( I have started and added to this multiple times since Jan 25th, but it's DONE! yaya!)
I didn't think Rowan had changed much since his 2nd birthday, but then I went back to look at his pictures and realized how much bigger he's gotten! His face has become less round as have his little limbs.
I didn't think Rowan had changed much since his 2nd birthday, but then I went back to look at his pictures and realized how much bigger he's gotten! His face has become less round as have his little limbs.
2 1/2 is FUN! I would take 2.5 over 18 months any day. I think I have a little bit of PTSD from 16 months-18 months with Row. Don't get me wrong, we still have plenty of difficult things happening at this age, but they are so much easier to deal with. When Rowan punches Sel or I in the face, I can exact a punishment that he understands. When I ask him why he's in timeout, he can tell me why. Reasoning with him and distracting him are amazing tactics at deflating tantrums. If I can usually calm myself down and employ imagination of any sort, the crisis is generally averted. It's when I continue to stay on the same train of disaster that things get hairy.
Rowan is POTTY TRAINED! He did it completely and utterly by himself. It blew us away. The day I packed up the car to drive to my parents (the launching pad to our 4 months away from home) he straight up refused to put on a diaper. I was fairly exasperated since Sel was gone on the interview trail, packing stresses me out like no other, and we were about to drive for two hours. I had already decided we would attack potty-training, saying goodbye to the binky, and moving to a big-boy bed AFTER our trip. I relented to his dictator demands and we headed out. He announced an hour in that he needed to pee so we stopped at a rest stop. Ten minutes later, he said he needed to go again. I assumed he just wanted to get out of the car and told him he didn't. Never tell Rowan how he feels or what he is experiencing. He peed a teeny-tiny bit and impressively held it until I pulled off so he could finish emptying his bladder. Since then we've maybe had 6 accidents total...over 2.5 months! His pull-up is consistently dry in the mornings too! He got a reward for going #2 for four days in the beginning, but I don't think he really needed the motivation. Rowan has been like this his entire little life. When he decides to do something, he does it. Until then, good freaking luck.
Imaginative play has taken off the last month for Rowan. It is so much easier these days for him to entertain himself. I love hearing him have his toys talk to one another.
Rowan is somehow getting sweeter everyday. Today at the zoo, without me asking him to, he started pushing open all the doors for me so I could push the stroller through. My heart was pretty close to exploding as I watched him huff and puff to open the heavier doors while announcing "It's okay mommy! I'm strong!" I also told him the other day he was melting my heart and he bent down to kiss my chest "so my heart feel better". He prays regularly for one of the women I visit who is currently in a nursing home that her hip will get better. Gah. He is such a tender, lovable little guy.
We don't take naps anymore. 😥 He started to cut them off while we were in Idaho and hasn't picked them up again since we got back. It will happen once every 6-7 days where he will just announce he is "going to go a short rest". It still isn't easy though. Everyday around 3 or 4pm he is SO tired. If I try for a nap before that, he doesn't go for it because he can now get out of his crib. If I let him nap at 3 or 4pm, he's up until midnight. It sometimes feels like a lose-lose situation, but there are some positives. (Update). Rowan now sleeps in a big boy bed! He also got a roommate this week! Rowan sleeps in a bunk bed and Lyra got the crib. Sel insisted we buy Row a poster to hang above his bunk bed and I joked that he should pick out one of a girl in a bikini. Rowan picked out a Moana poster... who is a beautiful animated person in a sort of bikini.
Speaking of Moana, Row is still enamored with beautiful girls. We watch Princess Sofia because Row thinks she is pretty, but we only ever make it through ten minutes of that show-or any other show for that matter. We do not watch TV- not because we run a tight, educational parenting show over here, but because he loses interest immediately. He could play games on the ipad or my phone for days though. His current loves are Robot Unicorn and some Robot fighting game that Sel downloaded on my phone for him. He often asks me how to play whatever game he pulls up on there and I have NO idea. I will spend ten minutes or more with him trying to figure it out and I am pathetic
He is still a really amazing big brother. He likes to get Lyra toys when she cries and will try to make her life by saying "A booby-booby-booby" when she is really sad. He likes to try and pick her up and tackle her, which she weirdly LOVES. They rough house all day and she takes every accidental kick, punch, and getting rolled on top of with a giggle. It's when the kicks and punches are not accidental that she isn't such a huge fan. I've noticed Row attacks her most when he is craving my attention. When he does accidentally hurt her, he howls as if he is the one injured. It makes diffusing the situation a little crazy, but I ultimately don't mind holding both of my babies at the same time. He notices when she is gone and likes to update me on whether she is awake or asleep when we are driving. The other morning, I went in to their room (isn't that amazing the little pronoun slipped in there? THEIR room) and Lyra was standing in her crib chirping at Rowan and he was leaning over the side of his bed talking back to her. It was a beautiful, sweet scene. He also cried profusely tonight because I told him he couldn't call her a butthead (not sure where he learned that word..). No one is a perfect sibling, right?
He is one smart kid. We have trouble pulling much on him because he is so darn smart and has a memory to rival that of an elephant's. His imagination is exploding these days. He mostly enjoys shooting monsters, fighting dragons, shooting robots, and fighting people. Most of his play (alll of his play) is active. The kid doesn't sit down. At the pediatrician we found out he is 90% for height and 35% for weight. He has been on a fairly sharp downward curve for BMI. The doctor was only mildly concerned and encouraged us to keep feeding him three solid meals plus 1-2 snacks a day. She emphasized that hearing he keeps dropping should not mean we throw empty calories at the kid in hopes he gains weight (he gets too many of those as is). Sel is a PRO at getting Rowan to eat. It isn't that he straight out refuses to eat at meal times, he'll take 4-5 bites and having sat for five minutes, need to be on the move again. Sel came up with a came where Row is a Row-a-saurous and will climb under our kitchen table. When he needs a bite of food, Row will stamp his feet on the ground and Sel will feed him a bite. He also recently started needing "recharge" bites where he is fighting an invisible robot/monster/dragon during dinner and needs to restore health to keep fighting. Even though it is certainly an effort to get him to eat enough to keep that adorable body moving, Row is an amazing eater. He genuinely loves vegetables which is a miracle. Rowan's primary food groups a year ago was cheese, chocolate, and cheese. His current healthy faves are bell peppers (he loves to talk about how crunchy they are), cucumbers, apples, cantaloupe (which I love to hear him say), SALAD. My 2.5 year-old eats salad. Not pasta salad or some other craftily named non-lettuce salad. I would love to take credit for these eating habits, but he developed them all on his lonesome. A lot of times with parenting Rowan, I just feel like a bystander around to admire the naturally amazing person he is. My role is to keep him alive and steer him if he slightly veers off the moral path. He came with a pretty incredible little spirit.
Here is an interview we had with him courtesy of Chick-fil-a's kiddie meal prompt cards.
1. If you were mayor of a town, what would be your first rule everyone would have to follow?
Everyone make cakes. No, tanks. (The Sweet Dictator)
2. If you could invent a new ice-cream flavor, what would it be?
Sprinkles and candy ice-cream. (I've never had one quite like that)
3. If you could have any skill in the world, what would it be?
Jump really high!
4. If you could come up with a new band name, what would it be
The baby one
5. Would you rather climb to the top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean?
Jump really high! Yeah!
6. What is your favorite show?
Princess Sofia!
7. If you could add a holiday, what would it be?
Celebrate it! Dolphin!
And then we ran away before we could ask more. The three of us surely love our Rowan boy. He is a delight to have in our home and I can't imagine how boring our life would be without his strongly brewed personality and perfect wavy locks.
Rowan is somehow getting sweeter everyday. Today at the zoo, without me asking him to, he started pushing open all the doors for me so I could push the stroller through. My heart was pretty close to exploding as I watched him huff and puff to open the heavier doors while announcing "It's okay mommy! I'm strong!" I also told him the other day he was melting my heart and he bent down to kiss my chest "so my heart feel better". He prays regularly for one of the women I visit who is currently in a nursing home that her hip will get better. Gah. He is such a tender, lovable little guy.
We don't take naps anymore. 😥 He started to cut them off while we were in Idaho and hasn't picked them up again since we got back. It will happen once every 6-7 days where he will just announce he is "going to go a short rest". It still isn't easy though. Everyday around 3 or 4pm he is SO tired. If I try for a nap before that, he doesn't go for it because he can now get out of his crib. If I let him nap at 3 or 4pm, he's up until midnight. It sometimes feels like a lose-lose situation, but there are some positives. (Update). Rowan now sleeps in a big boy bed! He also got a roommate this week! Rowan sleeps in a bunk bed and Lyra got the crib. Sel insisted we buy Row a poster to hang above his bunk bed and I joked that he should pick out one of a girl in a bikini. Rowan picked out a Moana poster... who is a beautiful animated person in a sort of bikini.
Speaking of Moana, Row is still enamored with beautiful girls. We watch Princess Sofia because Row thinks she is pretty, but we only ever make it through ten minutes of that show-or any other show for that matter. We do not watch TV- not because we run a tight, educational parenting show over here, but because he loses interest immediately. He could play games on the ipad or my phone for days though. His current loves are Robot Unicorn and some Robot fighting game that Sel downloaded on my phone for him. He often asks me how to play whatever game he pulls up on there and I have NO idea. I will spend ten minutes or more with him trying to figure it out and I am pathetic
He is still a really amazing big brother. He likes to get Lyra toys when she cries and will try to make her life by saying "A booby-booby-booby" when she is really sad. He likes to try and pick her up and tackle her, which she weirdly LOVES. They rough house all day and she takes every accidental kick, punch, and getting rolled on top of with a giggle. It's when the kicks and punches are not accidental that she isn't such a huge fan. I've noticed Row attacks her most when he is craving my attention. When he does accidentally hurt her, he howls as if he is the one injured. It makes diffusing the situation a little crazy, but I ultimately don't mind holding both of my babies at the same time. He notices when she is gone and likes to update me on whether she is awake or asleep when we are driving. The other morning, I went in to their room (isn't that amazing the little pronoun slipped in there? THEIR room) and Lyra was standing in her crib chirping at Rowan and he was leaning over the side of his bed talking back to her. It was a beautiful, sweet scene. He also cried profusely tonight because I told him he couldn't call her a butthead (not sure where he learned that word..). No one is a perfect sibling, right?
He is one smart kid. We have trouble pulling much on him because he is so darn smart and has a memory to rival that of an elephant's. His imagination is exploding these days. He mostly enjoys shooting monsters, fighting dragons, shooting robots, and fighting people. Most of his play (alll of his play) is active. The kid doesn't sit down. At the pediatrician we found out he is 90% for height and 35% for weight. He has been on a fairly sharp downward curve for BMI. The doctor was only mildly concerned and encouraged us to keep feeding him three solid meals plus 1-2 snacks a day. She emphasized that hearing he keeps dropping should not mean we throw empty calories at the kid in hopes he gains weight (he gets too many of those as is). Sel is a PRO at getting Rowan to eat. It isn't that he straight out refuses to eat at meal times, he'll take 4-5 bites and having sat for five minutes, need to be on the move again. Sel came up with a came where Row is a Row-a-saurous and will climb under our kitchen table. When he needs a bite of food, Row will stamp his feet on the ground and Sel will feed him a bite. He also recently started needing "recharge" bites where he is fighting an invisible robot/monster/dragon during dinner and needs to restore health to keep fighting. Even though it is certainly an effort to get him to eat enough to keep that adorable body moving, Row is an amazing eater. He genuinely loves vegetables which is a miracle. Rowan's primary food groups a year ago was cheese, chocolate, and cheese. His current healthy faves are bell peppers (he loves to talk about how crunchy they are), cucumbers, apples, cantaloupe (which I love to hear him say), SALAD. My 2.5 year-old eats salad. Not pasta salad or some other craftily named non-lettuce salad. I would love to take credit for these eating habits, but he developed them all on his lonesome. A lot of times with parenting Rowan, I just feel like a bystander around to admire the naturally amazing person he is. My role is to keep him alive and steer him if he slightly veers off the moral path. He came with a pretty incredible little spirit.
Here is an interview we had with him courtesy of Chick-fil-a's kiddie meal prompt cards.
1. If you were mayor of a town, what would be your first rule everyone would have to follow?
Everyone make cakes. No, tanks. (The Sweet Dictator)
2. If you could invent a new ice-cream flavor, what would it be?
Sprinkles and candy ice-cream. (I've never had one quite like that)
3. If you could have any skill in the world, what would it be?
Jump really high!
4. If you could come up with a new band name, what would it be
The baby one
5. Would you rather climb to the top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean?
Jump really high! Yeah!
6. What is your favorite show?
Princess Sofia!
7. If you could add a holiday, what would it be?
Celebrate it! Dolphin!
And then we ran away before we could ask more. The three of us surely love our Rowan boy. He is a delight to have in our home and I can't imagine how boring our life would be without his strongly brewed personality and perfect wavy locks.
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| Superman ice-cream in Birmingham |
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| Photobombing |
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| This s one of my faves. Rowan was helping me cut vegetables for dinner with those "adorable baby scissors" as he calls them. Then he started eating all the chopped up veggies |
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| "I fix her bow for the picture mommy" - oak mountain state park |
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| Right here is where Rowan swiped a loose screw that I didn't find until after we'd walked 2 miles and he'd fallen down 3-4 times with it in his hand. Eek. I spent most of the hike scanning the trail for Alabama's poisonous wildlife. |
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| Rowan found a boy with twinner hair at Chick-fil-a in Kentucky and they had SO much fun together. |
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| Playing in the leaves. With a 2-inch rusty screw in his hand... |
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| On his 2.5 birthday we went to the zoo and had the WHOLE place to ourselves. |
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| Scarring pigeons away in Nashville while we waited for some of the best barbecue I've ever had |
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| Painting at the Toledo Museum of Art |
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| Double fisting chocolate pudding that he was finger painting in for our mommy-son book club |
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| Aunt Sarah has been in Columbus for the past month and we have LOVED it! My parents and her beautiful self went on a fun weekend trip to Cleveland when Sel had is last interview at Case Western |
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| Wild at heart/Wild all of the time |
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