When we last left you Zach owned all the books, ran away from us, and repeated everything that we said. Adam liked puzzles, helping, and watches. We purchased some Play Doh for the boys a few weeks ago and that has become a nice addition to our nightly routine. We have a toddler-sized plastic picnic table in the dining room for them and it makes a great Play Doh table. We have a bunch of different colors and tools that cut out shapes and make spaghetti and such. The boys love to pick up the Play Doh and mix it together, which drives my OCD crazy, but I’m getting used to it. We usually only let them play with four colors at once so that we don’t end up with 18 tubs of breen colored doh. Other than trying to eat it (it’s non-toxic!) it is working out really well.
The weather is getting colder and its getting darker out earlier so going outside in the evening when we get home is a little difficult. There have been a few really nice days that we went outside, but its been tough lately. I think the fact that it is darker out actually helps us out though because the boys don’t seem to ask to play outside as much as they did when it was light out for longer. On the days that we have gone out we have started to let the boys walk around the neighborhood. We used to let them play in the front and back yard and occasionally walk over to our neighbor’s house but lately we’ve let them wander the streets a bit to explore. They found a puddle this weekend and splashed around in it. It was all fun and games until Adam face planted into it. Then it wasn’t so fun.
The boys have entered their “terrible twos” stage and lately our house has been full of tantrums, boundary exploration, and random mood and behavior changes. There was one week where nobody wanted to eat dinner. That was followed by one week where nobody wanted a bath. There was a week when nobody wanted to go to bed. There was a week where nobody wanted to stay asleep. There were multiple weeks where everybody hated breakfast. There were weeks when everybody hated being indoors. There were a lot of weeks and a lot of bodies, a lot of not wanting, and a lot of hating. This terrible twos thing sucks.
In addition to being (almost) two and terrible, the boys are also getting very physical. They like to chase each other and wrestle each other, which is fine until on of them bites the other one. Usually Adam is the culprit. Then there is the hair pulling, of which Zachary is incredibly fond. You can’t forget the bear hugs and pig-piles, which are naturally in Adam’s favor due to his brother’s petite frame. There is also pushing, which is used almost equally by both boys. Zachary is surprisingly strong and can push Adam down. One example of this happened this evening. Zachary pushed Adam down on the floor and then ran away to the corner of the living room by the front door. Adam ran after him, slammed him into the wall, and then slammed him into the wall once more, this time knocking Zach’s head against the wall. We of course, reprimanded him, which did just about nothing. We even started using the time out chair today. Yay.
Aside from violence and mood swings, the boys are continuing to grow and expand. Zachary continues to repeat us and is starting to say two word phrases. His latest is “I know”. Say something like “Zachary, you are adorable” and he will say “I know”. I’m not sure if he really understands it yet because he will walk around mumbling it to himself – “I know. I knoooow. I know. I know.” Adam is starting to say a few more words, but he isn’t as interested as Zach so we are trying to work with him more. He also does not enunciate his words as well, which makes many sound the same. We spend extra time with him breaking words into syllables and emphasizing letters and some of his words are improving. He said “hello” today very clearly.
Both boys are pretty good at picking up on patterns but Adam is especially adept. He knows our morning pattern to the point where he wants to go into the living room, pick Hannah up, and bring her to her kennel. He can’t actually pick her up of course, but he puts his arms around her in such a loving way that it’s just adorable. He likes to load and unload the dishwasher, throw away diapers, take the dogs out, put away groceries, and do the laundry; pretty much anything an adult would do. He’s so used to patterns that he even disciplines himself when he does something wrong. One of his teachers from school told us that when he hits other children with toys he follows by giving them a hug and a kiss. I’m not sure if I should be proud or horrified, but at least he knows that he should say he’s sorry?
In summary we are as busy as ever. The boys are continuing to explore, grow, and change. We are thinking about how we are going to handle the upcoming winter. It will be cold so we won’t be outside as often but the boys will still have a ton of energy. We’ll probably play in the garage and possibly hit Twice the Fun a bit more often. Hopefully they won’t be as sick as they were last winter. That alone would make this winter a huge improvement. Let’s hope.
Relatively Ambitious 