Miles: 2 years

I love having a two-year-old. And I hate having a two-year-old.

He is so fast to figure things out now, especially words, but he is also becoming too independent for my taste. Sure, he still lets me snuggle him occasionally, but it’s becoming a battle to convince him to hold my hand in parking lots or anyway that I don’t want him running around. He wants to do most things by himself, but can’t always do what he is trying to do. He gets easily frustrated, so we’ve been working hard on reminding him to ask for help instead of whining. It’s a challenge. But I think “help” is the cutest word he says. The tantrums are different now, but still manageable. He luckily doesn’t throw fits much out of the house, just when we’re here alone and he’s bored with me or doesn’t understand why I won’t let him have five pouches of apple sauce for a morning snack.

He still loves to play with cars, and watch both Cars movies, but has just started branching out the world of trains. Unfortunately, I would rather watch Cars (even the one with too much Mater) 400 times than listen to the Thomas the Train narrator. Why are those trains always cross?

He is making huge strides with his speech; his speech therapist says she wouldn’t be surprised if he no longer needs services when pre-school comes around in a year. He’s finally string two words together, but we still have a long way to go. But he definitely babbles a lot more as he gets more confident with his ability to make the right sounds.

He loves his Dada more than me, I think. If Chris is home when Miles wakes up in the morning, he will take cars or books into bed with Chris and spend sometimes 30 minutes in there. Lots of times they watch YouTube videos on Chris’s phone of trains, Elmo, trucks, Muppets, etc.

He loves to play outside, even if he’s just throwing rocks in window wells in the backyard. He loves the park and will go down all of the slides now, but gets easily overheated (just like his mom) and has to leave earlier than he would like. I’m looking forward to having a nice yard and patio that he can play in this summer once we move into the new house. I thought about getting him a balance bike, but because he’s not the most coordinated kid in the world, I don’t think he’s ready. I mean, this kid hasn’t even tried to climb out of this crib because I think he knows he can’t do it.

We love having him in our family and hope that he adjusts well to being a big brother. We’ll enjoy our last few months of spending time alone with our Miles Man.