Nolan at Two Years

This blog entry is dedicated to what and how Nolan is doing at 24 months.


Size: We had our well child appt. today and, despite the massive amounts of carbs he digests via pancakes, he's still on the small side. However, he's moved up on both the weight and height charts, as he's now 20% in weight and 50% in height. We've just now gotten to the point where 18 months pants fit okay in the waist. Some pairs are still fine lengthwise, while others are still too long and yet others are starting to get too short. I hate the notion of moving up to 24 mos., though, as he'll be back to looking like a gangster rapper with his pants sagging down on his hips!! Oh well, if I could just get him to wear a ball cap turned to the side, he'd really look the part!


Speech: It's funny how quickly he has added words to his vocabulary. Mere months ago I could tell people the words he was saying because there weren't a great many. Now, we're at the point where he's saying more than I could remember and write down. He's also stringing together several words to make short (and sometimes funny) sentences. Sometimes we still don't understand him, and I'm certain others would not understand enough to appreciate the funny things he says. A couple of my favorites:


-My dryer buzzes when the cycle is done. EVERY time, Nolan will ask, "What's that?", to which I reply, "Just the dryer." A few days ago, the front door creaked quite loudly and Nolan, without missing a beat, said, "What's that? The dryer?"


-He LOVES watching movies and asks for "a movie" all the time. Sometimes we just put it on the Disney Channel and tell him it's a movie (don't tell!). Other times, we rent dollar movies for the kids and they watch together (Nolan's attention span is surprisingly longer than Bailey's sometimes). When the DVD skips or gets stuck, he'll say, "What happened?"


He loves saying his own name now. He'll find any opportunity to point to himself in pictures and say, "That's Nolan." He also likes to name and claim objects or assign them to Bailey, mommy, daddy, etc. He seems to think we're the only people in the world, though. When he looks at Facebook pictures when I'm on the computer, he's inevitably go through all the people he knows trying to find someone who fits the look of the person or people in the pictures. It really bothers him when he can't make that work. He'll say, "That's Bailey....no. That's grandma....no." Eventually he gets tired and walks away and my speech about other families and friends is lost on him!


No one can quite figure out his titles. He calls both grandmas "maw maw" but yet he calls me either "meenee" or "meemee." Those are the phonetic spellings....I sure hope he's not just calling me mean, although several of my friends and family get a real kick out of teasing me with that. It drives people crazy that he can't just call me mommy. Oh well....he can call me whatever he wants!


Temperament: He has definitely started to cross the line into the Terrible Twos. He is a happy kid when everything is going his way. However, when he first gets up, when new people are around and he's nervous, or when playtime with Bailey isn't going so well he is a BEAR! He will cry and whine and growl with frustration. He's even thrown himself on the floor and writhed around for a few minutes. We just ignore him.

He's also started doing some deliberately naughty things though, too. He has always had a "thing" for crayons and markers. Every surface of Bailey's room has been desecrated by Nolan wielding a writing utensil. As he's gotten older, this has become more malicious and has resulted in several spankings. This kid will also get into ANYTHING that's not up high or otherwise strapped down. And, if you leave the bathroom door open, just know that the toilet is extremely tempting to little Nolan! We've learned that lesson the hard way!

Unlike Bailey, he's very good at cleaning up after himself. He won't usually do it without being told, but he has no problem putting all of his matchbox cars into a bag or taking clothes to the hamper. Maybe that will change as he gets older, but he's thus far been very compliant about those sorts of things.

Physicality: I may have mentioned this in previous posts, but Nolan is very coordinated physically. He runs FAST for a kid his age (with heels on, I can't catch him), and can throw and catch pretty well. He loves to do anything physical and never seems to get tired. Oh, to be a kid again...

Those are the things I can think of right now. Until next time....peace.

K