The past few weeks have been...challenging... Cal has hit the terrible twos (or should I say they have hit him??) and lately, there have been a LOT of battles. When he is sweet, he is the sweetest kid you will ever meet. He loves to take my face in his hands (or Eddie's) and pull us in for a big ol' kiss. He loves to kiss Andy and he will walk over to you and ask for a hug-- let me tell you the heart melting that takes place when he does that!!! He loves to laugh and he is constantly cracking himself up. He is a tough cookie and will bounce right back up when he falls and "brushes it off" without a problem.
But, when he is naughty, BOY is he naughty. (Disclaimer: I am not writing this to complain... just to look back on these days and say, WOW-- glad we have moved past that...because that's what is getting me through this craziness right now: knowing that this stage shall pass....). Cal is very opinionated and really wants to do things on his own. If he doesn't, a meltdown will follow. I should also write what a meltdown is these days: throwing his body on the floor, face down, kicking, screaming and thrashing. The meltdown does not pass quickly. In some cases, the meltdowns last for several hours. Oh yes. Hours. He goes to timeout to attempt to calm down and I tell him when he is done, he can come out and play. He catches his breath, says sorry, then comes out and within the next 30 seconds is screaming again. It's like he can't "shake" the meltdown. We never really know what will cause the meltdown... in the past 2 weeks, we have had meltdowns over:
-nap time (duh)
-not being able to get the dustpan off of the broom
-wanting his shoes on (and me not doing it fast enough)
-leaving my parents house
-picking out clothing
-wanting me to build a bridge for him (we play blocks together every afternoon and he loves when I make bridges for him. In this case, I was trying to get dressed to take him to school and couldn't sit down to play and he LOST it.)
Anyway, those are just a few of the meltdowns we have had lately... bless his heart, he can't help it: He's TWO! I have gotten VERY good at counting to ten. Once the meltdowns finally pass, he is back to that sweet sweet boy who loves to kiss, but let me tell you, my friends... those fits are TOUGH! Phew! Eddie hadn't really witnessed them very much and one evening I was just spent from a 3 hour session and Eddie didn't understand why I was so exhausted/exasperated/frustrated/etc.... THEN, the next morning, Cal put on quite the show for Eddie and he was in shock. haha-- he now gets it!
He took Cal to the golf course one afternoon to play, and this is what happened when it was time to come home:
Besides the fits, Cal is really SO SO much fun right now (I sound like I am contradicting myself, and I don't mean to...but he really IS fun!). In the past two weeks, he has started talking in complete sentences and it just blows our minds how much he has to say! He is also starting to become helpful with Andy. I can ask him to go get a burpcloth or a diaper and he will run off and do it. It's pretty amazing! I have plenty of friends who had a 2 year old little girl (or older) when they had their second and they all think I'm crazy for thinking this is great-- their kid has been helping all along.... well, Cal hasn't... he is now very helpful!
We had an awesome check up this morning. I wasn't sure how it would go with him...but he was great! I also wasn't sure how it would go with weighing him in and measuring him, but he was a trooper! He laid perfectly still when measured and stood up on the baby scale and thought that was so cool- ha!
Here are his stats:
Weight: 28 pounds, 11 ounces ---> 50th percentile
Height: 36 inches ---> 90th percentile
Head circumference (I don't have this number...?) ---> but she told me it was in the 97th percentile...ha!
Body Mass Index: (we've never gotten this one before) 25%
Sleeping:
Cal is a wonderful sleeper at night. No complaints there. Down around 7, up around 7 or 7:30. We are battling nap time still. When we were potty training before, I think he sat in his crib at nap time thinking about going potty and not wetting his bed (even though we put him in a diaper for nap time), so he wouldn't go to sleep. This is one of the reasons we threw in the towel on potty training. He goes in his crib every single day for nap time, and he only naps about 4 days a week (unfortunately). The days he doesn't nap are VERY hard on us for the afternoons. He is just so worn out that everything set him off. He goes in his crib every day at 1:00 and I do not let him come out until 3:30 at the earliest. He can stay awake in there if he wants to, but he's going to have quiet time... it's a great break for both of us. After about an hour and a half of him not sleeping, I will go in and give him some books to read (during the potty training phase I did this and he peed all over the books. It was awful). We also had the "get naked" phase during nap time, but thankfully, I *think* that has passed. I haven't been putting him in jammies for nap time lately and he has been staying dressed. If I catch him getting naked, I immediately put him in jammies. Lately he has been stripping the sheet off of the crib during nap time. He wakes up from his nap in the BEST mood and wants a huge hug-- I love going in to get him and seeing the big smile on his face.
He has 3 animals he sleeps with every night: a cow, an elephant, and a zebra. The zebra is new from my mom and he LOVES him! It's really cute-- when I put him in the crib for bed and nap, he gets all 3 animals tucked in his arms and kisses each one and says "night night, ____" to each animal. Talk about sweet! Sometimes when he doesn't nap, I peek in and see him talking to the animals... he lines them up along the crib and talks to them and then says "now go night night!" and then puts them on the pillow and puts a blanket over them, just like I do when tucking him in-- so cute!
Our pediatrician is strongly suggesting we get some blackout curtains for his room to help him take naps. She is concerned about him getting overly tired since he is so active and sleep is so important for him. I didn't want to tell her I dropped my nap altogether at 2 years old (sorry, mom....!!!).
Potty Training:
Oh, potty training....! It was going SO well for a while. We were about 90% there... he was peeing every single time on the potty, and the accidents were getting fewer and fewer... then he started the camp this summer. We LOVED camp, and I will not say anything negative about it! Cal was the only one in his class training and the first few days he didn't mind getting pulled away to potty, but then he realized he was missing out on the class when he had to leave (these are my words, not his, obviously!), and so he started resisting going potty. At home, I knew he would have to go (he was showing the signs, and it was time since he just drank a bunch), so I would ask him and he would give me an adamant NO, then he would have an accident immediately. I started forcing him to go into the bathroom and it was a wrestling match every time. He was kicking and screaming NO NO NO every time, but then I would put him on the potty and he would pee like crazy, all the while screaming NO POTTY!
Let me tell you how NOT fun that is! You should not have to go through that to get your kid to pee! We tried a reward session...Cal loves lollipops, and it got to the point that he would scream NO poppop because he knew that meant he had to stop playing to go potty.
We decided to back way off. I think there was a correlation between no nap and potty training too...so we are taking a break from it. He still pees every time you put him on the potty (before every bath), but we are really not pushing it at all. We will try again in a little bit, but for now, we are fine with waiting!
Eating:
Cal LOVES to eat and will eat just about anything I serve him, thankfully! He loves sitting at the table in his high chair and is super happy to chow down! I love his appetite because Eddie is a bit picky and kind of (really) hard to cook for. Now that Cal eats so well, I can cook more and I love it. Our pediatrician was very pleased with everything he is eating and suggested we keep it up. Done and done.
School:
Cal is in school 2 days a week: Tuesday and Thursday. He has yet to have a meltdown in school and they always say how sweet he is (phew!). His teacher's name is Terencia, and Cal is just about able to say her name-- he is SO sweet trying! I make him say goodbye and thank you to each of the staff members as we leave, so he is working hard on all of their names. He now will go over and hug them as he says thank you-- sweet little guy. As we were leaving last week, the director said, "that Cal sure does have a lot of personality!" He suuuure does!
Cal really enjoys school and we are so grateful he's happy going there. They sing songs often because he comes home singing. This morning I found him in my closet, sitting on the floor by himself, singing The Ittsy Bittsy Spider and doing all of the hand motions. It was pretty darn awesome. Oh, and he had on some of my shoes too-- made it even cuter.
Talking:
We are blown away with how many words Cal knows now. It seems like in the past 2 weeks he has just developed so much to say! He is repeating everything we say now...so we have to be careful (and by we, I mean me. I have got to be careful....damn it.). The other day Andy had a poopy diaper and Cal walked in and said "HOLY COW!" HAHAHAHAHAH! I about died laughing.... no clue when that was said, but I thought it was hilarious. He also is learning more and more animals names and sounds. At the pumpkin patch, he started "bahhhhh-ing" at the goats...didn't know he knew that one! He picks up on everything around him... it's pretty amazing to watch him learn.
Other stuff....
We are working on limiting the paci. He only used it in the crib and car, and we dropped the car use completely, but a road trip brought it back. I was firm about dropping in the car last week. I am still letting him use it in the crib, especially at nap time... we need all the help we can get to get him to sleep!
He is still in love with golf. No shocker there.... he is going out on the course with Eddie this afternoon. I am excited for him to get to run around!
We are flying with both kids to TX later this month. Praying there are no meltdowns up in the air...!!!
There is the update-- I am impressed if you actually read it all! Cal is at a really fun age and we are having SUCH a fun time with him. He is challenging, but so so sweet too. I fall more and more in love with him every day and I can not imagine my life without him in it. He makes me a better person and I just feel like if I kissed him a million billion times a day, that it isn't enough... I want to kiss him a million billion plus one.... I just love him that much!
Sorry for the length of this... phew!
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