2 1/2 years old

My baby is no longer a baby, no longer a toddler & quickly growing up to be a big boy - a preschooler, doing things all by himself. His growth & development over the last seven months has been amazing & watching him live his happy little life has been both challenging & heartwarming all in the same moment.

Logan has turned into quite the early bird, waking up at 6am. Because our bedtime battles with him escaping from his room repeatedly were exhausting, frustrating & going nowhere, we put up the baby gate along his door jam so he can't get out. When he wakes up in the morning, he calls for us now rather than slamming his door a million times or throwing all of his toys out into the hallway. He has grown tall enough to reach the door knob to Carter's room, so we'll see how that works out.
He continues to be a great napper, taking one huge long nap almost everyday from 1 to almost 4. I LOVE that he still naps this long, since it gives me some time to sleep too. I hope he continues this trend for a while after Carter is born so we can ALL take long naps at the same time. I don't think he'll outgrow this too soon since he is such an active little kid & wears himself out regularly.

He is still the pickiest eater I've ever known. He'll eat meat every now & then, but I would still consider him to be vegetarian. We are stuck in a major food rut as he wants to eat the same things everyday (which is normal, I guess). For breakfast he has a glass of milk, a banana & a cereal bar. His snacks are banana chips (monkey chips), raisins, goldfish crackers, peanuts & graham crackers (bee crackers). For lunch it's either a cheese sandwich or peanut butter & jelly sandwich with fruit (he loves all fruit) & veggies (usually peas). Dinner is either the same thing, home-made mac n' cheese (the healthy kind) with veggies or hamburgers that we have to call "Crabby Patties" & tell him that Sponge Bob made so he'll eat it. Although, he has no problem asking for "fries for dinner" every single night.

He loves going to school to "make pictures" & wants me to sing "the wheels on the bus" often. I love the way he says "round & round" while doing the hand motion. It is so, so cute. When not asking to go to school, he asks to go to the gym to play with his friends, or asks to go to specific friends houses. He is a busy body that needs something to do every day, all day. Downtime to him is boring & he often gets into trouble when he's bored & looking for something to do.

At home he is still fascinated with cars or anything with wheels, really. He looks for bugs in the yard, plays with his actions figures & somehow loves Spiderman (which we've never watched or played with). We still watch Sponge Bob religiously, as well as Yo Gaba Gaba (again) & now, The Simpsons (thanks to Bill). If he's not driving his cars across every surface in the house, or playing pretend (& I don't know what he's pretending to do most of the time), he's torturing our poor, patient pets, chasing them around the house & trying to sit on them. It's amazing he hasn't been bit yet, & it's astounding how many times I yell, "LEAVE THE DOG/CAT ALONE"!
He is starting to talk more & more everyday in full sentences. He often asks, "What's that Mommy/Daddy?" to everything he sees, whines "but I don't want to", & has caught me off guard by asking, "Mommy, can I have my milk please?" He loves to talk about how the "ambulance takes hurt people to the doctor" or "police car takes people to jail". He is also in the "mine" phase, where he has to claim everything as his, even his friends toys. This stage is beyond annoying.

He is very good about getting his shoes on by himself, even on the right foot. That's about all he can do to dress himself right now, since pants/shorts are the next thing we'll work on. He has lost interest in potty training, partly because I probably kept asking him if he wanted to go everyday. Now it's become a power struggle. I still ask, but I leave it at that & only talk about it at diaper changes. He knows that he gets candy if he poops on the potty & now we've upped the ante by telling him that if he poops on the potty, he will get a very big special surprise car (a General Lee car that the grandparents bought him that we saved since he got other Big Cars during their last visit).

Temper tantrums have been decreasing in frequency & talking back has begun to take it's place. So, he's still in timeout occasionally, but it's more for grunting a gruff huff when he's in trouble while pointing his finger at me. Or yelling at me. Or sometimes both. We certainly are heading into the "Terrifying Three's", or at least that's what it feels like.

We had a lot of fun learning to swim this summer & his arm floaties were a hit. We've been working with him on trying to peddle his tricycle, but I think it might take some more time to get the hang of that. However, the kid has an arm on him & learned how to throw discs around just like his Dad. Soon, he'll be tagging along with Bill across the disc golf course with his own bag of discs.

He is learning about chores & helping out around the house. He throws trash away for me, cleans up his toys (occasionally), puts his dishes in the sink, clothes in the hamper & helps Bill pick up dog poop in the back yard (he's the poop finder & points it out. Pretty cute, if you ask me). I think in the next year, we'll start his chore chart. Maybe even sooner than that!

It is just shocking how much he has grown & how fast he continues to grow. I didn't think it was possible, but he gets even more cute as the days go by. He is sweet & very loving, giving us hugs & kisses & cuddles everyday, all day. Hearing his giggles & shrieks of laughter just make me smile on the crappiest of days. He loves to be happy & make everyone around him smile. I am so incredibly proud of the boy he's growing up to be. I love my sweetie pea more than life itself.