This will be the last “monthly” post I do for our little guy, so it’s a pretty massive one.  I just want to remember every single cute thing he’s doing these days!

At 2 years old, Isaac is 36 inches and 32 pounds!!!  He hit a MAJOR growth spurt in the last few weeks.  He jumped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 90th percentile!  And Despite the weight gain, he’s losing inches around his tush and thighs (oh so sad).  He’s growing out of most of his pants in height, but they’re starting to fall off his waist now that he’s thinning out a little bit.  He’s still not even close to being considered a thin child – he’s pretty darn sturdy and strong.  He’s never been squooshy either, even as a baby, his rolls were always firm and felt more like muscle.  Now that he’s actually losing his baby shape, I can see the muscles working in his arms, legs, back and stomach.

He’s really started to assert his independence lately.  Just in the last few weeks, we’ve started to hear quite a bit of “Baby do it hisself!”.  If you try and say, pick something up for him and hand it to him after he’s already told you he wanted to “do it hisself”, he’ll put the item back down on the floor or wherever it was and pick it back up “all by hisself”.  Ditto for getting in the car by himself, climbing up on the chair by himself, brushing his teeth, getting up on the potty, or a million other things in our daily life.  He wants to use the whisk on the eggs in the morning – “Baby ask do it hisself eggs”.

I’ve always said he’s a very observant kid.  He’ll take the upside down books on the bookshelf and put them right side up.  He’ll come behind me and close drawers and cabinets that I forget to shut all the way. He pays attention to everything going on around him, and will notice things well before anyone else (and point it out to us, of course).  He can identify different things way off in the distance or barely audible by their noises, like the coffee maker, the shower running, the dogs’ tags jingling together, cars, ambulances, birds, construction equipment, bus brakes, planes overhead, buzzing bees, hammers, even woodpeckers.

‘Heard a noise, Mommy!  What did you hear?  ‘Heard Daddy upstairs.  Or if the radio is on in the other room, ‘Heard something…’heard a song!

He’s also got quite a palate.  He can identify the different ingredients in a dish – just this morning, I let him have a taste of some leftover homemade “magic shell” (melted chocolate and coconut oil) and he said, “Chocolate!” as soon as he saw it, but after he had a taste, “Yum coconut candy!”.

He spotted deer out of the window one morning:
Isaac:  Pet deer?
Me:  No, we can’t pet the deer.
Isaac:  Deer too big!
Me:  Yes, the deer is too big to pet.
Isaac:  Ride deer?
Me: Um, no.

Trees are also “too tall” to climb, and Daddy’s shoes are “too big” for him to wear. The stove is “too hot can burn you” and dogs are “too noisy barking”.  He’s also started using other modifiers.  He’ll tell me his food is “VERY hot” and he is “VERY tired”.  His tea is just a “little hot” and food is a “little spicy”.

We were watching a guy at Whole Foods cutting up a giant grouper, and Isaac was enthralled.  He was pointing and saying (yelling, really), “Man cuttin’ fish with a knife!” and then “Want taste.  Bite of fish.”.  I told him you can’t eat it raw, you have to cook it first and he responded, “Cook it in the oven”.  Yep, exactly right little man!

He follows directions extremely well, and has an excellent memory.  I’ll be looking for one of his sippy cups and ask him, “Where’s your blue cup?”.  He’ll tell me “Threw it over fence in backyard”.  From the day before, he actually remembers where he’s put things.  I can’t even remember where I’ve set my phone down 5 minutes before!  I will ask him to pick something up and carry it up the steps and across the deck and into the garage, and he doesn’t get distracted or lose interest halfway there.  If you tell him we’re going to do something later, you better be sure because he’ll remember!

We’re doing some laid-back potty training. He’s been going on his little potty downstairs and the big potty upstairs for several weeks now. He’ll pee every time I sit him down and will let me know if he has to pee while he’s in the bathtub so I can pull him out and plop him down on the potty.  For two days this week I set a kitchen timer for 20 minutes – every time it went off, he sat on the potty, and he wore underwear all day.  He had one accident, but he pee’d on the potty every time he sat down, so I think it was a success.  I realized the next day though, that it’s a bad time for all-out potty training, because we’re getting the house ready to sell and have contractors in and out all day long, trips to Lowe’s to make, etc.  We need a quieter week where we can just concentrate on potty time.

Isaac’s added a new element to his bedtime routine – He wants to be tucked in with a blanket, and Curious George has to be tucked in next to him.  He wants me to tell him sweet dreams, then kiss him goodnight, and he’ll tell me “monkey too!” and I have to lean down and give George a kiss before he’ll close his eyes and settle down.

He loves to get on his tippy toes, stretch his hand over his head and tell me, “Reach, Mommy!”.  If he finds something funny, he’ll tell me “Isaac laughing” as he’s giggling.  He’ll start crying and fussing, then after a minute will tell himself “stop crying” as he’s getting himself under control.  He pretty much narrates his entire day.  I can’t get enough :).

He can say his name perfectly now and uses it all the time – Isaac running.  Isaac’s plate.  Isaac tongue hurts.  The other day at a restaurant, the waitress refilled our water glasses and he was so worried about being left out as she walked away that he started yelling, “Baby Isaac’s water!!!”, haha.  

He’s still mimicking me a lot and has picked up a couple funny phrases lately.  He’s supposed to ask permission before he goes out, and sometimes I’ll hear him pause at the door, then tell himself “go ‘head”, as he pushes it open and escapes outside without me.  He’ll taste something yummy and I’ll hear either, “yum, dood!” or “dood, huh?” (dood=good).  We had to spend the day out of the house while the guys were working on our stairs the other day.  I was telling him we were going to go to the mall and possibly ride the train.  He wasn’t too happy about getting in the car, and tearfully looked up at me and said, “fun, huh?”.  He’ll have trouble fitting one of his toys inside the other or taking his shoe off or any number of other things that are difficult for him and he’ll tell me “hard to do!”.  After so many trips to the grocery store with him begging to eat everything that goes in the cart, he’s starting to catch on that we have to pay for our items first.  He’ll ask to eat the grapes, then tell me “buy it first”.  And when I’m chopping up raw chicken for dinner, he’ll ask for a taste, then tell me “cook it first”. 

He’s started using “I” occasionally.  I go downstairs, I sit down, I hit Daddy (ha).

He’s starting to be more aware of directions.  Spotting an image of a bird on something – “I see bird on there”, and “trees up there”, “dirt down there”, “shoes over there”, and will “put rocks in there” as he’s stuffing rocks into his watering can.

He’s discovered that Daddy fixes things.  Our truck battery died the other day, and all day it was “Daddy fix it truck”.  Daddy fixed the light in his bedroom, he fixed the gate outside, and he “fixed baby’s foot” by pulling a splinter out.  He’s so obsessed with his Daddy and talks about him pretty much nonstop.  All day it’s “Daddy’s at work.  Daddy ridin’ black jeep.  Daddy home, hug baby.  Daddy play on couch.  Daddy’s guitar.  Call Daddy on phone.  Wha’ Daddy doin’?”.  

He’ll ask “Where Mimi go?”, “Wha’ Eddie doin’?”.

He skinned his knees a while ago, but still talks about his “bo-bo’s”.  He’ll tell me, “Ow, bo-bo hurts”, then pull his pants up and show me his scars.  Mommy happily gives him kisses to make it better.

Recently, when he was trying to figure something out, he asked me “How it works?” and then told me, “Mommy’s help you with how it works!”

For the first time the other day, he told me “don’t like it!” after I made him some chai tea (He was hoping for lemonade.), and after he tries something new will say “I like it!” if I ask him what he thinks.  We were eating on the deck and he wanted to get down and walk around, but take his food with him, so he clutched his cookie to his chest and told me “Walk around, take it with you”.

He’s gotten so good at saying thank you, and he truly knows what it means and it sounds so heartfelt coming from his little mouth.  Daddy will hand him something and to hear “Thank’um Daddy!” and see him smile so brightly just makes my day.  We’ve been working on manners out and about too, and in Target the other day he told the cashier, “Thank you man”, so I corrected him and told him to say thank you sir.  The next time we were out, he actually said it properly!  Of course, the cashier was blown away ;).  And Isaac just eats up their positive reactions.

Most days, I just can’t even believe the kinds of things that come out of his mouth.  I love hearing everything new that he comes up with.

He is such a sweet little cuddlebug.  Occasionally, he’ll say tell me, “I love you Mommy”, and when he does it just makes me melt :).

I can’t believe our little man is two years old.  Wow.