Jed and Heather: Chris: 2 1/2 years old!

This child is a wonder. What a smarty pants he is. And what a crazy child he is!

He learns new words daily. Some of his favorites: bunch (jump and also dump), meechoo (he says this when he wants to shake your hand because he wants you to say "nice to meet you"), hold on (when he's standing on a chair and wants me to move it so he can watch me cook), and various things, like "see goose" (silly goose). In general, he has a word or two for everything we do. I can't even begin to name everything he can say. He has started saying "me truck" for "my truck," which is awesome.

He loves to count. He generally says "one, two, three, six." But he can identify some of his numbers now, which is awesome.

He loves to jump or run after you say either "on your mark, get set, go" or "one two three go" (which when he says it is, it's "two-ee, go!").

He plays with his blocks multiple times a day. He loves to stack anything he can. He is surprisingly good at getting his towers pretty tall! We've brought out his duplos (large Legos) and he loves those.

Cars, trains, and planes continue to be his main love. Grandma and grandpa have some trains from Thomas the Train and he loves those. They also have tractors that he loves to play with.

He loves to swim. It's taken some practice, but last time we went, after protestation when I pulled him in, he almost immediately loved swimming on his tummy while I and his floaty supported him. He even would jump in from the side of the pool as I caught him, as well as stick his face close enough to the water to blow some bubbles. It is a great improvement! The only bad part was that he never wanted to get out!

Other improvements. He in general is getting better at following directions. He will now hold my hand as we walk from the car into a store. He will walk when I tell him, though he will continually ask to run. He is getting a lot better at sharing. He will share snacks and share most toys. He's pretty funny when he wants something: he will stretch his arms straight and get super close to what he wants, without actually touching it, while moving his fingers like he's pretending to grab the object. Most of the time he will listen to us and give it up if we tell him to, but sometimes he won't.

With this better direction following, however, comes more sophisticated ways of trying to avoid following directions. His tantrums are a little more ridiculous (he is even getting better at making his fake cry sound more realistic) but time out has helped with those when he just won't calm down.

He also continues to be very affectionate. I guess that comes when you have a mommy and daddy who love to give kisses and hugs! His hugs are improving as he will squeeze his arms around your neck (side note-- now that he knows how to squeeze those arms, piggy back rides actually feel safe andnnot like he will fall backwards at any moment). Just today, he made a mess with the DVDs (books, he called them), and I gently told him no, we don't touch those. As I started cleaning them up, he kept saying "No Chris," obviously knowing he did wrong, but then he started hugging me and kissing me. It was too cute. Obviously he was trying to make it up to me, and I loved it. We always follow time outs with hugs and kisses, too, so I think that may have been where that came from as well.

Does he realize a baby is coming? Doubtful. I continually ask him where the baby is in Mommy's tummy and usually he'll just pat my nearest limb, but every once in a while he will touch my belly. Often he touches his own belly. Once, I tried to get him to feel the baby when she was hiccuping, but I'm not sure if he registered what was happening. I think things will become clearer as it gets closer. I have a few friends with babies who have been born or will be born this or next month, so I hope as we go visit and I hold the babies, he will start to understand that one of these will be in our house soon! Once we get his room moved around with the baby bassinet, swing, and baby things in there, I'm hoping that will help as well.

He continues to recognize his letters and can say pretty much all of them. He even sings a pretty decent ABC song, too! He does great with puzzles and can do two piece, stand alone puzzles really well. He loves to read and sometimes pretend to read to himself. I often find him looking through books in his crib when I get him from his nap (we put books in his crib so that when he wakes up, he won't cry). He loves when I sing and has started singing along sometimes. Lately, he likes to listen to The Lion King in the car, and he will sing along with Hakuna Matata (which when he says it, is "kuna tata.").

Chris is amazing at playing pretend. It wasn't even something I sat down to teach him (I mention this because several months ago I had the thought, "I probably need to actually teach him what pretend is," but I never did). It's been amazing. He will pretend to get tissues for me (hormonal mom has apparently cried enough in his presence that he thinks I need tissues all the time), he will pretend to change his stuffed animals' diapers (or even the Darth Vader doll's diaper), he will pretend to eat food, pretend to play the piano, etc. It makes me extremely happy to see him get more advanced and more independent in his play time.

He is more active outside. He loves to be on the swing, both on his tummy and sitting with me pushing. He loves to run.

He follows routines really well now. He can put his clothes in the dirty hamper, put his shoes away in the closet or go get his shoes and try to put them on when I tell him. He knows where most of his toys go when we clean up. He will start to drain the bathwater and put away his bath toys to let me know when he is done with his bath. He puts trash in the trash can and dishes in the sink (though trash often ends up in the sink).

While the last six months or so have been kind of difficult when it comes to what he will eat and won't eat, I can tell we are generally improving. He goes through phases with his food. The first phase is the amount he eats. Some days, I can hardly get him to eat a thing. Other days, he has huge meals. There's not much to be done except continue to serve him the normal amount and hope that day will be a good one! I can pretty much guarantee that if I serve sausage or fruit snacks, he will eat as many as I put on his plate and usually asks for more.

His other phase involves what food he eats. He's been picky for a while, but I think we're starting to get over some of that. He is willing to try almost anything I am eating, which has led to him eating peppers, hamburgers, and other things he never would have tried before. It was shocking the first few times he asked to have a bite of my food, but once he started doing it more regularly, it's been awesome. So I see improvements in what he eats. He still has days where he won't eat anything, but I think that has more to do with just not wanting to eat anything rather than not wanting to eat that specific thing. I have found that putting the food in front of him and then not mentioning it is the best way to get him to eat. It seems that when I suggest he try any food, he will reject it immediately.

Chris has made other improvements in his behavior too. I have tried to offer him choices more often when he has to do something he does not want to. For example, bath time used to be awful when it came time to wash his hair because he hated the water on his head. I started offering to do it with the blue cup we use or with the shower head, and just having that one choice to make has caused him to not complain at all about it. It's amazing!

Potty training. Back in May, I thought I'd try it out. Whew it did not go so well. Despite showing a lot of readiness signs, he could not handle the really tight schedule of getting on and off the toilet so much. I also didn't want to clean up messes on the carpet, so staying in the bathroom all morning was hard on him. So we didn't even make it for two days. At the beginning of August, we had a nice open week, so I thought I'd try it again. This time had vast improvements. We used underwear, instead of keeping him naked, which helped him realize when he had an accident. He also will sit on the toilet for up to 45 minutes as long as I have the iPad set up so he can watch Clifford or Curious George. However, over the week we had many accidents, and only once when I caught him in an accident and got him on the toilet. As a pregnant mommy, sitting on the floor all morning was tough on me. I had the intention of keeping him in pull ups and just getting him on the toilet regularly, to potty train at a very slow pace, but that has not happened. Will I try to do that this month? Probably not, but it's on my mind to try. So perhaps we are not destined to have only one the baby in diapers when she is born, but that's just fine.

Lastly, he has a funny habit that whenever he cries, he must wipe his eyes and nose with a tissue or wipe afterwards. It must be done very thoroughly too. Sometimes, he even has to wipe his sheet off where the tears dropped. So he has a thing with wetness on his face, which is amusing. Even his fake cries, where no tears have been shed, must end with a tissue.

Alright, and now some pictures and a video!