Dallen at 2 years!

Having a 2 year old is so amazing. They learn at such a faster rate now, that almost every day I'm surprised at the things he's saying and doing. He talks all the time. His jibber jabber has at least one or two words in it that I understand so I get the gist of what he's talking about. He loves to tell either Travis or I what he's been up to when he comes back from doing something fun with one of us or the other. He likes to have jibber jabber conversations too. It's even amazing to me that he knows how to communicate by conversing. 

We got him an ipad around Christmas and he's learned how to play all the learning games on there in just a few weeks. He can totally navigate the device all on his own as well. That has been amazing to watch as well. He loves the 'pad' especially when he gets to watch his movies on it. He's rotated through quite a few favorites in the last few months- Bolt, Rio, Tangled, Tarzan, Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story. He stuck with Bolt and Rio for a really long time and is pretty attached to 'Dori' (Finding Nemo) now. 

As for eating, he's pretty picky like most kids are I guess. He rotates through the typical lunches- mac and cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, PB&J, and Flautas. He loves the meatball from my spaghetti and is into dipping things. He especially loves salsa. He eats grapefruit almost every morning but use to have a Danimal yogurt smoothie every morning a couple months ago. He isn't a big breakfast eater anymore but use to love eggs. His favorite veggie and almost only veggie he likes is corn on the cob. On occasion I can get him to eat something else but that is rarely. He moved from his booster seat at the table to a step stool at the counter and now to a chair at the table. He still uses the step stool and stands and eats every now and then, but I realized that was a bad habit to continue so I'm trying to focus on eating at the table more. We took the bottle away at 23 months but he still likes his sippy cup with milk when he's sleepy. The binky is a whole other story. He's addicted. He only gets it when he's sleeping and right after he wakes up, but he sure does throw a fit every single time we take it away.

I can FINALLY say he's sleeping through the night. He's loved his crib now for a long time, but just couldn't get himself back to sleep in the middle of the night for a long time there. In just the last few weeks he hasn't woken up at all but it was a slow tapering out. I'm definitely enjoying my full nights sleep. 

Dallen is a very active little boy and loves to run run run. We take him hiking with us, and he does pretty well keeping up. He loves pushing his trucks down the street and whenever we go on walks he wants to push something. He loves 'swimming' and says it with so much excitement. He loves to throw rocks in the creek and when we took him fishing for the first time he couldn't get enough of throwing rocks in the lake. He loves the dirt and will play on the mini BMX track behind our neighbor's house, pushing his trucks around for quite awhile.  He loves horses, use to be fascinated with brushing his teeth, he loves to slide and climb, he loves the 'Beet Bee' (ATV's), and loves to follow his Dad around the garage fixing things, stealing Daddy's tools. It's adorable. He still loves the game 'I'm gonna get you' and will go run and hide in Daddy's clothes hanging in the closet. He's starting to play make believe a little bit with his trucks and animal figurines and plays alone better than ever now.

He's got a few funny quirks too- like if his blankets are messed up in his crib when I take him out he has me make his bed for him before we leave the room. He likes to line toys up too. Already mister organized. :D

Potty training is around the corner. I've been sticking him on his little potty for about 6 months now right before bath time. It's now become part of the bath time routine and he loves it. He recently learned how to say 'pee' and is catching on to going in the potty. I think I'm waiting until he has a few more potty words and will listen to me or understand me a little better. Not looking forward to potty training, but this before bath time method has been a pretty good buffer.

It's crazy how much more we love him and love seeing him learn and develop so well. We're such lucky parents.