Okay...this is a bragging post. Since this blog is primarily used by me to remember funny/incredible things my children have done (so that when they are driving me insane as teenagers, I can remember that I once thought they were cute), I will now blog about my baby son's newest accomplishments. Stop reading now if you don't want to be nauseated by my pride in my son...
It's been six years since we've had a 2 year old around here. I honestly can't remember how 2 year olds learn. And I know that all parents think their child is the smartest, most wonderful being that has ever walked the earth, so the following information may not be all that exciting to anyone other than me at this time of life, but, between Conan naturally being a quick learner, and the big kids teaching him things (rather than doing their schoolwork), Conan has learned quite a bit already. And frankly, it is amazing to watch your children go from knowing nothing other than how to breath and swallow, to walking, talking, and actually participating with the family. So, here is a list of some of the things he knows as well as some of the cute personality-type things he does currently. This is by far not an exhaustive list, but it's what I can think of right now with all of my kids screaming in the other room...
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When he has a poopy diaper and you ask if he has a stinky, he will stop whatever he is doing and back all the way up to you so you can check. Even if he is in another room. He's got the walking backwards thing down!
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He loves to wash his hands and will get the stool wherever it ends up in the house so that he can climb up and get his hands washed. He prefers that I sing the alphabet song in weird voices.
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He loves to say "o-tay" and then do whatever it is he has been asked to do. And when he's done doing whatever he's doing, he shouts, "YAY!" In fact, if he has something he shouldn't have, all I have to do is say, in an excited voice, "bring that to Mommy!" and shout "yay!" and he happily gives up whatever is in his hand.
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He will occasionally say "tank you" and he almost always says "pleeeeese"...at least when reminded to do so. He loves to pray and has been folding his hands and covering his eyes since he was about 10 months old. We pray together at night and he always sits patiently while I pray, then says "AMEN" and then he wants to pray. He'll babble a quick prayer and then say "AMEN". Super cute!!!
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We do our family devotions over lunchtime. Conan listens as quietly as the other kids during the Bible reading and the story. At the end of "Keys for Kids," I always pause and ask the kids if they can guess today's key (what the take away from the lesson should be). The one that guesses closest to the one on the computer gets a high five. The kids are competitive and love to guess, so they throw their hands in the air and shout, "me!!!" So now anytime I ask any question during devotions, Conan raises his hand and shouts, "meeee!" and won't stop until I call on him. He then closes his eyes and pretends to hide like he's too embarrassed to answer. Love him!
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At bedtime, he will draw it out all night long for mommy, but all daddy has to do is say, "go to sleep!" and he will be asleep within 5 minutes. I don't know how he does it!
When I put him to bed he manipulates me into reading at least 3 books--he always chooses the sappy ones like "My Mommy and I" and looks at me like a lost puppy dog--how can I refuse??? After I finally turn off the lights, we pray, I sing his night night song, I massage his scalp for a minute or two, and he will "pretend" to sleep. I will sit in his room and read on my kindle until I think he is actually asleep, then I will tuck him in one last time and sneak out. Within a minute, he will open the door and look at me like I betrayed him. As soon as I walk towards him, he will run to his bed, crouch down and cover his eyes as if he'd been asleep the whole time. Also super cute, but makes for a long night. So if Daddy and I want to watch a movie or something, Daddy tucks him in.
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Conan is very athletic. He follows the other kids around and is able to keep up fairly well for his shorter legs. He climbs on their playground equipment and has never fallen. He loves to swing and swings in a normal swing by himself on his stomach. He knows to kick a soccer ball and throw all other balls. He can already play catch fairly well at short distances. He has been jumping since he could walk.
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During family game night, Conan has to be included in whatever game we are playing. He will sit in his high chair and expects to have a turn. So if we are playing UNO, we will give him his own deck of cards (mismatched playing cards that it doesn't matter if they break/get lost) and he will place them down, one at a time, on the table during his "turn". If we are playing a game with dice, he has to have a chance to throw some also. He loves to be included and refuses to play with his toys or do anything besides whatever the family is doing.
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Conan loves to play hide and seek. His favorite place to hide is in the pantry (where he proceeds to play in the flour with the door shut). After having him go in and out of the pantry several times while I was cooking dinner, I finally had enough. Pulling him out of the pantry, I quickly reached up and latched the child lock. We actually have two locks on our pantry--one for Conan, and one for the big kids, which requires a key in the handle (otherwise I would be out of chips and cereal the day after I bought them). Conan is well aware of the key lock, but he hasn't caught on to the child lock yet. So when the handle still moves, he assumes the door should open. I stepped away from the door to start making plates and I heard the following conversation:
Conan: "Open. Open. Open key. Open key," and watched as he turned the key in the lock, trying to get the door to open. Pretty smart.
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He has learned how to "read" several of his books. He will finish sentences if I drop off in the middle. He can actually point to some words and say them. He especially likes his Tom and Jerry books and any book about vehicles. One of his construction books takes popular nursery rhymes and changes the words to construction site terminology. He has already memorized the location of all of the rhymes in the book and can say about half of his favorites as he "reads" along. This shouldn't surprise me since his first word was "book".
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He loves cars and trucks. He favorite thing to say is "my truck" (and yes, I want to reverse time and duct tape the mouth of the child who decided to teach him "mine" and "my"...grrr....). He can identify parts of a truck, and he knows which vehicles belong to whom. He knows "mom's truck", "dad's truck", "Bryan's truck", "D's car", "Chris' truck", and "grandma's car".
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Speaking of grandma...he LOVES grandma. It is so cute to watch him run to her and give her a hug and a kiss. The other day I had to take the big kids to an eye doctor appointment, and he happily waved goodbye to me and took grandma's hand to lead her off. He doesn't do that with anyone else.
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But even though he loves grandma, she is not Daddy. Daddy is his favorite. The other day, he came in my bedroom and said, "where's dada?" I wasn't sure that's what he said, so I repeated the question back to him. He responded, "in the shop!" and grabbed my hand to go get him. I told him, "No, he's next door with Uncle Chris." So he excitedly started pulling me to the garage, "Yay! Truck!"
Everyday when Daddy comes home, Conan's face lights up and he runs to give him a hug and a kiss. Of course, I think Daddy cheats. He gives him ice cream and watches monster truck documentaries with him on his phone...
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Conan talks a mile a minute and we can understand most of what he says. Just yesterday is started saying "I love you"--although he says it "I you!"...we know what he means.
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He is beginning to know actual letters. He can always recognize "O" and "E". He gets "A" about half the time. I'm pretty impressed.
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He can count to ten. Most of the time it is actually in order. I thought he could only count to five, but the other day I was counting out towels and the conversation went like this:
Mommy: "One"
Conan: "Two"
Mommy: "Three"
Conan: "Four"
Mommy: "Five, Six, Seven, Eight"
Conan: "Nine"
Mommy and Conan: "Ten"
I had no idea he knew past five, but apparently Honor has been working with him. He always counts the balloons in his book and points to a different one every time he says a different number. That right there impresses me since he's not just repeating a list of words, but recognizes (at least on some level) that there is a meaning to them.
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He follows directions incredibly well. He puts things away. He wipes up his own spills. He helps me do chores. He knows which animals get which food. He walks goats. He puts away tools where they belong. He holds a pencil correctly, naturally (he seems to be right-handed). He loves to draw and "write", but thankfully keeps most of his doodles on paper only (so far).
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And now I am being called to put him to bed... I may have a part 2 another time since I know he does more exciting things than this.
