Rowen at 2 years old...
Weight- 31 lbs
Height- not for sure, we think from our very fast measurements that he is about 36 inches
Rowen has changed so much in the last 3 months. His vocabulary has expanded tremendously from 21 months to now, he just keeps getting taller, and his personality is flourishing into a full fledged little boy who is on the go!
Vocabulary:
Rowen continues to surprise us each day with new words and phrases.
Some our favorites (or not so favorite depending on the context) right now are: "
Roro want out" (of high chair or car seat), "look mommy!" or "look daddy!", "watch this!", "I'm
comin' ", "love you", "sure" instead of yes, "other" when talking about his "other cars" or "other bowl" or "other cup", "too" as in "mommy play too", "can't reach" or just "reach!" as he stretches his arms out to grab a hold of something out of his reach, and "move away" when he wants us to get out of his way.
We have recently heard the following.... "I don't want anymore.", "Rowen want to play downstairs!", "No sleep, mommy!".
Favorite Activities: The top 3 right now are...
- Playing with his cars of course, but this mostly involves lots of imaginary play. He likes his cars to talk to each other and he demands that we have the car in our hand talk to Rowen and to the others cars as well. Rowen's cars have lots of fun together talking about where they are going, who they are playing with, what color they are, how fast they are, etc, etc. His cars are also very good friends... they help each other out by giving each other a push when needed, filling each other up with gas, flipping each other back over after a wreck, etc. It is so fun to see Rowen come up with such fun conversation using his toys.
- Books! Reading books is still a huge part of our mornings, afternoons, evenings, and bedtime. Over the past few months, Rowen has been going to bed with a few books to read to his stuffed animals. If we forget to give him a book or two before leaving the room he will yell, "books!" until we come back to hand him a few. We will often hear him "reading" his books to his stuffed animals. It is so sweet.
- Pretend play with his stuffed animals and puppets consumes a large part of Rowen's play time. All of his stuffed animals play together and talk to each other about all sorts of different things. Sometimes they like to play with his cars and other times they like to play alone. There is almost always a mommy, daddy, and baby and they are eating together, playing together, reading together, tickling each other, or anything else his little imagination comes up with. Often Rowen also includes a Papa or Mammy or Nana or Grandpa into the mix for obvious reasons... grandparents are a very important part of his daily life.
Personality Developments:
- Pretty stubborn! Actually, VERY stubborn. I don't know who he got that from :).
- Independent... wants to do everything himself- putting his shoes on, zipping his coat, hanging up his coat, getting into his highchair,washing his hands, etc. Of course he can't do all of these things himself and even if he could we wouldn't necessarily let him but we always let him try and then help out when needed :). I am hoping that within the next few months this independence might motivate him to potty train... for now he is for the most part content with diapers so we'll see.
- Can be very, very silly! He makes the funniest faces at us to get us to laugh. He is pretty proud of himself of course.
- Remembers everything (as I am sure most kids do)! We can't get anything past him; consequently, we have to choose our words and actions very carefully because he won't forget about anything. We love this about him because it makes him challenging, gives him character, and we know that his good memory will come in handy throughout his life.
Sleep Habits:
Goes to bed between 8:00 and 8:30. He likes to walk to his "bed" (crib) himself and then gives daddy and mommy kisses and hugs. We put him in his crib and read him one or two MORE stories that we leave with him to read to his stuffed animals after we leave. He is usually very calm and falls asleep quickly at bed time but we do go through spurts every now and then that are more difficult. Right now we are having a hard time because he has been pooping sometime between 9:00 and 10:30, wakes up and calls for us to change him. Not a huge deal but I am usually sound asleep by this point so daddy has been doing most of the later night diaper duty by himself :). However, once down for the night he sleeps all night and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30. We have very few middle of the night wake ups unless he is sick.
One thing I want to remember about Rowen at this age in regards to bedtime is that every night we give him the choice for one of us to carry him to bed or for him to walk. He almost always chooses to walk. He also says, "night mommy! night daddy!" in such a cheerful, sweet voice.
Still taking a 2-3 hour nap each day from about 1-4ish.
Other Developments:
- Rowen is putting together several words to communicate something he remembers. For example, a few weeks ago Eric and my dad were pulling him on his red sled and he fell off and hit his chin on the hard snow (we were in Montana); about 5 days later while I was reading him a book about a little boy with a red sled, Rowen stopped me to say, "Roro sled... chin... ice... owie... daddy and Papa." Also, after being at Nana and Grandpas all day we will ask him what he did that day and he will proceed to tell us all about his day- every few words we understand and the rest are difficult to make out but he just babbles on and on, telling us all about the fun things he got to do. This is happening more and more where he tells us a full thought or story.
- LOVES to sing along to the ABC song with mommy and daddy and anyone of his grandparents. He can't sing the song completely yet but he loves certain parts more than others, like the "w, x, y, z" part because it just rolls off the tongue!
- Starts to count things spontaneously (stairs, cars, blocks, etc). He gets off track here and there but is pretty interested in counting anything and everything. Daddy has had a lot to do with this... he counts stuff with Rowen all the time. It must be the accountant in him!
- Rowen knows all of his colors thanks to his GiGi. She had a big part in teaching him his colors using M n' M's as motivation then it just naturally moved into identifying the color of random objects and clothing. He sometimes gets yellow and green and pink and purple mixed up but other than that he is almost always accurate. When we are out and about somewhere he will start yelling out colors he sees.
- Rowen can identify the letter R, O, and W; sometimes he gets E and N. If I show him his name written out on paper or printed on something in the house he often says, "Rowen!" without me prompting much at all.
- Rowen is becoming SOOOO much more physical over the last few months. He wants to wrestle and play much more rough and tumble. He is never too rough, he just has lots of energy to use up. He loves to wrestle with Daddy when he gets home from work and if I am on the floor he will often run up and "tackle" me then start tickling me. Daddy and Papa can get him going pretty good with the wrestling. I have heard a few loud thumps while his has been wrestling with daddy and I wait for the cry but never hear one. They are just having a great time being boys I guess.'
- Ro continues to love to sing songs and chant rhymes. Now he will clearly sing some of the words with us, especially all the rhyming words at the end of each line. A few favorites at the moment are... The ABC song, I'm A Little Teapot, Wheels on The Race Car, Humpty Dumpty, and Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.
- Rowen is noticing shapes in all sorts of different places. Recently, he pointed out and named the triangle and the circle on one of my school bags. He is surprising me all the time!
- We have been playing a few different games lately. I found a really simple BINGO game with animals and objects that he just loves. He also likes to play our color and number game that we got from our Ready For Kindergarten class.
A few things I want to remember forever...
- Mammy picks Rowen and mommy up each Monday and Tuesday morning bright and early (or gloomy and early lately). She drops mommy off at work and then takes Rowen to Nana and Grandpa's house. On the way to school, Rowen looks for school buses and yells out "bus!" each time we pass one. He blows kisses to me as I wave to him while I walk into the school. After school, while in the car with Mammy on their way to pick mommy up, Rowen asks her to go down hills "fast!". Mammy pretty much does anything Rowen asks of her so he gets a thrill ride on the way to pick me up each day :). As soon as Rowen sees mommy come out of the school he starts to giggle and yell, "mommy!" until I climb into the backseat next to him. We get to sing songs and talk about his day all the way home.
- Rowen wouldn't know what to do if his grandparents weren't in his life each day. He loves his time at Nana and Grandpa's house each Monday and Tuesday. He talks about them on the days he is home with me. He will ask, "Where's Nana (or Grandpa)?", then say quickly, "At work!" and nod his head yes until I agree that yes, they are at work and he will see them soon. They do all sorts of fun things with him. He gets to eat yummy food, play games one on one with them all day long, go outside on walks with Grandpa and Rita, and is so well taken care of he probably feels a bit neglected when he gets home :). He will ask to go over to Mammy and Papa's house and often pretends he is going to Mammy and Papa's house while playing with his cars, shopping cart, or stuffed animals. If Rowen is in trouble at all, he often asks for Mammy or Papa, like they will come and rescue him from his mean mommy or daddy.
- We have been using time out for certain behaviors. It does seem to work when we are really consistent with it :). We have been focusing more on giving him two choices (that we are happy with) so that he feels like he has some control over situations. This seems to help with the stubbornness most of the time.
- Rowen is very affectionate with all the people he loves. I get many hugs and kisses a day. He loves to tickle us and snuggle up in bed with us for a few minutes- nothing too long or that would seem too much like going to sleep!
- He definitely prefers mommy over anyone else right now. I am soaking it all up as much as I can.
Rowen 2
nd Birthday Celebrations:
We decided to keep Rowen's birthday celebrations as simple as we could this year. His 1 year party was so big and a bit overwhelming. We had a party on his actual birthday with just immediate family and a few close friends who are like family to us. It was of course a Disney Cars themed party! Uncle
TJ and Aunt Erin made Rowen a Lightning McQueen birthday cake! He got to dig into it with a "pork" all by himself. Don't worry, he only at a few bites then we moved it away and gave him a small cupcake. As you will see in the video below, he absolutely loved being the center of attention and blowing out his birthday candles. We did both twice. The video is the second time :). Before and after cake and presents,
Ro had a blast playing with his grandparents, uncles, Aunt Erin and the few little friends that came.
Then, a few days later we celebrated with Rowen's
GiGi and cousins by going to Chuck E Cheese. This was Rowen's first time there and he loved it! Chuck E Cheese sang Happy Birthday to him and brought him a chocolate cake with 2 candles to blow out. He had a fabulous time playing with his cousins. They spoiled him with more presents and showered him with love and attention.
We know that every year it is going to seem like a bit much to throw a party 2 days after Christmas and shower Rowen with even more gifts, but we always want him to know and feel that his birthday on December 27
th it is just as important to celebrate in full force as if it were on July 27
th! Thank you to all of our friends and family for making Rowen's birthday so special for him!
