My little 2 year old!

I don't know if I can really capture who he is in one post, but I am going to try.

My sweet, cuddly baby boy has become an energetic, social 2 year old right before my eyes. I count it a blessing that I have been able to witness each moment from the day we brought him home. Holden has added and continues to add so much laughter to this family. Just the other night as he was giggling hysterically because he was jumping on me without counting to 3 (I kept asking him to count to give me warning), Jeremy and I both laughed. And we laughed hard. His giggles are contagious and I love it when he finds something funny. Sometimes it's Tom and Jerry. Sometimes it's a simple game of peek-a-boo. Sometimes it's his brother's grin. Sometimes it's chasing our dog, and I'm sure she is super-annoyed. And sometimes it's his goofy daddy. But this kid adds MUCH needed laughter in our hearts. He is a constant JOY!

In the past year he has learned so much! At 16 months, the concept of sharing took on a whole new meaning as we brought home his baby brother. Mommy and daddy's attention was divided between 2 sons. And the lesson of sharing continues daily as Holden seems suddenly interested in whatever toy is in Paxton's hands at the moment. Yesterday after stealing a toy from his brother's hands, he bent down to eye level and said "tank you, bubba" and he was so sincere. Completely sincere! I smiled (while laughing on the inside) and then gave the toy back to Paxton. But he sure loves his bubba!Holden's vocabulary is out the whazoo! He is a talker and I love it. From the moment he wakes up jabbering in his bed, he rarely stops. It's fun to listen, decipher and have little conversations with my boy. He is into possesion right now. For example: "daddy's seat", "mommy's shoes", "bubba's bottle". He likes to inform everyone of what belongs to whom. And again, this makes us laugh. He repeats words over and over until you say the word and recognize that he is speaking. You can not just ignore. When we play in the backyard, I hear things like "bert, bert, bert, bert, bert" (while pointing). I say something like "Yes, there's a bird." Then he says, "tee, tee, tee, tee, tee." And I say something like "Yes, that's a big tree." And this goes on all of the time. He is also beginning to put 3-4 words together. Not often, but it does happen on occassion. Just a few weeks ago, Holden was climbing the stairs with me and counting as he went. I was hearing, but not listening or thinking about what he was doing, until I heard "yeven". Then I rewound in my brain. He had counted to 7, but skipped 4 and 5. Crazy! Not sure where he learned this. At MDO, the teachers tell me they are constantly counting heads (and their are 8 kids in his class), so I assume he has picked up this new little trick there. But we are continuing to work on this new skill of counting. We think he is super-smart! :)
Bathtime and anything involving water is still a favorite with Holden. He would stay in the tub for hours if we allowed it. I often hear Jeremy telling Holden "all good things must come to an end." It makes me laugh when he says this. But Holden is often DEEPLY disappointed when good things come to that awful end. Thing such as bathtime, outside playtime, dessert, ect. You know the good stuff in life. :) Speaking of water, he received a new water toy for his birthday that is going to keep us cool all summer long. Between his new huge beach ball sprinkler, water table and blow up pool, Holden will be in heaven! And with it in the 90s today, it's almost time to pull it all out. Holden is an amazing sleeper. He often tells us when he is ready for a nap. I often have to stretch him to noon. He normally wakes at 7:30am (though today was 8:15) and 3 hours later he is ready to nap. I try to keep him occupied outside or with lunch to stretch him out later. Going from 2 naps to 1 has been rough. He seemed ready in some ways, but there have been days even recently that he has taken 2 naps. The boy loves his sleep. On Mother's Day Out days, he normally only gets a little over an hour of sleep at school and I normally have to wake him up to get him home. So once we get home, he goes straight to bed for another 2 hours on some days.

Holden is a pretty good eater. We have a harder time with veggies, which everyone thas has gone before me tells me it's just a stage. But there are plenty that he does like such as: peas, carrots, lima beans, asian slaw salad!! (yum), corn, potatoes (if that counts) and that might be about it. That's all he will eat plain. I do my best to mix other things in casseroles or purees so that he gets it in him, even if he won't take it by the spoonful. A typical breakfast is a blueberry waffle and fruit. Occassionally yogurt, but he is kind off his yogurt kick. Sometimes we do pancakes and occasionally we do breakfast casserole. But he loves "wockles" and so normally "wockles" it is. His typical lunch is a meat and cheese sandwhich, a meat and cheese tortillia wrap, a PBJ sandwhich, hot dog weiner, cheese stick and crunchy pretzles, pasta/veggie salad, or last night's dinner leftovers + a fruit. I normally let him decide breakfast and lunch based on what we have available and then he eats whatever I cook for dinner. I am so proud of the fact that he eats fish. We normally have tilapia and salmon and I keep it simple with EVOO, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. He doesn't act like he loves it like he does chicken pot pie, but he eats it well. I weighed him yesterday at 32lbs. Apparently the eating is going well.
He loves: trains, trucks, planes, "munic" (music), playing the drums on just about anything . . .

He likes to brush his teeth and now with our new hairbrush (I will share this news soon!) he loves having his hair fixed each morning! Hallelujah! When I ask if he wants his hair done, he immediately responds with "yes! baffwoom?" We always do his hair in our bathroom, so he goes running that direction. One of his favorite loves is still the paci. Oh man, I'm not sure how I will ever take it away. It stays in his bed, so he only gets it when he goes to sleep. He knows that is our rule. So when I get him out of bed, he takes it out of his mouth and chunks it inside the crib. He doesn't seem to mind that his little brother has his paci a whole lot more often than just sleeping. But sometimes when Holden has a little meltdown, he will ask for his paci. He doens't get it, but I guess he feels that it doesn't hurt to ask. So we are on our way to 3 now! This next year should be a big one! Hopefully we will be saying goodbye to the paci, diapers and the crib. Wow! That's alot of changes in one short year, but I'm confident that we will survive. My cute, fun-loving Holden, how did I get so blessed!? We are thrilled to see the excitement that a new year with you will bring our family!