Happy 23 Months Sweet Angel!

Colt Developments: Colt, you are such a fun, funny little guy, making new strides every day.
– You know all of your colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and white) in BOTH Portuguese and English. If I ask you “What color is this?” then you will say, “Green.” but if I ask, “Que cor é isso?” then you say, “Verde.” It’s so interesting to see you learning both languages and, in many cases like this, being able to distinguish when to use which.
– You can recognize and verbally identify all (capital) letters of the alphabet. We haven’t tried doing lowercase yet but I guess that’s next. You learned them naturally since you have an ABC mat on the floor in your room and we read an ABC Bible verse book every day. We recently started singing the ABCs too and you love it and can basically sing it through all the way.
– You can count to 10 in both Portuguese and English, although you’re stronger in Portuguese on this and you’ll sometimes leave out a number here or there. You are better if you’re actually counting something versus just reciting it or counting to 10 before kicking a ball or jumping or something.
– I just started trying to teach you to recognize numbers and right now you are good at identifying 6 and 8 and you’re OK at 1, 2 and 3. The rest is a total blur though.
– You know the following shapes: circle, square, triangle, star, heart and pentagon. These all just kind of happened because of toys that you have or from books or coloring. You also like to draw circles and are surprisingly good at making them.
– You are great at jumping off two feet and love to do it everywhere, especially off steps or stools or anything with some height.
– Your vocabulary continues to grow by the day and I love to watch you express yourself or try to relay a story. Often you are good at switching between English and Portuguese but you also have certain words that you exclusively use in one language or the other. I’m sure there are many words that you only say in English but of course I notice the ones that have stuck in Portuguese much more. You still understand the English word but will almost only say the Portuguese word for thank you, clown, shoes, water, ball, bread…
– Your sentences are a little funny. Just now your dad finished his water bottle and you exclaimed, “More agua Dada mais!” (“More water Dada more.”) Like this example, it’s often a mix of languages and not quite correct but you’re definitely expressing yourself and your ideas better and better. You are also making words plural by adding “s” or “es” to the end. Of course a lot of times it ends up being incorrect but I still think you’re smart for drawing the connection.
– You’re also such a little imitator. You constantly repeat things we say like a little parrot and you love to mimic things that we do. Even little things, like if you notice that we aren’t wearing socks then you will want to take your socks off too.
– When your dad gets home from work each evening you get SO excited. From the moment that you hear the door open, your eyes get all big and excited and then you run at full speed straight into his arms and start squealing like a little pig! Then we laugh as you just start rambling, trying to tell him about things you’ve done that day but you inevitably end up just naming objects around us. It’s so funny – you’re just so excited to be talking to him!
– Another favorite thing of your is family hugs. Whenever I’m hugging your dad you run over and put one arm around each of our legs and nuzzle your face right in and say, “Mama, Dada, Tolt!” (for some reason how you pronounce your name). Beyond precious.
– You love singing, dancing, coloring and playing with puzzles, legos and animals. You have perfected the drop-kick and could play with balls all day long. You’re definitely right handed and right footed but we have a little t-ball set and you always bat lefty which we like. You have also really gotten into your Micro scooter lately. We still have the seat attachment on and you love to scoot around our apartment or outside all over the apartment complex. You especially love going down all of the ramps that we have throughout the complex so we got you a helmet since every now and then you take a little tumble.
– You are still a very easy, calm child with a bit of a shy personality. If we bring you into a group of people, even people who you see regularly, you almost always go through a bit of a “transition period” where you sit back (almost frozen) and just watch for a while, and often times you’ll want to be holding hands with Mom or Dad, especially if you’re in a crowd of new people. Eventually you will warm up and feel more free to move around but it takes even longer before you start to talk or be vocal. If we do a whole afternoon with our friends and their kids then eventually you get adjusted and all is totally normal but you pretty much always go through the transition period first. I don’t know if the right term for this is “shy” or if you’re just observing or what exactly is happening but I pray that you will have confidence and a strong sense of self.
– As you are getting older we are focusing more and more on trying to require and enforce immediate obedience from you. It can be difficult for us to do because sometimes when you don’t obey it just seems like innocent, 2 year old behavior (I’ll ask you to pick up a ball and put it away and instead you kick it first) and sometimes we just want to laugh (you were doing this thing where you loved spitting out your water and you would giggle so much every time) but your dad and I are also committed to raising you up Biblically, in obedience to your parents. We value this because it’s what God commands in scripture and we believe this is in your best interest in many ways. The other day we were playing in a park and you started running towards the street. We called after you to stop but instead you ran faster straight into the street. Praise God there weren’t any cars coming and you were fine but it reinforced to us the importance of having you obey in the small things so that we can count on you to obey in the big things as well. You’re actually pretty easy to teach and respond well to our correction – you’re not showing yourself as a super strong-willed, fighter type child – but even still, I think the biggest challenge is just to us as parents to have wisdom and be consistent. We are seeking the Lord and trying our best!

Health: Praise the Lord, you continue to be so healthy. A few colds here and there but still no antibiotics in your system. You do get pretty banged up though! I guess it’s just being a little boy but you are constantly skinning a knee or an elbow or getting a shiner somewhere on your sweet little face. It breaks my heart but you’re tough and never seem too bothered by anything. I’m not sure your exact stats these days but I would think you’re about 27 or 28 pounds. You are wearing a mix of 18-24 month and 2T clothes and are still in size 4 diapers.

Eating: You’re driving me a little nuts with this one lately. In terms of “real meals” that we can give you which you will eat, we are pretty much limited to pasta with cheese and maybe some peas, fried rice or a grilled ham and cheese with possibly a little tomato. Fried rice is the best because we can stick broccoli, turkey, tofu, eggs, peas, etc. in there and you will eat them. Sometimes I’ll puree broccoli and cauliflower and mix pasta and cheese in that sauce and you eat that fine too, but otherwise we are really grasping at straws to get you to eat “real food.” We still make you apple sauce and we boil apples and strawberries together with zucchini, carrots & broccoli and you like this too. You would be happy to live off of bananas, yogurt, apple sauce, nuts, raisins, plain pasta, cheese, crackers, bread, plain rice, etc. and I am struggling to know what my expectations of you should be at this age. I don’t want to raise a super picky eater (am I too late??) and I don’t want you to think you live at a restaurant, but you don’t seem to understand the concept of “try one bite” and when we try to get you to try or eat foods that you are opposed to you totally freak out and panic. Even foods that you loved a few weeks ago you will refuse today. This makes me less eager to cook you new things because I don’t want to waste my time if you’re just going to refuse it. From a nutrition perspective I think we do a good job sneaking good things in but from a principle perspective I’m afraid you are learning to eat only a very narrow array of foods. (If anyone has any tips on this or encouraging words that this is just a phase?? please let me know!)

Sleeping: Although you’re a challenge when it comes to eating, I am so thankful that you are very easy when it comes to sleeping. Your naps are getting a little less predictable and range anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours but nights are like clockwork, 8pm – 7:30am. I’m never worried about leaving you with a sitter because you love going down to bed at night and never make a peep until morning time. You still move around a ton in your sleep so you can’t use a pillow or blanket or anything yet and I always wonder when that will happen?

Schedule: We are on a great schedule with you little angel.
7:30-8:00 Morning wake up with milk
9:00 Breakfast
10:00-12:00 Downstairs to play outside and with friends in the complex or run errands with Mom
12:15 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Nap then wake up with milk
4:00-6:00 Play outside again
6:15 Dinner
7:30 Clean up toys, brush teeth, get ready for bed
8:00 Lights Out!

Mama: Colt baby, your dad and I are totally crazy about you and crazy about this stage with you. You have the fun personality of a toddler, always making us laugh, but you also still have that baby sweetness too. We constantly talk to each other about how amazing you are, how blessed we are, how fun this is, etc. We have often been guilty of sneaking in your room while you’re sleeping to get one last look at you before we go to bed at night. We just truly can’t get enough of you. As I write this your dad and I are almost in tears just laughing at the funny things you keep doing and I realize that this blog post is such an insufficient way to capture who you are right now sweet one. There aren’t words to describe your eyes and your heart and your ways. We adore it all. Every second of every inch.