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| Crazy bath hair! |
Well, Grant’s
second birthday has come and gone. I
still can’t believe that he is two. It
was a special day filled with family and friends. If you didn’t have the chance you can read
all about it here. After this month, I
have decided I am going to update Grant’s blog every 2-3 months. He is still changing quickly and learning new
things daily but bi-monthly should be sufficient to keep track of it all and
keep everyone updated.
Growth: I was waiting to update this post until
after Grant’s 2 year check up today. He
weighed in at 27 lbs 2 oz (40th %). His height was
34.75" (60th %). They did not measure his head circumference.
Overall, he seems to just be a lean little boy and built very much like
Matt and myself. He is still in a select few 18-24 month clothes but mainly 24 month and
2T clothes. I have even found some 3T
shirts that we need to get some use out of now because there is no way they
will fit him at or around 3 years old (I think this is just a sizing fluke
based on brand). Shoes are 6-7 and he is
still comfortable in size 4 diapers.
Teeth:
Grant’s 2 year
old molars still haven’t popped
yet. I am telling you… this boy
has been gnawing hard core on those gums for over 3 months and they still
haven’t come in. Grant also had a
dentist appointment last week. He did
great. He let the dentist look in his
mouth with the mirror and the hygienist put the chocolate toothpaste (aka
chocolate flavored tooth polish) in his mouth on her instrument. They said each time we will try to do more
and more without making it a traumatic experience.
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| At the dentist! |
Language/Comprehension: We have been working on shapes, colors, letters,
and numbers and we see progress daily.
He mixes pentagon and octagon up in his shapes puzzle but knows circle,
triangle, square, rectangle, and diamond.
He is getting more and more consistent with colors and very often gets
red, white, orange, and yellow correct.
He can count 1-13 rather consistently and recognizes numbers 1-5 when
asked to pick them out. If you sing “one,
two” Grant answers “buckle my shoe.”
Then we can reverse it and he does the counting part and we answer with
the other all the way to 10.
We
have been working more and more on letter recognition but there isn’t much
progress there.
He
more often than not uses your, my, me, and I in the correct context and is
using them more and more. We have also
noticed a change in Grant’s memory. He
will refer to something that happened several days ago and it takes Matt and I
a little while to catch on. We are so
used to his little brain always being in the present. For instance, he has still been referring to
his trip to the dentist, what they did and the fact that he got to pick out
a car from the “treasure chest.” He has also been talking about the "birthday snowman" he and my mom built.
Grant
can say the “Come Lord Jesus” blessing in its entirety but towards the end
he does have a tendency to mumble and follow up with a loud, proud “Amen!”
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| He still won't push the pedal to make it move |
Mobility/Coordination: Grant can unzip and take his coat off and put
his hat on (usually facing the right direction). We work on dressing/undressing and there are certain pairs of pants Grant can pull down along with being able to pull down his underwear and loves trying to put on his socks. He is a pro at taking his socks and shoes off. At his birthday party, he successfully blew
out his candles. Occasionally, he will use
the proper grip on crayons/pencils. He
still primarily eats with his left hand, throws with his right and colors with
his right. I will say that he does most
things interchangeably with both hands so we will see how that continues. He can give a real thumbs up now and knows he is
two but can’t show that on his fingers yet (he holds up all 5). Grant can also roll his tongue and loves
doing so and will occasionally catch a ball.
Potty Training: I had good intentions of working with Grant for the days we were off
between Christmas and New Years. Well,
then we both got sick, ran fevers and Grant had some looser stools… none of
which make for good training or practicing conditions. He still has potty successes here and there
but nothing consistent. Sometimes he
will ask to sit on the potty and others he will absolutely refuse.
Grant-isms: Grant likes to pretend fall and say “help me please” because he needs
help up ~ He has discovered picking his nose but luckily those fingers haven’t
found their way into his mouth ~ When he gets a time out, he cries and says
“I’ll be nice” over and over ~ Answers a yes question with “Mmm Hmm” ~ He
doesn’t like to be ignored and if we have our phones out looking at something
he will say “put it away mama/daddy” ~ He is bossy, bossy, bossy right now!
Things he likes: Still loves baseball and his tee ~ singing
Christmas songs (yes, still!), music, and dancing ~ playing the guitar
Funniest moment(s) this month: If
we are playing basketball in the basement Grant will yell “miss!” when you
shoot the ball ~ If he sees a commercial with Christmas décor but no Santa he
will ask “Where’s Santa?”
Biggest change(s) this month: Unfortunately,
we had some regression this month and since being back at daycare in the New
Year Grant has occasionally been biting or attempting to bite… usually
unprovoked. Not cool!
Firsts: Sledding! With some really good snow earlier this year (which has all melted now!) we have been able to get out a couple of times to enjoy.
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| Grant and his "birthday snowman" |
My mom took Grant to
a local nursing home by the name of Villa Loretta. My aunt takes care of the many animals they have so it was almost
like a petting zoo for Grant complete with goats, rabbits, horses, donkeys,
chickens, monkeys, llamas, and others I probably forgot.
Illnesses: Grant and I were both sick this
month. Grant had a pretty bad cold and
ran a fever of 103-105 for 4 days. He
was fever free for over 24 hours then the day before he was supposed to go back
to daycare and me back to work his fever came back and spiked at 105
again. It was just a virus so there
wasn’t much we could do other than keep him comfortable with Tylenol and
cuddling.
C Diff update: I
am happy to say that Grant has still showed no signs of C Diff. It has been a busy month with outreach
though.
Grant was
featured in a Fond du Lac Reporter article and Chicago PBS story on the human
microbiome.
Here are some of
the links if you haven’t had the chance to read or watch them. The PBS story is very interesting. They are hoping to find other applications
for stool transplants and have some promising research on the horizon.
Click here to read the Fond du Lac Reporter article.
Click here to read the American Journal of Gastroenterology submission on Grant.
Click here to view the Chicago Tonight PBS story that Grant was featured in.
