Gerrit is Two!

As we are approaching Gerrit’s 3rd birthday, I decided to go back and look at his 2nd birthday update. And realized I never published it! Oops. Well, here it is, more for me to look back on than anything, haha.

How are we celebrating another birthday for our baby already?!

Age: 2 years old on 27 Oct 2016
Weight: 27.5 lbs
Height: 35.25 inches
Teeth: 16
Clothing Size: 24 months & 2T
Diaper Size: size 4
Milestones: 2 word phrases, counting to 3 (and 3-2-1), recognizes and can say all basic colors, building (and demolishing) towers,

Sleeping: We’ve actually come a long way in the sleep department! Especially after dealing with the 18 month sleep regression. Eesh. We definitely have bad nights here and there (where he wakes after only 2 hours and fights me about going back in his crib), but most nights he only wakes twice. I usually bring him to bed with me around 4 or 5 in the morning, so any “wakings” after that are hardly wakings. He still is not sleeping through the night, but he usually has at least one long stretch of sleep.

Gerrit is pretty good about taking a nap every day. Sometimes he fights it a bit, but I can count on one hand the days he has completely just not had a nap. He’s good about taking a solid 2-hour nap each day for the most part, so the days he takes a short nap really throw me off!

Gerrit sleeps about 11-12 hours every day. Factor out that 2-hour nap, and that leaves me 9-10 hours a night. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like getting up at 6AM. So bedtime usually happens between 9 and 10PM. Probably a bit late for the average toddler, but I feel like most toddlers also sleep more than my little crazy. Maybe someday when he stops napping completely I’ll be able to do an earlier bedtime.

Eating

Toddler diets are so annoying. I feel like Gerrit eats well for a few days, then takes a week off to digest or something. I get so excited when he eats well, then I pretend I’m not bothered when he throws his plastic plate across the room the next night. On a good day Gerrit enjoys meat, eggs, fruit, broccoli, quinoa (and try not to smile when you hear his little voice say “keen-wah!”), cheese, snacks (Goldfish, animal crackers, pretzels), yogurt, and desserts when I make them. On a bad day, I give him whatever he requests. But I can always count on him to eat spaghetti & meatballs on Wednesday nights.

Breastfeeding continues! Getting to 2 years of breastfeeding was my last goal, and I’m very proud to have nursed Gerrit for this long. He loves nursing. He nurses when he’s hungry, when he’s thirsty, when he’s upset, when he’s tired, when he’s bored… honestly it seems like it’s all the times some days. He also loves nursing to sleep. On bad nights (teething), he is up every 1-2 hours to nurse back to sleep. On good nights, Gerrit is only up once or twice to nurse back to sleep. He also likes to nurse right after he wakes up. Like I said… all the time! I just posted about our start to night weaning, so we’ll see how that continues.

One thing that I rarely do now is nurse in public. It’s not necessary, really, since Gerrit isn’t dependent on it for food/drink. If we are stuck somewhere (like an event we aren’t leaving for an hour or more) and Gerrit is having a meltdown, I will sometimes find a quiet place to let him nurse for a bit to calm down. But I usually tell him that he can’t nurse until we get home. When he’s in a decent mood, he’s happily appeased by a little snack and his water instead.

I’m venturing into lesser known territory here with breastfeeding a toddler. I will try to do updates as we continue and wean, because I know I’m so interested in it myself! And if YOU have tips on weaning after 2, please share! This is hard for me, since I’m not at the “I’m so sick of nursing!!” stage yet.

Mommy Update: Overall good! From 18 months to turning 2, Gerrit has definitely become more “sassy” for lack of a better word. And it’s definitely trying sometimes. But I’m also slowly getting back into “my” things: scrapbooking, crocheting, blogging, etc. The more independent Gerrit gets, the more I start to feel like myself again. I feel like that’s not a “nice” way to put it, but becoming a mom really alters your sense of self.

I know I mentioned trying to lose weight in Gerrit’s 18 month update. Over the summer I worked out here and there, but mostly just tried eating healthier. The number on the scale didn’t really change at all. Around the time that Andrew graduated from OTS, I looked into the 21 Day Fix. I decided that I wanted to try it out, and Andrew was on board with with it, so I went ahead with it! It took me awhile to actually get started with it. I wanted to try it when we were moving (silly me), but Andrew convinced me to wait until we were settled and I could actually cook for myself! Since I started, I’ve lost 10 pounds! I am hoping to get back into sharing some recipes with all of you soon.

Likes & Dislikes: Gerrit still likes a lot of the same things. He still enjoys helping us and having a task to complete. We have no child locks on cupboards in this house, and Gerrit likes to help himself to the washrags under the kitchen sink to clean up any messes he makes. We can also trust him to only put things in the trash now, so he’s happy to throw things away for us. Gerrit helps pick up his toys and books now, although we still have to prompt him to do it most of the time. He loves helping me put clothes into the washer, move the clothes to the dryer, and empty the dryer. He’s also really helpful with putting groceries away. You can see that he really enjoys being a helpful member of the family!

I think his favorite thing is still being outside. He loves being out there no matter how hot or cold it is, especially if he can find water to make mud somewhere. Most of the time when he comes inside he needs a whole new outfit because he’s covered in dirt and/or water.
Gerrit likes to watch his shows. I caved with the whole “no screen time” thing around 18 months or so, I think. And when Andrew left for OTS, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood saved my sanity. I’m not proud of the amount of TV Gerrit watches, but when you’re doing the bulk of the parenting because your husband is away or training, you need a break sometimes. Gerrit’s current favorites are The Stinky & Dirty Show on Amazon, Octonauts, DinoTrux on Netflix, and anything with monster trucks (we find a fair amount on YouTube). TV time is generally a time when he relaxes, and he actually learns things from the shows too!

Gerrit dislikes coming in the house, getting his diaper changed, and going to sleep. I really try to always give him warnings before a transition (“Okay, we’re going to leave the park after you go down the slide.”), but even that isn’t enough sometimes. If he has it in his head that he NEEDS to stay at the park, he will have a tantrum regardless. I also try to give him options like getting to choose the diaper he gets changed into (they’re all different designs & colors since we use cloth), choosing how we do things (we can go home from the park on your bike or I can carry you), and choosing the order we do things (you can wash your hands first or I can take your shoes off first). This usually helps keep the tantrums at bay. If he’s tired or hungry, all bets are off!

Memorable Events: Oh gosh, May through October was full of events and changes! What a whirlwind summer. Well, May & June were pretty calm. I don’t think anything too exciting happened then.

My mom came to visit in July, just as Andrew was leaving for Officer Training School in Alabama. It was nice to have her with us to ease that transition! Gerrit and I were really sad to see her go, but we only had a few weeks between her visit and our big road trip to Michigan in August.

Driving to Michigan from North Carolina was a 2-day trip and my first time tackling a road trip with Gerrit by myself. I was very nervous about it! Thankfully, there were no big issues. We had a great time visiting with family and friends (although Gerrit, as usual, did not sleep great away from home).

By the time we got home, we didn’t have much time to unpack and repack for our drive to Alabama to see Andrew/Dada graduate from OTS! My mom came with for this road trip, which I was very thankful for! It was a lot of traveling in a short amount of time for Gerrit, so it was nice to have the extra pair of hands.

After the graduation festivities were over, Andrew had to travel straight to Texas to report at his training base. My mom, Gerrit, and I went back to North Carolina. And then we started prepping to pack! Andrew flew back to North Carolina to deal with the move, and soon we were back in the car and driving to Del Rio, TX.

We opted to rent a house on base since pilot training is only about a year long, and most people recommended living on base due to the long hours of training. One big perk for Gerrit of living on base was the abundance of playgrounds within walking distance! He loved it and wanted to go all the time!

We did not do a birthday party for Gerrit this year for a couple of reasons. 1) Andrew was away in Colorado for training, and 2) we were still getting settled in our new home! When Andrew came home, I made Gerrit a birthday cake and he opened presents with us. It was really low-key, but I think we all enjoyed it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 2nd birthday, Gerrit! You are such an amazing and fun little guy, and we love watching you discover the world and learn new things. We love you so much, Gerrit!