I can’t believe [as of last week] we have a two-year-old. While he’s still in diapers, he’s rapidly leaving the baby stage behind, which means I find him way more fun each day. All of a sudden, he’s able to truly communicate and it’s cool to see that he has opinions and preferences. He also continues to be an easy kid and has spent two full years bringing joy to everyone around him.
Reflections
- The Terrible Twos started a bit early. At 19 months, everything was “no.” He gets a kick out refusing to do something and coyly responds no to pretty much anything we say.
- While the onslaught of “no” makes it seem like we’re entering tough territory, Finn started hugging me about two weeks later. He has always been a very happy and silly kid but has never been a touchy-feely kid (takes after me in that respect). Getting a hug from him – a physical marker of his love – is very special.
- Also around the same time, the AC in Finn’s room broke in the middle of the night and we moved him into the pack and play in the living room because he was starting to overheat. He woke up just as we were finishing the transfer and started screaming. I could tell he wasn’t going to stop, so I picked him up and laid on the couch with him on my chest. He immediately stopped crying. I’m sure part of it is because he was a great sleeper from day one, part of it is because he’s always been partial to Albert, and part of it is probably because he can sense I’m not a baby person – whatever the reason, he’s never needed to be rocked/comforted like that and had never – not once in 19 months – stopped crying just because I held him. Feeling needed and special was the most magical moment. It was truly a motherhood game changer for me.
- I’m actually starting to enjoy hanging out with him. He has his own way of communicating that I can understand and when I heard him request a specific snack for the first time, that pretty much unlocked a new level. I’ve always known I love kids and have been so excited to have one of my own. More and more he’s shifting from baby to kid and that is AWESOME.
- He’s an observer. He’s very intrigued by big kids (especially boys – he’s always gravitated more toward dudes) but will stand back and watch before trying to play, especially if it’s someone new. He’s the same with new activities. He hung off to the side for the first few bubble parties at school…then he joined like a wrecking ball.
- His immediate crew goes beyond Mommy and Daddy. As an only child, he doesn’t have a sibling to be a built-in playmate, but that doesn’t mean he’s lonely or dealing with a super smalI crew. He’s embraced others, like Mimi and Jefe, into his inner circle and it’s cool to see.
- I’m still in awe of how easy he is. He sleeps like a CHAMP – 12 hours every night plus a nap that we have to wake him up from after 3 hours. And yet, when we want to hang out with friends he’s cool to push the nap without a meltdown and adapts right back to the schedule. He does cry for under two minutes every time he goes down and that’s because he has the most severe case of fomo I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t want to miss a minute of the fun – he’s got two social parents so this shouldn’t be surprising.
Stats
- Weight: 32 lbs, 7 oz (91st percentile)
- Height: 91 cm (86th percentile) – basically 3 feet!
- Shoe Size: 7/7.5
- Vocabulary: We got a mini rush of words at 19 months. Sure, very few of them are correct, but now we sood had agua (water), bebbies (berries/fruit), cackers (crackers), manna (banana), owl, and cheese. Just a few months later, at two, he’s now got at least 215.
Our Faves
- Fruit: He could eat pounds and pounds in a single sitting. Other favorite foods include cheese, noo noos (pasta), pizza, meatballs, and salmon. Cucumber and raw tomoato are no-gos, as is broccoli lately. Honestly, he’s suddenly not into most veggies, but I’m sure that’ll turn around eventually.
- Encanto: We only do tv on the weekends and while he always begged for it, his attention span was very short. As he approached 20 months, he was able to sit for more than 10 minutes, which bodes well for future plane trips. He’s particularly interested in things with song breaks and tries to hum along to the Pete the Cat (or as he says, “Pee Caa”) theme and bounces/hums to the songs in Encanto (or, “Toto”), which is constantly requested. Bao is a new favorite.
- Water Play: I was so happy to see that Finn wasn’t afraid of the beach or the pool.
- Halloween Decorations: He loved pointing out the ghosts, spiders, and pumpkins and was so sad when they were suddenly gone on November 1st.
- Stickers: We subscribe to a monthly activity box and his favorite activities are always the ones with stickers. He’s generally more into fine motor things and music.
- Books: I love that he loves to read! We always do several books at night and he pretty much demands we read to him while he eats.
- Dogs: He’s into dogs and loves the chance to pet them. Fluffy ones are right up his alley.
- Closing Doors: Finn makes sure every door he sees is closed. It’s a cute little quirk. He also enjoys cleaning up (which is why we gave him a wooden cleaning set for his birthday).
The Celebration
- The Theme: Encan-TWO. Finn Doesn’t get a ton of screentime (despite his best efforts) but he is absolutely obsessed with Encanto, or as he calls it, “Toto.” He begs me to sing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” on every walk and loves afternoon dance parties to the full soundtrack. While the movie takes place in Colombia, there’s a Mexican restaurant in our neighbood called Encanto de Lola with similar vibes – the synergy was too perfect! We reserved a few tables from 4-6 pm and invited his little friends to hang for some post-nap fun. The point of the party was for all the kiddos to have fun so we also gathered family together on Sunday at our pizza place (where we’ve come bond with the owners and other regulars) for an intimate celebration.
- The Invitations: Last year’s party was a big bash, mostly to celebrate us making it one full year as parents so I went all out designing, printing, and mailing unique invitations. This year, we wanted to keep things very lowkey and simple – and that included the invites. I updated a template I found online and then screenshot it, sent it to myself, and texted it out. I was too lazy/cheap to print and mail or even send as a paperless post. Being a parent is all about efficiency, right?
- The Decor: Because the restaurant’s color scheme was already on point, I just ordered some colorful garlands and a “2” balloon that we taped up a few minutes before the party. (Honestly, there was so much decor already in the restaurant that we didn’t use the garlands/paper decorations – they’re stashed safely in the closet for a future party.)
- The Entertainment: Two-year-olds have very short attention spans so I didn’t care to spend all the money on someone dressed up like one of the characters. Instead, I planned a couple short activities based on what I’ve seen them enjoy at school/home.
- Finn loves playing with stickers and I happened to find some that featured the Madrigal family. Even if he doesn’t get the concept of placing the facial features/accessories on the characters’ faces, he’s happy just to be placing stickers on paper.
- They often do “bubble party” at school so I got a bubble gun to recreate the activity. We did it with the movie soundtrack in the background to combine it with the dance parties that Finn enjoys so much.
- I ordered cardboard toilet paper tubes and some dried beans. The kids could put butterflies (a theme of the movie) on the tubes, fill with beans, and seal with painter’s tape – easy noisemaker.
- In the movie, Luisa is always hauling donkeys somewhere so we decided to [attempt to] play pin the tail on the donkey.
- The restaurant happened to already have a guitar player scheduled since it was a Saturday evening so we took advantage – the kids absolutely loved it and we lucked out with free entertainment.
- The Food: Because of the timing of the party, we didn’t need to do a true meal. Instead, we got some chips and guac and some quesadillas/fajitas cut small to share. Adults could order whatever they wanted from the bar, and of course we had cake. (Turns out Finn is NOT into the attention. The minute the singing/candle started, he lost his mind. He swatted everything off the table and hid with his head down on a chair. I then realized that when I joined his mini party at school the day before, he quietly walked away during the birthday song. Not his thing and I can totally respect that. Eating the cake? Now that he loved.)
- The Goody Bags: I filled colorful bags with slime, Encanto-themed stamps, and treats like granola minis and Annie’s snacks.
Peaches to Apples 