Weight: 29 lbs. He hasn’t really gained a lot of weight, but I feel like he has gotten a lot taller.

Health:  We continued the roller coaster of health issues these last two months. George got the worst case of Hand-Foot-Mouth that our doctor has ever seen. (Of course he did.) He has been over it for a few weeks, and you can still see scars from the blisters. It was awful. George seemed unaffected and was excited about the extra days at home that we had him quarantined. George underwent his first “surgery” last week and got tubes put in his ears. He did so great with being put under and didn’t even cry. Hopefully this will help keep the ear infections and other sickness at bay.

Diet: His diet is the worst. He will eat whatever the sitter gives him, but refuses to eat anything but cheerios, yogurt, and smoothies at home. We can sometimes get him to eat chicken and pasta, but it is never predictable. He will drink so much liquids throughout the day. He sucks juice, water, tea, and milk down like it’s his job. He is obsessed with condiments/dipping sauces. He will dip anything into ketchup (like his mama).  It is very frustrating to feed him. Tonight I had given up feeding him actual meals after how lunch and breakfast had gone (very poorly), but then he ate more chicken enchiladas than I did. Toddler taste buds are a mystery.

Clothes:  George is in 2T clothing for everything now. He is still in size 5 diapers, but we do size 6 at night. He is in a size 6 shoe. He is looking less babyish and more big kid.

Sleeping:  He sleeps at night from 8pm-about 6:30 am. He sleeps through the night pretty regularly still. He goes down really easy at night. Naps are a little tricky. Sometimes he goes down easy for naps, but if we throw his schedule off even a little bit, he will play in his crib for hours before falling asleep. He just sits in there playing with his stuffed animals, jumping, or reading books. He has yet to climb out of his crib, but I am thinking those days are numbered.

Likes: He loves the outdoors and Tom’s shop. He loves the UPS man. The other day he cried when he (UPS man) left the street, like big fat whopping tears. He is obsessed with legos and his fire truck. He loves taking his shoes and socks off in the car. He is still a big reader. He likes doing dishes with me. He pushes the chair over and actually tries scrubbing the dishes.

Dislikes: He hates mornings right now. He throws the largest tantrums when he gets up and refuses to not be held. He is not happy when we tell him no and try to keep him from doing dangerous things. He is a sassy pants when he doesn’t get to do what he wants right then. He despises getting his teeth brushed. (It’s also my least favorite part of the day…) He hates the deep end at the pool. He doesn’t mind pools as long as he can touch the bottom on his own. He even went down the slide at the no entry side. But for me to hold him in the deep end during swim lessons, no bueno. He has a death grip on us the whole class period.

Milestones: Gosh he talks a lot. Most of it is unrecognizable, but he is a chatty little guy. His new words are thank you, bite, good job, bubba (bubbles), juice, Grace, cheese, alright, green, blue, two, and mine. He knows a couple animal noises now. He can do a cow, sheep, and dog noises. It is so funny hearing him say bye to everyone. He screams it several times before leaving the house. He can get the milk and juice out of the fridge and put it on the counter. We started swim lessons, as a said above he does not appreciate this time. This last week he was a little better and tried blowing bubbles but he is definitely not a fan of this time. He is starting to really recognize folks that he hasn’t seen in awhile. We stopped potty training, which I guess is an un-milestone. He went on the potty for two weeks and then all of a sudden decided he would never do it again. So we pushed pause on it, and we have just gone back to asking if he needs to go and waiting for him to run to the bathroom. This is fine with us because the original plan wasn’t to start until well after he was 2, and to be honest closer to 3. He has “chores” now. He gets the dog food when the bowl is empty and helps load the washer and dryer with laundry. He takes these jobs very seriously. He smiles for the camera now, while saying cheese.

Quirks: He is super shy and doesn’t like big crowds. However, when he warms up to you, he loves really hard. When he is sad, a sure fire way to get him out a funk is to play hide and seek. His tantrums are pretty ridiculous. We think it comes from the fact that he really wants to do things on his own and be independent, even if he shouldn’t be doing it on his own. He also isn’t the best at communicating, so sometimes all this frustration comes out in a throw himself on the floor tantrum. When he is really investigating something, he lays flat on the floor to get a really close-up look. He is a very hands-on guy who loves to see every detail. While there are a lot of mentions of tantrums in this post, for the most part if he is exploring he is the happiest guy out there. I just love watching his face light up. He warms my heart.

Nicknames:  Booger, Gdubs, Gman, Little man, Georgie, Georgieman, and Boogs.

We parents are:  Our schedules are a little wild right now, so things have been weird at our house with a lot of rearranging of schedules. We are also ready for a month where George isn’t sick since that is super stressful on so many levels. George has been very clingly lately and is definitely becoming a momma’s boy. I have a love/hate relationship with this kind of attention. While I am loving that he wants my comfort and he finds safety from me, it does make it hard to walk alone, get something out of the fridge with two hands, eat a meal where he isn’t sitting in my lap…it can just be exhausting at times for him to want to be on my hip 24/7. The death grip hugs are nice though. Like I said, he loves hard. We also are looking forward to the day where we can go to a restaurant where someone doesn’t have to go “walk” George during the meal.

The dogs are: loving summer. George loves the dogs. He gets so excited to let them outside. He thinks trying to ride them is his job. Grace will let him do it, and is so patient with him. Crosby gets up and moves away the second George tries to get on him.

Don’t mind me, I will be over here wiping up my tears knowing that he will be 2 in two months. I will take one of those hard hugs now Gman.