Vander the Two Year Old

Oh the joys of toddlerhood!

Vander is officially 36 inches tall! He definitely had a growth spurt recently, as evidenced by him eating every ounce of protein he could get his hands on, including three hot dogs one night and four sausages the next morning. I will be taking donations once he hits his teenage growth spurts. He is also 30 pounds still, but that has been pretty steady for a bit.

Vander generally eats well. He still loves his carbs (he ate a lot of waffles for breakfast the last couple of months!), but he loves beans and a lot of different meats. He hasn't been quite as good on his vegetables, but it mostly just depends on the day. Some days he doesn't eat much at dinner, but he just prefers to be busy playing. We are just starting to introduce some rules for mealtimes at home and we told him he was allowed to be done and go play, but mom and dad were going to finish their food before they would  go play with him. So now he stares at our plates and the minute our plates are empty he jumps up to pull us away to go play with him.

He has recently starting giving us a lot of commands. He has asked for things for a long while now ("up" "milk") but now he tells us "Mom sit down" and points to a very specific spot in which you must be right away. Trying to teach a toddler patience is no easy task.

The independence streak has made a big show in our house recently. Vander's main phrases these days are "I get it" or "I do it". If you do it before he can, he will get mad. We are still getting used to this one.

His personality is so much fun! He is still a total goofball or class clown and loves being silly. When he gets a positive reaction to something he does it again and again to make everyone laugh. He loves being tickled, giving high fives and knuckles. He is hugely social, even though on occasion he may be shy at first, he ends up greeting everyone at the door even when we are not at our own house. We will definitely need to keep a close eye on him since he has no stranger danger.

At the same time he can also be really serious. He gets very focused on things and likes them to be a particular way. I have always thought he had an engineering brain and that proves itself to be true all the time. He crawled under my parents electric couches to see how they work. Now that we have a second boy, I notice how Marshall looks at what people are doing so much more than Vander ever did. Vander has always been figuring out how lights work and how things are put together. We just have to remind him to take his time and think about things so he doesn't get frustrated when they don't always work his way the first time!

He is also very loving. Dylan and I sung him Happy Birthday when we went to get him in the morning and he immediately gave us each huge hugs. I have gotten a couple unprompted "I love you"s which are amazing.

Dylan decided he would describe Vander as adorable with a temper. When he doesn't get his way he definitely falls into the usual toddler whining and anger. His current teething for his two year molars doesn't help with the quick to anger part.

Totally all set up by him!

His favorite activities include being outside in whatever way possible, duplex, trains, stuffed animals, playing with anything related to trucks, identifying any vehicle while we drive-especially buses, cranes, tractors and bulldozers. He also enjoys coloring and helping cook.

Vander is such a great kid and so much fun to hang out with!