Terrific Twos

This blog has so far been most about Sophie, so this one will be dedicated to Owen. He is being as adorable as ever. Don't get me wrong, he is definitely in the terrible twos (at least for him), but he makes up for his tantrums by saying/doing cute things.

As I believe I've mentioned before, Owen is repeating a lot of what we say. Owen's teachers say the classroom is a bunch of parrots. That brings a lot of laughter from us, as it's humorous how he says some words. We've taught him his full name, which sounds like Owen Benty Apple (his middle name is Bentley). Today, while I was on the phone with a nurse, Owen repeated "displaced anus" (one of Sophie's conditions), which the nurse heard and got a kick out of. That's all I need - Owen going around school saying "Sophie has a displaced anus!".

Owen is, as usual, reading a ton. He loves going to the library or getting new books. He is also getting really good at puzzles - he loves his fish floor puzzle and his block puzzle. He knows all of his letters and is getting better at his numbers - he can now count to 14.

I love to hear him sing. His current favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and, of course, "Old McDonald", which is just as often about Cars (the movie), then it is about animals. He can sing most of the ABC song, although he sometimes skips letters.

A friend once told me that it's not worth fighting kids over food. You're not going to be able to force them to eat something. If you keep offering them good foods, they will eventually eat what they need. I've found that is true. We definitely have to say "no" sometimes ("no fishy crackers before dinner"). But if he says no to something, we try to keep things on hand that are relatively healthy that he will often say yes to (bananas, avocado, yogurt, cheese, edamame). It's definitely frustrating at times, but overall I think we're doing pretty good. It helps that Owen doesn't seem to like too many sweets (he has refused ice cream every time it's offered). And he inevitably makes up for the frustration by doing something funny. Tonight at dinner we said something about putting milk in his belly, at which point he proceeded to giggle and point his sippy cup at his belly, which, of course, made us giggle!

One thing that Owen has done recently that at first was amusing, but now worries me a bit, is falling over onto us. The first time he did it the three of us were on the couch, and Owen would stand up, then literally just fall over or jump onto us (usually backwards). It started to worry me when he did it to me on the tile kitchen floor (I caught him and made him stop). Then he did it with Keith on the bed at Nana's house (he was getting pretty energetic with it, so I made him stop). Wow, what trust kids have. I don't think I could do that (you will never catch me bungy jumping)!

It is really cute to talk to Owen on the phone now. Before he used to just listen intently to you on the phone for a minute then put down the phone and go about his business. Now he'll answer you if you ask him a question. Still only one or two word answers, but really cute.

So overall living with a two year old hasn't been too bad (although we'll see what he's like when Sophie comes home!). I think we've dealt with the tantrums ok, mainly by using distraction techniques. Getting ready for school is usually an exercise in distraction: he doesn't like regular clothes (he'd rather wear pajamas), so we have to distract him with something while getting him dressed. Plus he never wants to leave his toys to go to school. Today I was able to get his sandles on and get him outside and into his car seat all with a cup of apple juice (after saying he didn't want to wear shoes and didn't want to go to school). Score 1 for Mommy!!