Happy Birthday, Huck

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The above was contributed by guest blogger, Huck, age 2

I can't beleive my baby is two years old!  If you ask him, he is NOT a baby nor is he a big boy.  He is a Toddler!  And he is very much so. How to describe my boy... hmmm..

Perhaps some vital satistics?  At his 2 year old checkup he was 27.7 pounds, 35 inches tall and his head was 50.17 cm.  Which makes him lean, tall and big-headed :-)  He is a healthy boy, although he has had a run of ear infections this year.  He does have some new eczema on his legs that I am not sure of the cause.  I suspect diet since when we were on our Spring Break trip and eating junk it was much worse.  Or perhaps the car seat, like my nephew, since we spent a lot of time in the car?   He had a finger poke for some blood work and 1 shot.  We used the Buzzy Bee www.buzzy4shots.com for both and he did not even make a peep.  The nurse was amazed at how well it worked and was telling everyone in the office. 

He is very busy all the time!  He climb anything and has recently mastered climbing down out of things, like the playhouse in the backyard.  He runs, jumps, crawls, gallops...  Lately he has been enjoying wodden puzzles.  He is quite good at them.  He likes the shape sorter as well.  He like zippering up his jacket/ PJs.  We are seeing some emerging pretend play as well.  He plays with his brother and sister and is a little mimic.  Duch and Huck have been playing together more and more and often enjoy each others company.  The one area of concern in regards to development is his expressive language.  I don't have concerns about his receptive language as he understands everything easily.  He follows commands, he points to pictures, knows the parts of his body and appropriatly answers questions.  However, he uses mostly sounds as opposed to words.  He has only maybe 10 words that a stranger would recognize.  We are going to take him for a speech evaluation as I would prefer to intervene sooner rather than later. 

He is a pretty good eater.  He will eat a variety of foods.  Some favorites are bananas, oranges, mac and cheese, steak and any and all sweets.  He will flip out for fruit snacks, which is why I won't buy them.  The Hubby, however, has no problem buying them...  He is nursing several times a day, mostly before naps, at night and after a fall of some sort.  He does not show any signs of self-weaning. 

He goes to sleep at night in his toddler bed in is room, but wakes up and comes to my bed at some point during the night.  He can open the door from the inside now so I hear him rattling the door knob for a bit before he wanders in to ask for Mama Milk.  He takes a nap when I am home, usually for 2 hours or so, but does not nap when home with the Hubby (unless it is in the car.) 

He is more shy around strangers and takes a little bit to warm up.  He will stick close to my side or climb into my lap and put his chin down on his chest until he is more comfortable.  Once he warms up he is free with smiles and waves.  

He loves to play with balls, coins, blocks, puzzles, computers and the play kitchen.  He loves Mickey Mouse and still loves Veggie Tales.  He does appear a bit more interested in TV these days as his attention span is growing. 

He can be very stronged willed at times.  He will NOT share his food with his brother or sister, even if he is finished with it.  He would rather throw it in the trash than let one of them eat it!  Sometimes he will set his mind to something random and there is no changing it! 

We got to celebrate his birthday with Uncle Mike, Aunt Sara, William and Dillon which was great fun.  We were still on our Spring Break trip on his actual birthday so we celebrated a few days later when we were all back together.  He is a blessing to us!