Current state of the Toddler

Nick turned 22 months at the beginning of December.  And now it's practically mid-December and I realized it's been quite some time since I did any sort of update on my almost-two-year-old.

Let me just start by saying thank you to the big man upstairs for finally pulling Nick out of that nearly 3 week funk he was in.  We were certain he'd hit the terrible two's a few months early, on account of every.freaking.day was a struggle, another temper tantrum, another sleepless night, another meltdown due to the smallest, stupidest things.

Turns out it was most likely the remnants of those damn eye-teeth cutting through (suckers were 10x worse than the 1 year molars if ya can believe that), combined with a massive growth spurt (which I touched on in a past post).  And of course, no sooner had the eye-teeth popped in, and the growth spurt evened out, than Nick acquired another horrific cold...one that he's still trying to shake by way of coughing like a 68 year old Marlboro-red smokin' old lady (phlegm and all!).  It's one of those kinds of coughs that when you're out in public and all of a sudden your kid starts coughing so hard he sounds like he's going to retch all over the grocery store floor, you turn deep red, bury his entire face inside your jacket (praying he doesn't suffocate in there) and whip your head back and forth (a la willow smith) to make sure no bystanders are judging your method of parenting.  Seriously, though - can somebody make a cough and cold medicine for toddlers that is actually effective AND safe??  You'll dominate the market while simultaneously making a LOT of very tired mommies very happy.  Swears.

Moving on...now that we're over/at the tail end of all of that general icky-ness, things are just plain old stinkin' fun in the K household.  Having a two year old is awesome.  SO flipping awesome.  Especially when he sleeps through the night, but I digress...

Nick is still not talking much, but has acquired a few new intelligible words including "Go" "Doggie" (thanks to my brother's new puppy, which seemed to cause Nick to own that word like he'd been saying it his whole life!) "Hot" (ok, he already had this one) "Vacuum" (which sounds more like 'vaaababa!' but is way close by Nick standards and we totally know what he means every time he says it) "Hi" "Gramma" (which sounds like Gaagaa, but melts her heart regardless.  He also calls my dad this same word even though we are still referring to my dad as "Boss"...guess a kid knows a grandparent when they see one) "No" "Yeh" (for yes) "DaDa!" "Maaaamamamama" (only when he's upset or angry, ha!) and the ever popular "Dora" (which sounds like Doooorahhh - and yes, he says this one all.the.time.)

Aside from his lack of verbal communication - which we are still working on every other week with our fabulous speech therapist Ms. Kerry, who Nick took to like she was offering up free ice cream or something (for real though, she has some awesome toys) - Nick is growing and learning with leaps and bounds.  He knows every letter of the alphabet, and not just in alphabetical order.  He knows almost all his shapes, all of his numbers 1-10, most animals, a few colors (this one has been the toughest to work on) and damn near every other single thing we say.  Most recently he has learned all the hand motions to "itsy bitsy spider" and "I'm a little teapot", which is seriously the cutest thing in the world.

He gives the best hugs ever, and greets whoever picks him up from daycare in the afternoon by running at you full speed, squealing with delight, and practically jumping in your arms to bury his little face in yours - arms around your neck - squeezing like he hasn't seen you in weeks.  Best part of my day.

His play time has evolved immensely and he's using his imagination so much more every day - pushing cars around the room, making sure each of his trucks has a driver in the driver seat (whichever little character he can find), pretending to stir and "cook" with toy spoons and dishes - and then "taking a bite" of whatever he "made" and saying "mmmm!" 
He concentrates on puzzles, knows how to wind up his tiny wind-up toys, and hugs and kisses all of his stuffed animals.  He loves playing with play-do, reading books, and pushing his trains around the floor.  And if it's something he can climb on?  You better believe he'll be standing on top of it, seconds from falling off, clapping and laughing at the panic washing over my face as I dive to catch him before he breaks a bone.  yikes.

As far as current eating habits go, eating has never been a huge deal to Nick.  He eats when he's hungry, but he's never been thoroughly interested in food - unless it's snack food related.  He could live off of goldfish, cheerios, pretzels, yogurt melts, and any kind of chip out there -- particularly tortilla, if he had to choose.  He prefers veggies over anything else on his plate, but don't dare give him processed foods or he throws a fit.  Those Gerber toddler meals?  He down right refuses to eat them.  The squeezy pouches are a different story though - he sucks those down like water.  And we're guaranteed to get a good meal in him if we eat at Chipotle.  Homeboy can chow down on some black beans, cilantro rice, and corn salsa.  We've introduced him to various types of juice, which he'll drink (specifically if it's out of a juice box...he loves those) but he still prefers water or milk over anything else.  So much so, that last weekend when we were at Costco and had forgotten to get him milk with his lunch, he ran over to the milk case, pointing at all the milk jugs and signing "milk".  We had to make a stop at 7-11 after that just to grab him some milk.  He was very grateful.

With Nick's recent growth spurt comes the need to sort through his clothes, again.  I had just bought him a bunch of 18-24 clothes at the beginning of the season, because he was still fitting so perfectly into 18 month and swimming in 24 month clothes, that I was certain the 18-24 month stuff would get him through the winter.  Silly mommy.  When he shot up two inches practically over night, all of his 18 month pants became high waters, and his 18 month footie pj's?  Forget it.  We've had to purchase all new 24 month and 2T jammies so he has something to wear at night.  Fortunately we had quite a few pairs of 24 month pants and enough shirts, but at the rate he's growing, he'll be well into 3T by spring.  Of course he didn't put on any weight as he shot up, so he's still skinny and 24 month pants are super loose around his waist.  Seems like outfitting a growing toddler is a consistently losing battle.  Let's not even talk about shoes, shall we?  Nick is in a size 6 shoe already, and rapidly outgrowing it.  Apparently we'll be buying new shoes every 4-5 months for the next 15 years, as well.  Todd can't believe that a pair of Nick's tennis shoes cost damn near the same as his own.

He's funny, kind, sweet, innocent, ornery, occasionally impatient, a tad stubborn, and ridiculously adorable.  His smile goes from ear-to-ear, and he's rarely unhappy.  His daddy and I are his best friends, and while I know it's naive of me to think, I hope it always stays that way. 

The past 22 months have been the most challenging and simultaneously most rewarding months of our lives.  I can barely remember life before Nick, but what I can remember is that there was a piece of me that was never fully whole.  These past 22 months have been so fulfilling.  Sleeplessness, and all.  Because of Nick, I am whole.

Like I said, having an almost-two-year-old is awesome.  Completely awesome.