  He is such a good boy though and will tell me what he did wrong and then he will often tell himself to go to his room, walk there on his own, and then come out and say sorry and give me a hug.  (Can you tell he's had to do that a lot!?) He is so smart and knows what to do, but is just a normal impulsive two year old and momentarily forgets not to do things.

-Loves to clean with a cloth or wipes.  He ALWAYS wants a wipe to wipe his hands and face, the furniture, whatever he can find to wipe and clean. I hope this sticks around!

-Likes to attempt to blow his own nose.  Lately he makes this throat gurgling sound to sound like he's blowing.

-He loves to go to the park and especially likes to go down the slides.  One evening I took him over there while Robby was at meetings at the church and he just ran up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide over and over until we left.

-Likes to play with his soccer and basketball.  He uses them for both sports.  He loves to shoot with all his balls in his little basketball hoop in our basement and also loves to take the balls outside and throw/shoot/kick them all over.

  

 -He is absolutely Daddy's little boy.  These two are two peas in a pod!  They love to spend time together.  Calin lights up when Dad gets home and is inseparable from Dad from that point on.

-Anywhere Dad goes, Calin goes with him.  Anything Dad does, Calin does it too.  Anything Dad says, Calin repeats it.

-Calin has a huge repertoire of songs that keeps growing and growing.  A lot of that is thanks to Dad. They sing together at night in the rocking chair before Calin goes to bed.  He learns the songs that Dad sings with him.  I started doing it with him as well (the few nights that Calin will let me put him down instead of Robby).  He picks up on the songs really quick and will sit in our lap and sing along. Those moments of singing songs with our little guy have got to be some of the best!  His most recent favorite was "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".  He also recently learned "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes home" to sing to Dad on Father's Day.  They are also practicing "Puff the Magic Dragon".  While Calin is playing or eating and a lot when driving in the car I hear him singing a song that he has learned from me or Robby.  He also sings a lot when going down for a nap or when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap.  I love that he loves to sing so much!  It brightens up our house! 

 -Calin loves to watch things around him and quietly investigate and take things in.  I think once he figures out the word "why" we will be hearing that a lot!  He is so smart and loves to know what is going on around him.  

-He loves to have a plan/routine and stick to it.  He is very good to follow through with things if it is part of our plan.  This is often how we can get him to do something he doesn't want to.  Such as "First we'll change your diaper, then we will eat breakfast, and after those two things then we will go to the park".  He will repeat the plan back to you and makes sure we follow through with all the things we needed to do.  

-Calin still LOVES his cars.  He loves to drive them on the couch, the floor, the windowsill, and race them on the many different tracks we have around our house.  He also sometimes likes to line them up or arrange them by color.  

The pictures below are a perfect representation of Calin and his cars.  He is often found holding as many as he can in one hand and playing with more in the other.   I'm so glad we captured this on camera!

-Calin especially likes to race cars and play cars with Dad.  Many mornings when he wakes up,  he asks for Dad and I have to tell him Dad is at work.  He will often reply with something along the lines of "When Dad gets home then we can play cars"!  I'm so glad they both love it so much together!

-He is an ok sleeper.  Most nights he sleeps from around 9:30 (we get him ready around 8:30 and we try to put him down/get him to go to sleep earlier and it's never worked out in our favor) until about 7 or 8.  More often then not he wakes up at least once every night where he needs us to go in, settle him back in and he goes back to sleep.  There are also quite a few nights where he does not go right back to sleep and he's up for an hour or two.  I'm hoping it's due to teething and that this will eventually get better!  Robby goes in with him most nights if he's up since I'm usually up with Clara.  So both Robby and I have someone to get up with! ;) 

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, smart, handsome, loving, silly, teasing, fun, and helpful little boy.  He is fantastic and I don't remember what life was like before we had him in it!  I am grateful every day to be this boys mother and only hope I can help him become as great as I know he can be.  

We love you Calin and are so glad we have such a great 2 year old!