Conor turns 2!

Conor turned 2 and it seems like every day he is showing us that he really is on the verge of learning new things and how to do different things on his own. We ask him to turn off the tv and he grabs the remote and knows which button to push. He can use a mouse with a little success. He definitely knows how to turn on the computer, to get it ready for us to take him to Youtube so he can watch helicopters and airplanes. He attempts to put his shoes on himself and almost has his coat figured out too.

He picks up his books and sits with them telling himself what the story is about. He even pointed out a major plot detail in Goodnight Gorilla that I had completely missed (my little genius!). If the cd player was at his level, I'm sure he would be regularly choosing cds to put in and play. I already know we're going to have arguments about volume in the future. In the car on the way to daycare he calls out the names of songs he wants me to play from his Sesame Street cd. "Cookie" he calls from the back seat, which is my cue to forward to C is for Cookie by Cookie Monster. "Ernie" he says which means he wants to hear the rubber ducky song. And just this morning he said something about trash. I asked him if he wanted the Oscar song and he said, "yeah." The Oscar song is I love Trash. Of course nothing takes precedent over Elmo, and we must listen to Elmo's song twice as many times as all the other songs combined. Sometimes I tell him Elmo needs to take a potty break, and then I sneak in one of my songs.

We love our little two year old! I hope I can find the time to type up some of the other fun things he has been sharing with us.

2011 - Must be time for the terrible two's

Conor turns 2 mid-month, but that hasn't stopped us from complaining about the "terrible 2's" for a couple months now. I think I witnessed his first real tantrum around 18 months. He may not have been an early walker, but tantrums he picked up on easy as you please. So far we have been lucky in that the tantrums have occurred mostly at home. They're easier to laugh off at home, so I'm thinking we'll try to go from home to daycare back home again as much as possible and stay in most of the year. It will make it a quiet social year, but look at all the money we'll save.

Seriously, Conor isn't too bad even in the middle of a good crying session. If the tantrum is about something we're not willing to give in on, it doesn't take long to divert his attention to something else. A good (fake) belly chop from my husband usually has him giggling pretty quick.

The other day he refused to let me help him put his coat on. He couldn't do it himself, and finally said, "need help." Usually tantrums with me are over changing his diaper or getting dressed. Some parents say to just hand the kid an interesting toy to distract him. Ha ha ha, that worked up until a few months ago. I have to do a lot of Oscar winning acting to make a toy seem fascinating enough for him to hold while I put a new diaper on. My cell phone usually quiets him in 2 seconds but then I have to figure out how to turn off the auto-correct feature he managed to turn on.

So far there hasn't been anything too terrible that we've experienced, and I think the more language Conor acquires he'll be able to tell us what is wrong or what he wants. Hopefully he'll be open to the idea of negotiation and power sharing too. I promise I won't throw a tantrum if it doesn't happen.