About the Kiddo: One post at a time: 2 Years Old

Can you guys believe that two years ago today this happened? I got up expecting a normal Tuesday, happy it was my last week of work before maternity leave, and then my water broke. I'll never forget my denial about it either.

Nolan is awesome. He's transformed our lives in ways that simply cannot be put into words. But, if you're interested in reading other posts, here a few ways that I've tried: A Year of Memories (2) and Birthday Letter (2nd).

Isn't it insanely crazy how much can change in two years? On February 19, 2013 at 10:00pm, Nolan made his (nearly) 4 week early entrance into this world, changing our lives forever. He's become such a part of us, that it's hard to remember a time without him. Our futures are anticipated with his well being at the front of our minds and the core of our decisions.

He's changed so much in these two years.

His black hair faded and thinned into an unfamiliar blonde. His dark blue eyes layered with streaks of brown. His 5 pounds, 11 ounces has grown into 24 pounds, and his 18 inch body added 14.5 inches to it! In just two years!

We've watched as a completely helpless baby blob morphed into a tiny, mobile human right before our eyes.

I'm in awe of him constantly.

In the last month, he's learned a lot. He started recognizing sight words quickly, clearly proud of his accomplishment. He's up to knowing about 25-30 now! I'm working on a binder to keep better track of it, and I hope this can mold easily into actual reading efforts.

In general, he jabbers a lot more. It's adorable. I think this has a lot to do with pacifier weaning.

Speaking of, I thought pacifier weaning would be nothing short of being comparable to scooping out my own eyeballs with spoons, but... what can I say, he's proved me wrong.

He still spontaneously asks for it sometimes, but he's pretty easily distracted from the request. It's not completely out of our lives yet, though. For now, he still gets it at nap and bedtime. But those are the only times. I'm pretty happy about this. Maybe pacifier weaning from sleep times will be when I'll reach for the spoons, but let's all hope he proves me wrong again.

Right after the 23 month post, we did a 3-5 day trial run on potty training. A for real trial. Diapers were not used, pull-ups were not used. He had big boy pants - lots of them. We wanted to see how well he could do.

Like with everything else in the world, I have strong opinions on this. I do believe potty training is a skill that can be taught with enough effort and consistency.

However, a lot of new research does give you clues to look for on the grounds of bladder development and stuff. Also, there's some valid research in the way of children needing to play, and to some extent, not putting the pressures of bowel/bladder interruptions on free play activities (i.e. To some extent kids really shouldn't have to stop playing to go pee).

At the end of three days, Nolan was definitely recognizing when he needed to pee half of the time. The other half of the time, he could recognize when he'd started to go and stop going until he was on the potty. Reading that surely implies he's ready, right? Wrong.

He was peeing 15-20 times a day. For real. I have charts. Frequency, is a giant clue in bladder development. If a child can/does stay dry for hours at a time, then they're probably good to go. If Nolan had done that on any of our trial days, I would have pushed through and accomplished this skill. But he didn't. He pees all the dang time, apparently.

In all honesty, I do believe with enough effort and time he could be trained right now. He had made progress. But, I don't want to put those pressures/expectations on him, when his body basically told us his bladder isn't ready. But, that's just my opinion on it ;)

We're giving it another go after our Missouri trip at the end of the month.

Just over the weekend he had his third scary head bump, and first one with an open wound. The little ornery got backwards in one of his little chairs, and just fell straight forward, right into ones of his cubby shelves. Daddy got to him first, picked him up and gasped. So, then I took over. I fetched the Tylenol and as I was giving it to him I noticed a pretty blank gaze, followed by an almost head roll motion and I really thought he was going to pass-out. He never did, and he had cried right away, recognized things, etc. All the things to look for that imply good things.

We called our Pediatrician, and she recommended we go to the Children's Hospital to get it checked.

He needed four hours of close observation after the impact, and after a bit of discussing no stitches or glue. They explained the line and placement of the cut and said it was a bit shallow to stitch and in an odd place to glue. They also said the egg-like swelling behind it was pushing it out making it appear worse.

It was a long, stressful night. But, I felt relieved and blessed at the end of it. Head bumps can always be so much worse. We've been lucky so far. Here's to praying, he never has an actual brain injury.

His favorites are: