TWO

What a fun age this is for the most part. Micah seems to learn so much each day and is (in my humble mommy opinion) a smart little guy! He catches on quick and keeps up with sister. He loves to play with Abby and will play "pretend" with her. He's got a lot more imagination because of that that I remember Abby having at this age. He loves dogs of all sorts and 90% of the time he picks out a dog to sleep with at night. We moved him to his big boy bed early this summer. Most nights he starts out there and wanders into our room in the wee hours of the morning. He did stay in his room all night a couple nights and I was so impressed! There are of course some nights he doesn't want to go to sleep though and those he usually doesn't make it to his bed at all. He's constantly asking for "nacks." It's usually one of the very first things I hear out of his mouth in the morning indicating he's ready for breakfast and he'll kept it up throughout the day. After naptime is usually when he's the hungriest and he'll eat one snack and ask for another. I hope this means he's having a growth spurt! He loves to help when I'm cooking, which did result in a chair getting broken as he tried to push it over to the counter to help. If he's really cranky (usually while having to wait for food - breakfast, lunch or dinner) helping cook will almost always calm him down. At 27 months he got his very first haircut. I was very sad to say bye the precious baby curls. He looks like such a big boy with his new haircut. 

24 months: 

Mastered Skills 

Names at least six body parts
Half of speech is understandable
Makes two- to three-word sentences

At 2 Micah could definitely name at least 6 body parts: He can name/say - eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, belly, hair, feet, toes and he can point out even more but maybe doesn't say the word. I think half his speech is pretty understandable but I do have to translate his 2 year old speech to anyone who doesn't hear him talk often. After you've been around him for a little while you can usually start to understand him better. He does make 2-3 word sentences. 

Emerging Skills 

Talks about self
Arranges things in categories
Can walk down stairs

He does love to talk about himself. If Abby says something that she is going to do like that she is going to a party, he chimes in "me party!" He doesn't want to be left out! Mmm... arranging things in categories.... not so sure of that one? He can walk down the stairs and has been doing it for a while before he turned 2. 

Advanced Skills 

Begins to understand abstract concepts (e.g., sooner and later)
Becomes attuned to gender differences
Learns to jump

He is getting the concepts of before/after. When we would head to the gym he'd ask for a snack so I'd grab one but tell him he had to wait until Abby climbed the rock wall to eat it and he is able to understand that he will get it soon and quits whining for it for the moment. He has learned to jump. It was really quite fun to watch him learn as I could see he was really trying to get both feet up at the same time and jump for a while and he's finally gotten it! 

27 months

Mastered Skills: 

Jumps with both feet
Opens doors

He totally jumps with both feet (see above!) He can open a door if it has a lever style knob that he can reach but he can't open the round door knobs. He's actually still a little short to get a good grasp to turn the knob. For that I'm pretty thankful for because I can contain him if I need to! 

Emerging Skills: 

Understandsdescriptions (e.g., big, soft)
Draws a vertical line

He is starting to understand descriptions - especially big and small or wet and dry. While we were on the plan to Virginia we practiced drawing lines in a Kumon tracing book that I have and he actually did really well drawing a vertical line after a few practices! I was very impressed! 

Advanced Skills: 

Starts to recognizeABCs
Balances on one foot

We haven't worked too much on ABCs yet. He will repeat the letter if I say it, or if we are watching a show with letters (like watching Super Why with Abby.) When Abby's in school we'll probably do more crafts and start to play/work on letters and counting. He's not quite at the balancing yet. He can do it with help - like when I am putting on shoes - he can stand up and I can lift his foot/help him balance and put his shoe on that way but he isn't doing it by himself yet.

9 months

9 in, 9 out. The time is just seemingly flying by. I love my little guy so very much and am happy and sad at the same time over the fact that he is growing up. He is still such a smiley baby and I love his smiles. He gives slobbery open mouth "kisses" where he tries to suck on your nose/chin/check. He gets jealous if anyone else is in mommy's lap 90% of the time. 


At 9 months Micah is
- crawling (and has been for almost 3 months now since a little over 6 months old) 
- pulling up 
- still not really eating too much baby food (with the exception of a couple weeks over Christmas to prove me wrong when everyone else was around to see it!)
- eating and trying finger foods 
- following mommy around like a shadow
- has object permanence - looks for toys he drops and really notices when mommy leaves his side 
- is still toothless 
- love love loves his big sister 
- loves his daddy too - He gets excited the mornings daddy gets up to play with him 
- occasionally waves (or holds his hand up as if he was going to wave) - Gigi taught him this over the holidays
- wears 6-9 month/6-12 month clothes with some room to grow - especially in the pant length! 


And because I've done this before let's revisit the checklist of milestones.... 


Mastered Skills {most babies have mastered}
• Stands while holding onto something
• Jabbers or combines syllables
• Understands object permanence


Check, check and check. Micah can even stand by himself for a good 20-30 seconds after he has pulled up on something. 

Emerging skills {half of babies can do these}
• Cruises while holding onto furniture
• Drinks from a sippy cup
• Eats with fingers
• Bangs objects together


Micah can cruise on the furniture somewhat taking a few steps in either direction but doesn't cruise a lot yet - but he's started cruising more in the past couple days. Mostly he'll get down and then get back up though. He still has yet to figure out the sippy cup - he'd rather play with them or throw them on the floor. He does eat with his fingers - would much rather do that than me feed him but it depends on what I give him to pick up if he wants to eat it or not (puffs - yes, broccoli not so much.) Bangs objects together - not really though he does love banging on things like a drum does that count?


Advanced skills {a few kids can do these} 
• Plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo
• Says "mama" and "dada" to the correct parent


Umm... skip over the patty-cake and peek-a-boo for a minute and let's focus on the whole mama/dada thing. Looking back at the table saying mama and dada were mastered skills for an 8 month old. Guess not so much when you have a big sister. Micah still is not saying them yet. Beau will swear to you that he's said dada but unless it just came out in the middle of a bunch of other jibber jabber I don't think so. Abby didn't start talking early either - in fact she didn't say mama until 16 months (used to have it down to the day because it took so long - she always knew where mama was so she just never bothered to say it) We are hoping Micah isn't following in those footsteps but doesn't look like it so far.... but maybe since I typed this out he'll start to prove me wrong. 
Micah loves peek-a-boo and even will do the blanket himself sometimes! We haven't really done any patty-cake. Guess we'll start now!  

Happy 9 months baby boy!  {And now can you stop growing so fast?!} 



Please excuse the out-of-focus pictures. It was hard enough to get a shot of him standing let alone focus on him!