Connor: Two Years!

Well, one word can pretty well sum up how we feel about Connor turning two: FINALLY. Don't get me wrong, we aren't trying to speed up the growing up process any, but he is doing that plenty on his own by following in his brother's footsteps, and it's kind of a relief to finally be able to say that he is two. Because honestly, he hasn't really been one for quite some time.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Height/Weight: Well, after only putting on three ounces between 15 months and 18 months, he decided to make up for it by putting on over three pounds since his 18 month appointment, bringing his weight up to a respectable 26 pounds. Still heavier than Garrett was at this age (by two full pounds!), but half a pound lighter than William. He's actually taller than his brothers were at this age, but by only half an inch, so some of that could just be discrepancies in measurements. Safe to say, no matter how you crunch the numbers, we may have big babies but we definitely have small toddlers. 

Cool Dude sporting his Easter finest

Wearing: We moved up to size five diapers, but that was pretty much only because we realized we ran out of size four at bedtime one night so we had to open a box of size five and they worked well enough that we've just stuck with them (plus I've just been too lazy to go out and buy more size four). Otherwise it's pretty much all the same size 18 month clothes as before (yay....not). I've pulled out a few 24 month/2T items just for some sheer variety in clothing options, but find myself getting equally irritated by his wearing ill-fitting clothing, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait it out a few more months before fully making the switch.  

Summer fun with Mommy (and a donut!) while big brothers were at YMCA camp

Eating: Our pediatrician had a PA student shadowing him at Connor's well visit, and she asked about his food intake, specifically how he does with fruits and vegetables. I laughed a little to myself--I'm pretty sure that any toddler who can identify Brussels sprouts by name at the grocery store is more than okay on his food intake. In fact, his biggest issue with food is probably that he refuses to accept that he isn't quite as big as his brothers and therefore still needs some of his food prepared a little differently (like having his grapes cut up--almost always a guaranteed tantrum). He is pretty much completely independent when it comes to feeding himself, and we've slowly been easing him into drinking from a cup instead of a spouted sippy cup. He is also our biggest milk drinker by far, and we find ourselves making sure to limit the amount he gets in his cup or he'll drink all that first and then not eat as much of his actual food. And--while this isn't solely because of Connor--we have recently become a two refrigerator house because these boys are ALWAYS eating. Since we make a point to feed them as many "whole" foods as possible, we end up buying a fair amount of stuff that needs to be refrigerated (plus we love having leftovers to eat for lunches), and as a result our fridge was constantly full. It's been soooo nice to have the extra space (and I don't even mind having to make the occasional trip downstairs to get the extra gallon of milk or bag of carrots because it's way easier than having to run to the store), but we'll see how I feel once we get our first electrical bill with two fridges. 

Very excited about getting his own cupcake at a friend's birthday party--and proof that we aren't total health-food nuts

Sleeping: Well, one thing is for sure--after looking back at the two-year blog posts for his brothers, Connor definitely has way less drama in the sleep department. At two, both his brothers were dealing with the loss of their beloved pacifiers, a crutch Connor never became attached to, so we haven't had any of those battles or headaches. Garrett was also pretty inconsistent with sleeping through the night at two, and while Connor is certainly a noisy sleeper that stirs a fair amount (he had to share the room with us at the lake this summer so we got to experience it first hand), he rarely needs one of us to come in to him to help him get back to sleep if he does wake up (something that honestly, still isn't always true with Garrett). My only concern/complaint would be that it tends to take him a little while to settle down, especially at bedtime, and I'm worried that when we move him into a big boy bed in the coming months his increased freedom will further delay the time at which he actually lays down and goes to sleep. So we could end up with an over-tired boy on our hands for a few days.

Lately he's taken to sleeping with his lambie over the top of his head--but I'm glad that wasn't the case this night so we could see his awesome bed head!

New Stuff: I kind of feel like this section should be more appropriately called "Improved Stuff", not "New Stuff". Because the things I had considered "new" at eighteen months are pretty much all the same things I was going to mention on his two-year post. But improvement is better than nothing, right?

My handsome boy loving the beach!

Stubbornly independent and wanting to do everything himself? You bet. He does have a pretty good awareness of his limits (he knows he needs to ask for help on the monkey bars), but he will insist on doing as much as he can by himself (such as climbing up the ladder to get as close to the monkey bars as possible).

Very excited to be riding his own bike like his brothers

Love of books? No doubt there. He will ask for books by name (like "Berenstain Bears" or "Football Opposites"), and has heard many of his favorites enough that he can "read" a word or two correctly per page.

Do we have a future nerd on our hands? With parents like us, there's a pretty good chance of that

Affinity for all things ball-related? It's almost gotten scary. He can dribble a mean soccer ball (with some decent speed, no less--and we're talking a full-size ball, not a kid-sized one) and he has progressed from "down, set, hike" with footballs to punting them (legit "drop the ball and kick it in the air with his foot" punting. It's nuts). Oh, and he can toss himself a ball to hit while he swings one-handed with a bat. Because, you know, that's normal for two-year olds (or maybe it is when said two year old has two older brothers that are equally ball-obsessed).

Can you tell he loves his brothers? It's no wonder he tries to copy everything they do

I suppose the one thing that would definitely count as "new" would be his communication. When we were at the beach with Darrell's family in June, he figured out that he could repeat words and phrases that we said, and there's been no stopping him since. With two older brothers some of the stuff he ends up repeating is a little questionable at best ("What the heck" and "yucky house" are two phrases he's recently picked up from Garrett that he thinks are hysterical), but he's also starting to string his own phrases together ("Push Daddy down", "I play soccer", "My asparagus all gone"), which is super fun. Of course, the communication isn't all rainbows and sunshine--he makes sure to find plenty of opportunities to shout "No help, I do it" or "I no want nap" or "I don't want to" throughout the day. But I suppose it's better than no communication, so I guess we'll take the good with the bad.

So, so excited to be fishing with Daddy at the beach

I'm pretty sure I've commented with each kid how silly/funny/happy they are, and I know my opinion is only a little biased, but seriously--Connor might actually take the cake on this one. The kid seriously has personality coming out of his ears, and we swear he laughs more (and louder and deeper) than his brothers ever did at this age. Granted, in addition to having two fairly goofy parents, he also has two equally goofy brothers who love to make him laugh, so maybe it shouldn't be too surprising that he's the silliest--silly is all he knows!

Who you calling silly?!?

And--because I would be remiss in forgetting to mention this--Connor is a total thrill seeker and seems to have very little fear. The playground at William's school doesn't have any bucket swings, so when Connor wants to swing while we are waiting for William to be dismissed, he has to sit in a regular swing by himself (especially since there is no longer any room for him to sit with Mommy on the swing). But he's not content to just sit and swing gently--he needs underdoggies like Garrett gets. And you'd better make sure to push him high enough to he'll make it very clear that he needs "more push". He seriously loves anything that involves spinning or going fast or flipping upside down, and can't get enough of it. Of course, maybe all of his "fearlessness" is a consequence of having two older brothers as well--not only does he do his best to try to keep up with them, but I also seem to recall times in his infancy when they would push his baby swing just a little too high or rough him up just a little too much. At least he does pretty well knowing his limits (like I mentioned earlier), and even when the time comes that he doesn't--I've made it almost seven years into this parenting gig without an ER visit, so I'm due for one eventually, right?

That diving board was no match for this kid. He absolutely loved it

I'm so excited to do another year with this kid in my life, and I can't wait to see what kind of stuff he throws our way next. I know there will be plenty of ups and downs--moving into a big boy room and becoming a big brother come to mind first and foremost--but I just know that no matter what happens it won't be long before he is laughing again.

Peace out one-year old! I'm ready to rock this two-year old business