Hank - 2 years

Our little boy turned 2 years old on December 3rd!  Two!

Stats:
Weight:  26 lbs 11 oz  (35.55%)  he was 7% at the one year mark!
Height:  35.5” (83.20%)
Head:  19.49” (73.93%)

Random stuff about Hank at age 2…

Sliding - He is really into sliding on the floor.  He slides on the wood floor by taking a running start down the hall and then goes to his knees and slides as far as he can go.  Sometimes he pushes his big dump truck really fast on the wood floors and then takes off sliding behind it.  He thinks it is so hilarious when he slides.  He slides so fast and hard that he sometimes hurts himself by hitting his head or sliding into a wall.  He whimpers for a moment, gets up and starts sliding again.  He also slides on the carpet when he is playing football or baseball.

Football – He has seen quite a few football games on TV and this has led him to try to play football by himself.  (My sis Court also helped him refine his technique when she was in town a couple of months ago and he has been honing his skills ever since.)  He pretends he is playing quarterback.  He holds his football, spreads his legs, hikes it to himself, makes grunting/huffing noises, runs around in the pocket, passes it (basically just throws it haphazardly somewhere), then falls to the ground as if he were tackled.  When he plays football with Brett, he tells Brett where to stand so that he can tackle him.

Baseball – He got a t-ball set for Christmas from my mom but before he had the real equipment he would take any long object that would work as a bat and use it with any ball.  He loves to swing the bat and even if he doesn’t hit a ball, he will run and slide as if he is sliding into a base.  He's got a pretty good slide technique with  one leg out in front of him and one tucked underneath him. 

Trucks – Are still a big obsession.  He has several dump truck toys and he plays with every one of them each and every day.  When out and about in the neighborhood or on a ride in the car, he still points out every bus, fire engine, bulldozer and trash truck that we see.

Trains – We got him a Thomas the Train set for his birthday and it has been a big hit.  It essentially kicked off an interest in all things Thomas overnight.  He says “choo choo” lots and lots every day.

Sleep – His sleep has been crazy the past few months since the girls were born.  Around Thanksgiving he decided that he would use his jumping out of the crib powers constantly.  Oh how I thought I was going to lose my mind.  It was taking 30-45 minutes to get him to stay in bed and go to sleep for naps and bedtime.  He was waking up at all hours of the night and showing up in our bedroom.  We had to get a crib tent to keep him in his crib.  He’s not ready to go to a big boy bed.  Rather, we’re not ready to take the time to train him to stay in a big boy bed.  The crib tent is totally ridiculous looking and we even had to buy a new crib just to use it.  But we needed a second crib for the girls anyway.  It took a few days but he goes to sleep right away like he used to and that is just what we need!  This little guy is very happy almost all the time but when he wakes up he is cranky and had a frown on his face.  He screams at the top of his lungs for us to come get him.  Lately he has started waking up before 6 am on most days.  It’s really great.  Since the girls have been born he wants to sleep with a hat on his head because the girls used to wear hats.  Sometimes it’s a beanie, sometimes it’s a baseball cap.

Mommy/Daddy – Sometimes he wants only his Mommy and sometimes he wants only his Daddy.  Usually he wants his Mommy.  When he wants to be only with me and if Brett comes in to the room he says “out, out, out” and he waves his arm and points to the door.  We have been trying to let Hank know that he’s not the boss. Ha!  In the afternoons he usually wants his Daddy and I have to say over and over "Daddy is at work, he will be home later."  We stand vigil at his bedroom window looking for Daddy's car a lot.

Bible stories - For the past month or so we read from his little Bible story book at every nap and bed time, per his request, and we read the same four or five pages out of the book each time.

Door locks – No standard door lock can stop him.  Only childproofing locks positioned high up on the door can keep this kid from opening a door.  We have to lock him out of our bedroom so that he doesn’t go in our room to wake up the sisters.  Last week I found him out in the middle of our driveway so we had to install another lock high up on the outside doors to keep him inside the house!

Screwdrivers – We have to hide them or else he will try to use it on everything in the house that looks like a screw.  That’s not a big deal per se, but I don’t’ like to see him running around with a screwdriver pointing at his face!

Sisters – Big time obsessed with them.  Loves to know what his sisters are doing all the time.

Kisses - Gives me kisses on the lips for no reason at all throughout the day.  I love this to no end!

Eating – He eats only when necessary.  Snacks he loves, but he takes forever to eat his meals because he’d rather play and get up and down from the table in between bites.

Talking - He is talking a lot and says so many sentences now. But there are still times when he can’t find the words to tell us what he wants and he just acts it out with hand motions.  When we don’t understand him he gets so frustrated and it breaks my heart.  Today he said “pway” which means “play”.  It was so cute.  We were out in the back yard and he wouldn’t come inside when I asked (imagine that!).  He said “I wanna pway”.  First time he has said that word!  He is getting better at saying please and thank you.  But he doesn’t do it all the time.

Giving instructions – He likes to give us instructions.  When he wants us to sit by him when he is playing, he will say “sit” and pat the spot next to him with his hand.  When we are driving somewhere, he thinks he knows the way to go.  He says “no, go that way” and he gets very upset and starts kicking his feet.  It’s as if he really thinks he knows which way we should go.  Totally cracks me up every time even though he is really in a tizzy.

Singing – He sings a lot.  He doesn’t sing all the words to songs but he does a lot of humming and loud noises mixed with words.  He also bobs his head along and goes side to side.  I absolutely love it when he is singing because his face is so sweet and there is this innocence about him.  He sings the theme songs to the Curious George and Thomas the Train shows whenever he watches them.  He also loves to sing nursery rhyme songs.

Clothing – He is very particular about what he wears now.  It’s sometimes hard to get him to wear what we want so we are trying to let him pick out his clothes.

Trader Joe's - He loves to go to Trader Joe's, the grocery store we go to all the time.  Right when we walk in the door of the store he starts pointing to the direction of where the free samples are.  He wants to eat snacks instantly.

The Park - If given the opportunity, he would run straight to the park down the street every time we walked out of our house.  This makes leaving the house and getting him loaded into the car a very carefully planned event on our part.

“Two” - Instead of saying “more”, he now says “two”.  It’s as if he has made the connection that two means more than one.  He will still do the sign for “more” but he hardly ever says the word “more”.

Nicknames - Brett and I call Henry by a lot of different names - Hank (obviously!), Henrique (my personal fave), Hen, Henny, Baby Cakes, Sweets, Buddy Boy, Bubba, Sunshine

He is such a big boy now.  It's so crazy to think that he's 2 years old.  We just love this little guy so very much.  We are so proud to be his parents!


-a