Carter: 24 Months

Carter Man, 

You are TWENTY-FOUR months old! TWO YEARS! How have you been here for two years already?!? It's so hard to believe that we've already been parents for two entire years.  It's true what they say about your whole world changing when you have a baby, and you have changed our world in the best possible way.  I thought I loved your Daddy before we came along, and now I love him in a completely new way.  And you, my dear, have shown us an entirely new type of love.  Having a child is the best kind of love.

You are at such a fun, but challenging age right now.  You are on top of the world most of the day.  Everything is SO FUN and SO NEW and SO EXCITING, except when it's not and then we hit rock bottom.  I don't know where you get all this energy from (that's a lie, you get it from your Daddy) but you are on the GO all day.  We still rarely get a moment where you will sit and focus on an activity for awhile, but that's okay with us.  Throughout my entire pregnancy with you I prayed that you would be just like your daddy, and that's exactly what we got.  If you are a crazy man now and end up like him later than you will lead a great life.  And will be lots of fun in the meantime.  :)

Your favorite things at age 2 include: tractors, Mickey Mouse, playing outside, riding in the car, milk, playing at Nana & PawPaws, visiting daddy at work, playing on the iPad, stacking blocks, throwing balls, and anything with wheels.  If you could talk and I asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up your answer would be a tractor driver or a lawn mower.  When we are out running errands you point out every.single.tractor. you see along the way.  Some days when we need to get out of the house I will load us all up in the car and park somewhere where you can sit and watch the tractors work.  Daddy has also started taking you to work with him so you can watch the tractors at the school parking lot.  You always have a tractor in at least one of your hands at a time.  At breakfast you load your cheerios into the bucket of a front-loader and eat from there.  You have certain tractors you like to take with you in the car and certain ones for the bathtub.  You are tractor obsessed! 

You love to sit in your red chair and watch TV, but only for short periods of time.  Your favorites are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Super Why, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  We've also let you start using the iPad and you love watching tractor videos on YouTube and shows on the PBS Kids app.  The only time we ever see you sit still is when you are watching TV or playing on the iPad. 

Daddy and I got really brave one day and took your paci away cold turkey.  At your end of the year preschool conference in April we decided you were likely picking up most of your sicknesses from school, mainly because you don't keep your paci in your mouth and drop it on the floor constantly.  We decided we wouldn't send a paci to school with you anymore to see how you did and your teachers reported back that you were just fine.  So in early May we rounded up all the pacis we could find at home and hid them from you.  You barely noticed and never asked for one either.  Molly takes the same kind of paci you did and you don't even put her paci in your mouth.  It's really amazing how easy of a transition that was, something we were not expecting to be easy at all.  I'm so glad we went cold turnkey and you adjusted so well.  

You still hate to eat and hate to nap.  You are truly the pickiest eater on the planet, making even me look like an adventurous eater.  You would be happy to live on cheerios and yogurt for the rest of your life.  You have stopped eating any sort of fruit or vegetable, and still refuse all meat.  I can barely get a grilled cheese or nutella sandwich in you these days.  I think right now you are just being stubborn and trying to control what you get by refusing almost everything, but I'm just hoping that you aren't starving most of the day.  I can't believe how little you eat and how much you weigh.  And your napping is almost as bad as your eating, although you will surprise us with a few "good" naps each week.  You really fight us going down for your naps most days, and usually sleep 1-2 hours.  After you wake up you are almost always a crank pot for the next two hours.  One of these days you will realize how nice naps really are!

Your communication has really taken off, so much so that you do not qualify for speech therapy anymore.  I'm both happy and sad about this as it was hard to fit in all of your ECI appointments during the week. But also you've come a long way with your talking so I'm sad to see Mrs. Michelle go.  You were really close to qualifying for services again.  So close, in fact, that the only reason you didn't qualify was because you can say "John Deere"...a two-word phrase that doesn't repeat.  Thus, no more speech therapy.  We love all of your new words and can't wait until you start stringing some phrases together.  

You still really enjoy having little sisters and spend a lot of your day concerned about where they are and what they are doing.  Your favorite thing is to watch them sleep on the monitor, and when you hear them crying you always put your hand to your ear so we know that you can hear them.  You continue to love on them TOO much; we still need daily (or every minute) reminders to love on them more gently.  You always point out their eyes, nose, ears and mouth and kiss them all over.  A few times you have crawled into their swing, bouncer and cribs with them and we have had to rush to their rescue.  Daddy and I try to always run and errand with just you everyday so you are still getting one-on-one time with us.  

We've established a really fun nighttime routine with just the three of us, and it's still my favorite time of day.  You never really fight us to go to bed (thankfully!) and are always happy to have me and Daddy in your room before you go to sleep.  We always read 3 books (Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, B is for Bulldozer, and one of your choosing) and then you and Daddy do some wrestling and hide-and-go-seek.  Then it's lot of kisses for Daddy as he leaves to go rock sisters while I do prayers and songs while you slow down.  Lately you have been asking for Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before I leave the room.  You could sing those two songs all day long, and often sing them in the car while you are searching for tractors. 

We love you, Carter Man! It's been a wonderful two years and we are so excited about the years in front of us.  To the moon and back.  

24-Month Stats:

Weight: 30.2 pounds

Length: 33 inches

Eating: milk and water, cereal or oatmeal, PB&J or nutella sandwich, yogurt, fruit, smoothies, and a hodge podge of food at dinner 

Bedtime: around 7:30pm

Awake: around 7:00am

Nap: around 1:00 

Diapers: size 5 Huggies, size 6 overnights

Clothes: 2T

Shoes: 5.5 wide

Favorites: playing outside, anything with wheels, books, watching TV, bubbles, window watching, playing in the car or garage
Dislikes: meat, people leaving the room, being in the stroller, diaper changes, not being able to hold/touch/hug/kiss the girls when they are sleeping

Development: communicating verbally more

Words:

baby, ball, bed, block, blue, box, bubble, bucket, bug, button, bye, cheese, cooper, cracker, cup, dada, deer, diaper, dip, dirt, dog, door, duck, dump,  goggle, go go, hello, hey, hi, John Deere, knock knock, mama, mail, march, mickey, more, move, movie, mow, nana, nemo, night night, no, outside, paci, pawpaw, pete, please, spoon, star, stuck, thank you, that, tractor, truck, uh oh, up, water, yes, zip