Look at the big boy I have on my hands these days!  Colin is growing like a weed and acting like such a true toddler these days!  He is like a sponge, soaking up words and new concepts.

Thankfully, we have had two healthy months, so we haven’t had an occasion to go to the doctor for a weigh in, but judging by my growing biceps, I can say that he is becoming one big dude.  He has grown at least an inch, if not more, and while it is hard to assess growth when you see someone every day, all of our friends are marveling at how he is stretching in height. I am amazed that his weight has remained consistent (if not heavier), because C has more energy than almost any other toddler his age that we have encountered in play group or class.  He is constantly running, jumping, chasing and spinning in circles.  He must burn a zillion calories a day in his 9-10 waking hours.  It is incredible.

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As he gets older, he is asserting more independence, and we regularly hear the phrase, “I do it!”  While he is often overly ambitious about the things he thinks he can accomplish solo (peeling a clementine, putting on his own socks, buckling his car seat), there are things he is getting so much better at: walking up and down the stairs while holding my hand, mastering his spoon and fork with more grace, and taking out and setting up his coloring supplies.  He will announce, “I shoveling!” as he “helps” his dad deal with the ever-accumulating snow, his favorite winter activity.

Colin’s language skills have continued to evolve, and the biggest change is the beginnings of sentences.  His first original sentence that he created on his own was, “I like cheese!” and now, he is a total chatterbox. He finds ways to turn every word into a verb (doing dot art = “I dots-ing”) which is so silly and cute, and he doesn’t stop speaking from morning until night. He can count to 11, sing the ABC’s (except P and Y…?) and sing along with his favorite tunes on Pandora.

Sleep has remained fairly consistent, although we have had several week-long stretches with unusually early and then unusually late wake times.  I am still waiting for that magic moment where my child sleeps from 7 to 7, or even for him to have a 100% consistent wake-up time.  Barring illness or unique circumstance, Colin sleeps all night, but he still seems like he would fit in better with the Twine family’s farmers hours with what I imagine are early mornings.  Thankfully, I am an early riser naturally (probably where he gets it from), and as I have mentioned, early mornings help to ensure that he sees his daddy each day.

Winter in the Confetti house = Football Football Football.  This boy is absolutely obsessed.  He watched every weekend with his dad, and when he wasn’t watching, he was throwing, catching and basically playing fetch with himself.  He will sit and “read” his NFL ABC’s book for long stretches of time.  For Hanukkah, Colin’s grandparents got him his new KidKraft kitchen, and he will bang around in there independently as well.  He likes to cook bok bok (chicken), fry eggies and pour pretend cereal for his mom.

In the real kitchen, Colin continues to show signs of pickiness, although it ebbs and flows.  I can never predict what he will willingly eat anymore – what he loves today, he rejects tomorrow.  I just keep offering, and thankfully, he will consistently eat dairy and fruit, so I know he won’t starve.  When he sees me eating anything, he usually wants it, so I tend to eat my meals with him for breakfast and lunch.  During dinner, he eats while I straighten up the house and cook, so that doesn’t always work as well, but we continue to make small improvements on the food front.

Finally, behavior.  Oh, toddlerhood.  I wrote about my dabbling in different discipline strategies here, and this continues to be a challenge.  My child is a kid who experiences very high highs and very low lows.  When he is happy, he is over the moon, brimming with excitement and shrieking with joy (yay).  But when he is upset, whether he is struggling with something on his own or displeased with my attempts to stop him from doing something dangerous or inappropriate, he will let you know.  He is quick to react and is not shy about sharing his disappointment.  This has been my greatest challenge at this stage, but hey, at least it keeps life interesting!