2.5

Last Sunday my little boy turned two and a half. Some people might find it silly to pay attention to the half-year mark, but for me it means that he is now closer to three than two. How is that possible? My little baby is not so much of a baby anymore. And boy, does he let us know!

Every morning during the work week, poor Brian wakes Noah up. And almost every morning, he’s greeted by “No Daddy! I want Mommy! Go away!” As he dresses him he cries, “No, Mommy do it!” Meanwhile I’m downstairs straightening my hair and feeling bad for both of them. This is not limited to just the mornings either. Noah is pretty adamant that I have to do most things for him. It’s exhausting, especially now that I’m so tired every evening. However, there are also about a million things that he insists he must do “by myself, Mommy!” Take for example walking across a parking lot. “No, don’t want to hold your hand!” Or getting into his car seat. “I do it by self, Mommy!” It’s kind of funny how much negative tone a little guy can put into the word “Mommy.” You’d think the word meant “evil witch.” There are also increasing tantrums over tiny little things, and just general disagreeableness. I keep trying to get a picture of the “eat shit and die” look that he gives us about a thousand times a day, but so far no luck.

So yes, the more Noah progresses through the age of 2, the more I understand why some people call it “terrible.” But then there are all the funny, silly, amazing things he does that make it mostly enjoyable. The other night I was ripping off my estradiol patches. Noah watched me and asked, “Mommy, you got stickers?” I told him they were more like bandaids. “Mommy, you have owwy? You all better?” While I was on bed rest I told Noah that I had an owwy tummy so that he would stay off of me. He still frequently asks if I have owwy tummy or if I’m all better. His sensitive side is coming out, too. There were a few times in the last week or two when he started crying when scolded over something, or even when I just shot him a disapproving look when he was being unsafe. He certainly doesn’t like it when he thinks I’m upset with him, but cuddles cure everything.

And now for some totally random things I don’t want to forget.

The other morning we were eating breakfast and the sun was shining in Noah’s face. He yelled out, “Hey sun, don’t bright me!” It cracked me up.

Noah’s favorite shows are Bubble Guppies, Curious George, Dora (gag), and the How To Train Your Dragon movie. He likes talking about the “moon bear” from one of the Bubble Guppies episodes, and when he looks at the moon he asks about the moon bear and his flashlight.

He really enjoys playing with dinosaurs and trains. He also still pretends to be a dinosaur often. If he’s not a dinosaur, then he’s probably pretending to be a monster, crocodile, or some other random animal. Noah is starting to sing to himself more and more. He can finally sing his alphabet with a few minor substitutions, especially at the end. Brian and I are usually not allowed to join in. He yells at us for singing and dancing to the radio, too. We must be worse than we thought… Although he does like his bedtime songs.

Although I know he’s still young, I’m becoming fairly convinced that Noah is colorblind. He identified orange first, then got pink, purple, green, black, and blue. Just recently he has identified brown accurately, too. He knows these colors consistently with virtually no mistakes. With red, he ALWAYS calls it green. This is the most common colorblindness. With yellow, he ALWAYS calls it blue. This is the second most common, and if someone has blue-yellow, they almost always have red-green. Brian’s dad has some degree of colorblindness, so despite people telling me “he’s just two!” I’m pretty sure I’m right. I have NEVER heard Noah identify anything as red or yellow. Ever. Obviously this is not a big deal, but at some point I’d like to get confirmation so that when he goes to preschool we’ll know for sure. I would hate for him to have teachers think he’s not catching on. It also makes me wonder what the world looks like to him.

Noah is my little runt. He is currently wearing size 5 diapers with no interest in potty training in sight. His shirts are primarily 2T though he swims in some brands. Pants are still 24 months. He has short legs and a skinny waist, so anything larger falls right off. To be honest, some 24 month stuff falls down too, but 18 month stuff is too short. Eating is hit and miss. Things he will pretty consistently eat include mac and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, baby food pouches, cheese sticks, Cheerios, bagels with cream cheese, steamed broccoli and carrots, mandarin oranges, sliced grapes, and bananas. Obviously this is not all I feed him, but when he won’t eat whatever I did make, these are often our fallbacks.

I kind of love this guy.