A New Nill: Alex's Official 2 Year Post

Oh my. Myyyyy my my. Alexander is two. TWO! Let's talk about him :)

Alex, for the most part, is a lover. If you want to pick him up, he's really happy about it. If you sit on the couch, he will either squish himself next to you or more likely, scramble right on to your lap and block your view of the TV (you allow this because his little blond haircut is so cute to look at :) ). If you are our neighbor, just barely getting to know us, he will not only hug you but he will actually RUN to you to hug you. That's just his way. He's sweet, funny and oh-so-adorable, I think because he doesn't talk. He's kind of like a dog in that way - easy to love ;) This video is classic Alex - burping and thinking it's hilarious, then fake burping and thinking that's even more hilarious, and refusing to do what I ask him to because he's far happier where he is.

(for email readers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HioxhR1Je-Y)

But as you can tell, phonetically he is kind of a mess. "No" is pretty clear, but his speech is not coming along great. Ashton at age 2 had 20-25 words and we thought that was bad. Alex consistently has about 4: "Up", "No", "Mama" and "Daddy". He can sign "all done", "more", "my turn" or "me please", "milk", "eat", and "help", but a lot of the time it's unintelligible noise. Like the other day he lost his shoe on the playground, but as I scooped him up I didn't notice, and he squawked like a little bird for a full minute before Ashton and I realized what he was trying to "say". It's a lot of stories like that. We of course have him in EI and I just pushed for the addition of a SLP because I really think he needs more help. He had his evaluation last week so that is in the works. Overall I'm hoping things will pop for him soon.

Alex doesn't let the speech really get him down though. He definitely has ways of communicating and it's easy to tell his mood/what he wants/what he doesn't want for the most part. When you're Alex and things are good, they're really good. When they're bad, the whole day is shot and you can try again tomorrow. I think I've mentioned this before about Alex: he's either super happy or super cranky with not much in between.

What else about Alex. Well he loves the junk drawer. He'll push his little chair right up to the counter, climb on and stick his face right in to all the pens, tape, stamps, paper clips, rubber bands, bottle openers, business cards and whatever else ends up in junk drawers. He is also just getting into trains, putting the tracks together and lining up the magnets to create long strings of cars to guide along. He also LOVES all the tiny pieces from Ashton's lego bin, which is very distressing for Ashton and he has taken to hiding little stashes of things so that Alex can't find them.

One time Alex managed to hide a Lego guy in his fist long enough to get it into his crib with him for his nap. I laid him down and after five minutes checked the monitor. What was he doing? I went in, he had laid the Lego guy next to him on the sheet, was patting it and trying to kiss it. One of the odder moments.

Speaking of his crib, his new trick is climbing out. Which, as most parents of toddlers can attest, is basically the end of days. Horrible. We took the whole bottom off so now his mattress is on the floor, but all he has to do is grow a couple inches and he'll be back at it. I give it another 6 months and we are toast.

Speaking of growing...here are his stats!

Height: 36", exactly 3 feet! (91st percentile)
Weight: 32 lbs even (94th percentile)
Head circumference: 48.5 cm (56th percentile)
Shots: Hepatitis A and a blood draw for lead
Shoe size: 8W
Clothes size: Old Navy 3T, and all pajamas 3T, but otherwise 2T (sometimes 3T in tops. As you can see it is not an exact science)
Teeth: All except 2 year molars and loving his spin brush
Diapers: Size 5s
Sleep: Wakeup between 7:30 - 8 am, one nap usually 2-4 pm, bedtime at 8 pm. He is a great sleeper as long as his stuffed monkey is in there with him.

His favorite foods are pretty unoriginal. If you put warm, fresh-out-of-the-pot mac n cheese (the white cheddar shells) on his plate, he will use both hands and shovel it all in his mouth until it's gone. It's really something to watch haha. He must swallow it whole. He can also house a hot dog in about 18 seconds. He eats tons of fruit, cucumbers, eggs, yogurt, pasta, etc. All the usual kid things.

Alex does a great job of being a pesky little brother and what interests him the most is whatever Ashton is doing, whatever Ashton has, or wherever Ashton is going. Needless to say, Alex has learned that to keep up, he needs to be on his scooter!