26 Months ~Grant~

Here we are with Grant just over 2 years old and about to be a big brother.  In spite of the toddler moments and his growing independence we are enjoying each and every day.  It is joy to watch him grow and learn and flourish.  We couldn’t be more proud. 

Growth:   Grant is now weighing in at right about 27.5 pounds on our scale at home.  As best I can estimate and measure he is about 35 1/2 inches tall.  He is wearing 24 month and 2T clothes and shoes are 6-7.  When he is in a diaper (bed time only now) he is still comfortable in size 4 diapers. 

Teeth:  Grant had two teeth pop through in the last two months about 2-3 weeks apart.  He now has both of his lower 2 year old molars. 

Language/Comprehension:  Rarely is Grant ever quiet anymore.  He is a chatter box and likes to talk and converse constantly.  Whether he is asking questions (he asks a lot of them!) or simply making observations he is a talker.  Some of my favorite moments are in the car and hearing some of the things he comes up with.

Colors, letter, and numbers (He already knew most of his shapes) have all made tons of progress in the last couple of months.  Grant has colors down pat and can count to twenty without any problems.  He recognizes most of his letters now as well.

Grant’s memory still amazes us on a daily basis.  We find him now consistently referring to events that have happened in the last several months and reliving the details for us.

 

 

Grant absolutely loves to read.  We can’t tuck him in at night without reading at least 2 books of his choice.  One of his favorites right now is Pat the Bunny and he likes to read it to us.  He will tell us what Paul and Judy are doing and give the play by play on each page based on the pictures. 

He is also very independent.  I think most children are at this age but he really likes to figure things out for himself.  And when he doesn’t want to be messed with he isn’t afraid to let you know.  One of his favorite phrases lately is “back away daddy/mommy” when he doesn’t want help or want to be messed with.

Mobility/Coordination:  Over the last couple of months, Grant’s coordination has come a long way.  When he colors he can draw lines and circles on command usually using the proper grip on the crayon.  He can unscrew caps and can use his toy screw driver to unscrew the bolts on his tool bench.  He eats cereal with milk and other food with very little to no spilling.  When going up the stairs, he likes to do so without holding on.  He very good at pulling up and down his pants and undies.  Grant will also "push the button" on his gator now but is still working on stopping and steering as you can see in the video. 

Potty Training: If you didn’t see my post about our adventures in potty training, click here.  Otherwise, he is doing awesome still and rarely has accidents unless it is just an off day.  We are still making progress on poop but I think he has a hard time differentiating between gas and poop so we usually don’t know until it is too late.  His latest trick is to just go a tiny amount when you tell him it’s time to potty just to get you off his back so he can go back to playing or whatever he was doing.  Well then it sneaks up on him when he really has to go and he will sometimes have an accident.  He rarely has an accident at nap or bed time but we still use a diaper at bedtime.  I figure once the baby is born we will nix the night diaper because if he does have an accident chances are I will be up in the middle of the night anyway and can change sheets.  We couldn’t be happier with the progress he has made! 

Grant-isms:  Yells “one big bad wolf” and tells the 3 little pigs story ~ If you ask him to do something he will often reply “I don’t want to” (This drives us nuts!) ~ If you ask what color something is or quiz him on something, he answers but them quizzes us back ~ new favorite phrase when he sees/meets someone he doesn’t know or recognize:  “Who’s this guy?” ~ takes tiny bites to savor the flavor when it is something he really likes like a cookie or cake

Things he likes:  putting his hands in his pockets ~ has always liked music but now likes to sing along with you ~ buckling buckles ~ Thomas the Train and “the mouse movie” aka The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under ~ zamboni at the hockey game ~ drawing on his magnidoodle and asking us to “look at his picture” ~ looking at pictures whether it is a photo album or the pictures on Matt or my phone ~ his brown shoes (it is sometimes a battle to get him to wear any others) ~ playing in the snow/building snowmen

"Look at my picture mama and daddy.  It's a tunnel."

Funniest moment(s):  We were grocery shopping this month and passed an older gentleman on a motorized scooter.  Naturally, Grant turns to me and asks “This guy doing mama?”  It took everything inside me to keep a straight face because of the way Grant posed the question.  I guess we are already approaching the stage of having no filter and blurting out what is on his mind. 

We also had to learn the hard way that Grant knows how to unscrew caps.  One afternoon as his nap was ending I heard him upstairs.  I asked Matt to go up and check on him because he hadn’t come out of his room yet.  All of the sudden Matt yells “Autumn you better get up here!”  As I am running up the stairs I am asking if it is poop or puke or what happened.  Well, come to find out Grant had gotten into a drawer in his dresser (we didn’t think he could reach yet) and pulled out a tub of prescription diaper cream and rubbed it all over his arms and legs, the glider, the carpet, his radio… basically everything.  Grant proudly stated “I made a mess!”  After the initial shock wore off, the only choice we had was to laugh and start cleaning it all up.

 

Showing off Aunt Kelli's boots and his sunglasses

Biggest change(s):  Grant is definitely becoming more and more independent (as you can tell from his “I don’t want to” answers) and we see some very dramatic toddler moments.  There are times when I dread saying no because of the fit it will lead to.  It can be exhausting, but I know if we give in then we will end up with a heathen on our hands. 

Firsts:  Not a first that anyone looks forward to but we had a trip to the ER.  You can read about it below in the illness section 

Illnesses:  On January 20^th Grant came down with the croup.  As this was not our first but our 5^th time down this path since he was born we know all the tricks to try… steam, cold air, humidifier and his nebulizer.  Well, unfortunately none of the above could even touch his cough this time around.  His breathing became very labored and it was scary.  At that point, I told Matt we needed to go in for a steroid injection.  It was about 1 am so we packed up and off to the ER we went.  Of course, you never know what to expect with an ER visit at 1 am on a Saturday night so we were prepared for a long night.  I am happy to report the opposite.  They took us straight back and we were seen by the doctor within 30 minutes.  He agreed Grant needed steroids (which we knew already because we had been down this path before) and also did a strep test on him because of the “severe swelling” in his throat.  Strep came back negative and after administering the steroids we were out of there in less than 2 hours.  We went home, tucked Grant in bed with us to keep an eye on him, slept peacefully the rest of the night.