Landon,
At 2.5 you are funny, analytical, persistent, and independent. You are happy to go off and do your own thing in another room unannounced. You prefer to self-entertain but you do enjoy playing with Mommy and Ethan as well. You love messy play, the messier the better! You adore playing in water and sand and will seek it out at any opportunity. You have been distraught over not being able to play with the water guns and the water table during the deep winter. Cold doesn't deter you from wanting to play with your "squirt-wa's!" (water guns). You love to be outside. You are tough, laid-back and silly and not much bothers yous. You haven't been much of a snuggler, although that has changed after a recent bout of sickness. Now its your morning routine to snuggle with me. You come up to me when I'm sitting in the brown chair and say "I need you HUG!".
You recently transitioned from a crib to a toddler bed. The first night you repeatedly got up and the first few days you would wake up and walk the house at 2 am looking for your Mama. (we heard a confused "Where's Momaw?" You seen surprised that I am not always awake and wandering the house). After we put a baby gate across your door at night you stopped wandering and now spend the entire night in your bed. You can climb the baby gate, but you choose not to.
When you were in your crib, you dropped your naps about half the time and did acrobatics in your crib instead. Then one day you repeatedly climbed in and out of your crib for your own entertainment while we watched you deftly scale the railing and fall in and out thoroughly enjoying yourself. You wouldn't stop. We decided we would give you one more night in the crib to see if the fascination would end. It did not. You have not napped in your bed since.
You have gone from being even-tempered on the days that you do not nap to more of a cranky overtired state in the late afternoons. You really need those naps still. Sometimes if I put on a cartoon in the afternoon you will pass out for 30 minutes on the couch.
When we tell you "No," you pout and say "I SAD". Also sometimes when you are sad you will come to me moments later and say "I need a hug". When you are trying to do something and its hard you get a determined pout, cross your arms, and look up at me from under your eyelids and say "MYSELF!" If I attempt to intervene (for safetys sake) a tantrum will ensue. Its usually best if I hover and spot you for safety to let you finish whatever you were attempting on your own. If its super fun, we say "THREE TIMES" and I help you safely accomplish it three times (as much on your own as possible) and then you'll agree to climb down with out a fit. ;-) Yes, you are a climber. Usually the reason you climb is to reach light switches. You are determined and if I do not let you appease your curiosity you do not give up.
On the lightswitch note...you are OBSESSED. No one we know has ever seen a kid that likes lights as much as you do. It's hard to take you places because whether it be the doctors office or a friends house, you will spend the entire 2 hours (or however long) hunting down all the different kinds of light switches you can find. You look so quizzical when you flip the switch and you look around trying to figure out how the switch in one spot causes the light in another spot to go off while sometimes its right at the source. I've even heard you turn it on and say "Light on! What's next?" I'd love to know the thoughts going through your head. You have already dismantled two flashlights.
You are good at verbalizing your wants, needs, and emotions. I'm very grateful for that. You do tantrum, but we almost always know what the tantrum is about. Usually they are short lived. (the one outside the neighbors house wasn't, but most are!)
I am impressed with your problem solving skills. Sometimes I like to sit back and watch you go through all the steps needed to reach your goal just because I want to see how far you can take things. I started locking the master bedroom during the day so that you would leave our lamps alone. I watched you pick up things and go through them systematically until you found a thin piece of plastic to use as a screwdriver so that you could unlock the door.
On the unlocking note, you have begun locking me out of the house. Twice in one week you locked me into the garage. One time I had to wait for your Daddy to come home and let me back in the house. Thankfully he was already on his way home and just 15 minutes away.
At the moment, you also like turning on the taps in the bathroom and kitchen and letting them run full blast. You especially love to get all of them going at the same time. You'll come back behind me and re-turn on each one that I turn off. You also got in the bathtub one day and started running yourself a bath with your clothes and shoes on. I immediately came in to turn it off, but you were already shrieking and splashing in the water with your shoes.
As for non-mischievous interests, you enjoy playing trains and prefer to dismantle what I build, and build the train set your own way. Makes things much easier on me and I love to see what you build.
You also love spaceships and airplanes. I don't know how much of this is your brother's influence, but right now you pretend that all your toys can fly. Dinosaurs and cars included.
A few funny quotes from the last few months:
- "Ethan? You want to go through the woods?"
- "See shoe?" (Brings me Ethan's light up shoe) "It's AHHMAZING... (hushed voice)...so pretty..."
- Me "Landon, eat your sandwhich" Landon, "No, Mama...(looks regretful)...no eat sandwhich".
- (Playing with a light switch) "Wow! It Off! Lights on! Wow...It's beautiful..."
- One day Landon carried around a silicone ice-cub mold all day and would turn it upside down and pretend to "push the "buttons" and turn off the lights.
- "Play outside? Eat Cookies?" (asked if we could go outside and play while eating cookies. Pretty fun combination).
As for the usual physical growth update I have not weighed you in a while. Last I checked you weighed around 31-32 lbs and your size 2 clothes fit great. In PJ's and Carters brand clothing you wear a size 3 but in your other clothes a size 2 fits well with room for growth. As for shoes, you are wearing a size 7.
Landon, you are TWO. Very very two. An interesting, frustrating, JOY. I am never bored. We have our ups and downs but its always entertaining! I am so glad that you are who you are and I wouldn't have it any other way! I love you baby boy!
