Sam is 2!

And just like that our little boy is 2! He continues to be tall and thin, weighing in at 27lbs 4.5oz (56th percentile) and 36in tall (88th percentile). He is a happy, and relatively easy going kid. It is very clear that he has passed into the "I'm two" phase, and has gotten much more opinionated. He wants to be more independent, and tries to do all of the things that Josh can do. But he is a very sweet and caring little boy.

His language has really exploded. He is talking in simple sentences, and practicing by copying what everyone else is saying. We think some of his enunciation is better than Josh at this age, but it is hard to tell. He gets frustrated when we don't understand what he wants, so we are working with him to try different words. Sometimes Josh can translate for us, which is just cute :-)

His eating is still touch and go. He will eat fruit, yogurt, cereal and mac and cheese. He will also eat most vegetables, but needs to be in the mood for it. He won't touch chicken, but will sometimes eat taco beef. He will eat most carbs, but still is unsure about cheese. We offer him whatever we are eating, and lately have been getting him to try one bite of something. However, getting him to eat foods with protein continues to be a challenge. The pediatrician said he is gaining weight well, so just keep doing what we are doing. We don't need to feel like we need to cook him something special each night (thank goodness!). We try to make sure that at least one item of our dinner food is something he likes to eat, that way if he is hungry he has something.

He has finally started sleeping past 6am (awesome!), and is still napping well in the afternoon. We switched him to a toddler bed just before he turned two, and that has been working out really well. He stays in his bed until we come into the room in the morning, and then cutely gets himself out of bed.

I weaned Sam over Christmas, so at about 21 months. He wasn't thrilled with it, but adjusted pretty quickly to a new routine. It is really nice now to be able to trade off bedtime routines--one of us puts Josh to bed and one puts Sam to bed, and our mornings are much easier too. All and all, we had a great run at breastfeeding and I really enjoyed the extra snuggles with my baby. But we were both ready for weaning, so even though it was hard to cut him off I know it was the right choice.

It has been really fun to watch Josh and Sam playing together. Sam absolutely adores his big brother, and wants to be just like him. Whatever Josh is doing, Sam wants to be doing. They are starting to play together a little more, and while sharing is still an issue many times, they both really like to make the other one happy.

We look forward to the next year with Sam and getting to know the little boy he is becoming :-)

Traditional Birthday donut. 

Trying to be like Daddy

Traditional Birthday car picture :-)