Chocolate Covered Cheerios: Micah Man is 2!!!

I know I say this with every new milestone but I really cannot believe that our little guy is 2! I feel like the time has really flown by. He is such an energetic little guy with quite the personality. People ask me all the time lately, "so is he terrible or terrific"... first of all, why would anyone ask you if your child is terrible? Second of all, I'd have to say neither. He has his moments of both throughout the day. Majority of the time, he is sweet, lovable, and hilarious but he most definitely has his defiant moments. Disciplining him is actually going very well. We use time out and spankings. Time out is pretty much ineffective but the spankings are working great. I know there are a lot of anti-spanking people out there so don't judge, it is what works best with him.

He is finally down to taking 1 nap a day and he usually sleeps 3-4 hours. He still goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up around 7. He can't sleep without "gigi" and "paci". We were able to borrow a crib from David's aunt so he gets to stay in a crib after Laurel comes. I don't think he is quite ready for the big boy bed. We aren't potty training him yet, either. He is starting to show some of the signs but I don't want to make any drastic changes until after Laurel comes because I figure he would just back-track anyway.

It amazes me every day how much he is talking. He repeats EVERYTHING and has been working lately on putting sentences together. It isn't uncommon for him to string 3 words together, sometimes more. He has also started telling us he loves us which is SO CUTE! He always knows what he wants and usually knows how to communicate it which helps a lot with him not getting frustrated as much. He tells us when he is hungry, thirsty, when he wants a diaper change, when he wants you to play with him, etc. He tells me multiple times a day "couch-- sit there" and when I get up, he gets very upset! I also hear "mommy, hold you", "read it please" and "mommy, rock rock" all day. Since he is around 33 lbs and I am 32 weeks pregnant, it is quite a challenge to pick him up and hold him but lately all he has wanted is "MOMMMMMMY!!!!" so I oblige. I think he might know what is coming. He touches my belly and says "baby Laurel" so he has some sort of idea what is going on! He also goes into her room and says "Laurel room" and points to the crib and says "Laurel bed".

He had his 2 year check up yesterday and passed with flying colors. He is still in the 92% for weight and height and head circ. I absolutely love our new pediatrician out here... she spent so much time with us going over everything. He loves her, too. He did have to get one shot, the dreaded MMR that I have been putting off but he handled it very well. The only negative about the appt is that she wants him to lose the paci. :( I know it is time... more on that later.

Here are some of his faves right now:
- Foods: "bushies" (goldfish), "soopie" (smoothie), "chose" (cheerios), "cookie", "honey manich" (peanut butter and honey sandwich), and of course chicken nuggets and he still loves fruit
- CHOO CHOO! He is still totally obsessed with Thomas and friends and it amazes me how he knows all of the names. He loves to line them up and go down the line saying all of their names.
- "Tito": we finally figured out that this is Veggie Tales, no idea why he calls it Tito but he loves the songs and the shows.
- anything Aggie... Aggie helmet (birthday present), Aggie jersey (bday present), Aggie flag (outside), Aggie song, Aggie land, Aggie shorts... and so on. He is definitely brainwashed. He even says "horns off!"
- Outside! He loves going outside and running around or playing with his outside toys. Even on cold rainy days, he begs to go outside.
- Golf clubs: it is no surprise that this kid loves golf with his uncles and grandpas teaching him (I am just not enjoying the fact that right now, he swings them at everything in sight)
- Elizabeth... this is his girlfriend :)
- Colors... I made some artwork displays in his playroom and now Micah loves to sit and color and then tell me to put the picture on the wall, he is so proud of his work!

Dislikes:
- Riding in the car
- Diaper changes
- Getting his teeth brushed
- Being told "no"
- saying bye (to anyone, anytime... he hates goodbyes)

Other things Micah is doing at 2:

- knows and recognizes every letter of the alphabet
- knows his shapes
- knows his colors
- proficient in using utensils to eat (though he still prefers his hands)
- counts up to and counts objects to 5
- he is great at undressing himself and loves taking off his diaper (which is just fantastic to find a naked toddler running around) but isn't too into dressing himself
- has manners! He says "please", "thank you", and "bless you"

He had his party last Saturday (I'll post pics soon, I am still waiting to get some from a friend) so we didn't do much on his actual birthday. He got his birthday breakfast of pancakes (a tradition in my house) with candles. I think the candles freaked him out a little. Growing up, on our birthday, my mom would always make us pancakes in the shape of our name or our favorite things and in our favorite color. I don't know if Micah has a favorite color but he always defaults to green if he doesn't know the color of something, so green pancakes is what he got! I tried making "M" pancakes, but I think I still need more training from my mom. We played like normal all day and Micah had a special visitor for lunch. Miss Becky came to eat with him (really to hang out with me during his nap, but he doesn't know the difference). He is doing really well at learning names and gets excited when my friends come to play (with him of course). For dinner, we let him have his favorite, chick-fil-a, and I made him a train cake to enjoy with the other kiddies at small group. My sister gave us a train cake pan for Christmas and it was soo easy to make the cake! He LOVED it!

scary pancakes with candles... and no he didn't blow them out