He still has a huge obsession for anything with motors or wheels. Trains, planes, motorcycles, bulldozers, dump trucks, garbage trucks, excavators; you name it he loves it!
Over Christmas we got one of those HotWheels race tracks and he loves it. We've set up in our playroom downstairs and he's termed at as "real racing". We've set up to do a jump and one of my favorite things he does is when we ask him if a car has the power. If it makes the jump he excitedly says "yes" (insert a little tiny lisp on the s too) and if it doesn't make the jump he shakes his head and says "no power". Too funny!
He is definitely growing in his vocabulary every day. He still is our little parrot and literally repeats everything you say. He has just started repeating prayers which is just the cutest. One of my favorite experiences with his growing language is when we were driving home from Montana for Christmas he had a little puking episode and I would guess it was a combination of drinking milk and getting car sick. When he puked all down his arm, he kept saying over and over "a spill it", "a spill it". As sad as it was that he just puked everywhere it was still pretty funny to hear that over and over.
Josh also continues to grow in his smarts. He knows all of his letters and sounds really well, he knows all of his shapes including pentagon, hexagon, octagon and trapezoid. He counts good to 40 and can sometime even make it to 50. He is learning how to draw his letters when we do school with him, for instance to draw an H he'll say, down down cross while drawing it in the air with his fingers. So smart and I'm so proud of him. He's just a sponge and so we have been trying to teach him as much as we can while he's enjoying it. He memorized his books quickly and loves to have us read to him.
One thing I've found I haven't taught him though, is how to dress and undress himself. I've come to realize I've done a huge disservice by not doing that sooner. As you can see from pictures below, he now expects me to do everything for him and if I don't he just cries and whines until I do. Ha! We'll have to work on that.
Josh is still in a really challenging picky eater phase. Like I've told many people around me, this is the most challenging thing I've been faced with in parenthood so far. The things that get me are, he refuses foods he has eaten and loved before (over the past month or so i feel like he's limited his foods even more), he is ornery and fussy because he's hungry but doesn't recognize it and that I can't be in control of the situation.
Most days I've just about given up and give in to something he'll eat so I can have my happy child back. But then other days I'm at my wit's end and so frustrated that I give him something and if he doesn't eat I make him sit and cry for 15 minutes then let him down with nothing to eat. He doesn't even budge though. he could go 2-3 attempts without eating and still not eat the next time around.
We've tried all the approaches of putting introductory food out multiple times with foods he loves and he'll supposedly eventually try them. This does not work with Josh. I've put the same introductory food on his plate, 10,15, maybe even 20+ times and he still won't touch it. If I try to talk him into it that just makes him more upset and defiant. He doesn't take bribes of dessert or candy for even trying just 1 bite of food. My gut is that he has an extremely strong fear of food, new food and texture.
If anyone else has had an issue like this, any guidance or advice is much appreciated. Most days I come to the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that big of deal. And that all I can do is keep trying, and try not to stress about it because other people in the world have much bigger issues than a picky 2 year old.
Overall though, josh really is a great kid. He's social, fun-loving and happy. He loves his family and it has been fun for us to watch him remember names and people in our family including all of his aunts, uncles and grandparents.
I couldn't imagine life without my little buddy. What a blessing he is in our family.
I understand your food situation 100%. My boy use to eat lots of diff foods before he was 1. Since then he has gotten really picky. It got really bad until the summer before his 3rd birthday. Now it's a little better. He would cry and gag/throw up every time I would try and get him to eat something he wasn't a fan off. For him textures are a big issue. I finally would just ask him do you want this(what we were all eating) or would you like something else healthy? He would always say something else. The one day he picked what I was eating. I was so shocked. Since then he has surprised me and asked to try 1 bite of the 'new' food. Not all the time but hey it's progress right? He doesn't gag anymore which is a big relief. So my advice is give it time. I also found praying to be helpful:) praying for patience and praying that he would at least try something new. Hope things get better!
ReplyDelete