Let's get started.
Michael is three and a half. (Excuse me while I cry). Where in the world did the time go? Good grief! He is a tow headed blonde boy who is the total definition of spunk and stubborn. He has hazel eyes and rosy pink cheeks. His hair and fingernails grow faster than you'd think was possible. He has eyelashes that celebrity women would pay to have. Haircuts hardly even last on him. I know it would probably be more beneficial to give him a buzz cut, but I have a strict mom-rule that says "no buzz cuts until at least age 5." I have the right to keep my child looking like a little boy rather than just a boy, right? His hair is thick and beautifully straight. He can get out of the bathtub looking like Anne Burrell, but then within 15 minutes, his hair is straight and shiny. sigh He didn't get that from me.
Michael is mischievous to a fault. He will test any boundary set before him. As a parent, this is utterly exhausting because I have to keep enforcing the boundaries-- otherwise, it'll be ten times easier for him to break the rules the next time. That's the difficult part of parenting-- being consistent. Oh, it can wear me out in a heartbeat. And this is why my children go to bed at 7:15pm. Because I need some time to sit down on the couch and breathe, and just be still.
Michael is still tall for his age. He wears mostly 3T and 4T clothes. He has a long torso and shorter legs-- like me. We prefer dressing him in longer shirts so that it covers his Continuous Glucose Monitor (which is inserted in his upper buttocks). He wears a size 11 in toddler shoes. He will soon graduate to children size shoes (I think toddler sizing only goes to 12 or 13). He LOVES to run. He also LOVES to laugh and when he really gets going, his uninhibited laugh is the most precious sound in the world. I love seeing my son so happy. It makes all the heartache of diabetes just a little bit soothed during that time. I have a few pictures on my phone of his facial expression when he's fully engrossed in a laugh, and it's such a balm to look back on those expressions. I like to look at those pictures in the middle of my work day. Seeing my kid happy is so so priceless.
Michael loves any movie about the "minions." He has only recently discovered the "Despicable Me 2" movie (we haven't seen the first one yet). And we also recently bought the movie "Minions" (on sale at Target). You can bet that one of these movies will be watched at least once a day. He has some "minion" toys that he plays with on the daily. His favorite minion is Kevin "because he's brave."
His favorite snack food is Greek yogurt in all the yummy flavors (like Boston Cream Pie, Apple Pie, Blackberry Pie, Coconut, Key Lime, Raspberry, Chocolate Cherry). He calls yogurt "coo." He also likes to eat Pirate's Booty Cheese Puffs (low in carbs). He is not a fan of Cheez-its. He says they taste weird. He likes peanut butter spoons, Goldfish, dill pickle spears, American cheese slices, and PB&J sandwiches.
He is fully potty trained. Our next step is to get him to actually completely go to the bathroom himself without us having to be in there. But, oh! It's so nice to have him fully potty trained and to be able to successfully go to the bathroom when we're in public places like Children's Hospital, Target, etc.
He surprises me with his bravery. He is not as much of an animal fan as his brother is, but he did excitedly go into the petting zoo inside the actual zoo today and he really did pet a goat. I was impressed. I safely sat on a bench right outside the petting zoo-- I'm not a fan of animals with horns. :)
Now onto Noah.
Noah is very recently two years old (beginning of January). He has dark blonde hair with a bit of a wave in it (he gets that from me). His eyes are crystal blue (like his maternal grandma). There's no mistaking the color of his eyes and people stop us in the stores to look at them. Weird, but true. Both boys will get a haircut this week. Noah is looking a bit like Trump in a windstorm. :)
Noah is super duper sweet. When he's alone. Noah is our early riser (I'm talking like 5:40am early). When he's up in these wee-morning hours, he can be the sweetest little guy. I'll turn on Elmo's World while I get started on my work and he's good to go. When Michael wakes up and joins the fun, Noah goes into full "second child" mode and starts arguments just for the sake of arguing. Michael can say "Oh, we're watching Elmo's World" and Noah will say "Noooooo" just to get a rise out of Michael.
Noah is small for his age. He still has 18-month size pants that fall off of his little waist. He wears 18-month shirts, and some 2T or 24 month size shirts. He is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height (based on his stats at his 2-year well check-up). He is in size 7 toddler shoes. This seems big based on his height and weight. Michael was also in size 7 shoes at 2 years old, but Michael weighed a lot more and was a lot taller than Noah is at this age.
Noah is obsessed with vacuums. Obsessed. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. We had to relocate our vacuum from our hall closet to our bedroom closet because Noah would pull the cord all the way down the hallway to the living room every single day and then shriek when we wound the cord back up. If we vacuumed while he was awake, we'd have to leave the vacuum out until he went to sleep so he wouldn't see us put it away. He'd open the hall closet door and just stare at the vacuum and touch it and try to turn it on. So we relocated it so that we wouldn't have to constantly hear shrieks when we wound the cord or put the vacuum away. I tried to only vacuum on my breaks during the workday when Noah wasn't home. Today, however, I was off of work and the house really needed a vacuuming, so as a "treat" I vacuumed while Noah watched me (and he "helped" a bit.) I was successfully able to put the vacuum back in my closet because we were heading out the door to my mom's house, where she has a toy vacuum and a real vacuum-- so that was sufficient bribery to get out the door without any tears. My mother-in-law keeps her vacuum out during the day so Noah can look at it. :) Any object can turn into a vacuum at anytime-- a rolling toddler-size suitcase becomes a toy vacuum at our house. Noah makes his own vacuum sounds to accompany his imaginary play. I'm raising the next generation Danny Tanner. I can only hope that this vacuum/cleaning obsession continues to childhood and the teenage years when I can really use the help!
Noah loves all food and doesn't discriminate. He could eat all day long if we'd let him. For breakfast, he has a Kashi waffle and a few toddler-size bowls of Froot Loops. He loves Goldfish, Cheez-its, Pirate's Booty cheese puffs, Greek yogurt (which he also calls "coo"), and dill pickles for snack. He LOVES ketchup, and is starting to have an affinity for mustard as well. He will request both with his fish sticks. He loves air popped popcorn and could eat the whole amount if we allowed it. But we're really trying to teach him to stop when he's full. He's getting better at it, and we're getting better about really noticing his signs of being full so that we can aid him in stopping his eating. He is so small that it's not a huge issue for us to let him snack since he's obviously using what he intakes, but we'd like to teach him to recognize when he's full as well.
I have high hopes that Noah will be potty-trained this year. He can tell us when he's making a mess in his diaper. He sits on the potty occasionally, but hasn't been successful on the potty as of yet.
He LOVES Elmo and we watch "Elmo's World" at LEAST twice daily. We start our mornings with either "Elmo's World" or "Blue's Clues." If we don't start our day with "Elmo's World," you can bet that it's the next thing he asks for. He loves to have us read books about Elmo. Aaron does a great Elmo impression, and that always gets a giggle out of Noah.
Today at the zoo, he was very content to ride in the stroller. When he was out of the stroller, he wanted to "help" me push it. That was an experience. He was kind of just "so-so" about the animals. When we were looking at the giraffes, he was ecstatic to see a bird instead. This is so Noah. He finds joy in the tiny things when we're all looking for the big things. He did enjoy being lifted up to see the HUGE rhino today at the zoo. He is a cuddler by nature and I hope he always likes to cuddle.
I love these little boys. Such precious precious gifts.
Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba
So sweet! And fun to hear more about their personalities.
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