Two years old - part 2

Developmental milestones

We are most certainly in the "No" phase. He says no, even when he means yes. But, it's a one way deal. He loves saying it, but he hates hearing it. "Go to the park," he'd say, and we'll point to the teeming rain and say, "No, honey, there's a torrential rainstorm outside." Saying "no" just makes him go ballistic sometimes. We are learning to say "later" or "after the flood, thunder and lighting has subsided, maybe."

Self-sufficiency. He is pretty good at removing his hat, coat and shoes (thank goodness for velcro!), but we still need to work on putting it on. At night, as long as we hook his pajama top over his head, he can usually loop his hands through the sleeves.

Fork, please. He now wants to eat with a fork and knife like everyone else. We still insist he use the spoon for scooping stuff but he loves having the fork and butter knife. He wants to butter his own toast now, too. And, he is also pretty good at using chopsticks (the training kind, see photo).

Knock. Knock. He is turning out to be quite the kidder. Now that he knows his books backwards and forwards, he's starting to improvise. He is purposely filling in words with either nonsense, or words that are hilariously out of context (...and on his farm, there was a backhoe ee ii, ee ii ohhh). He also told his first knock, knock joke a couple of weeks ago.

Vocabulary is pretty darn good. "Good language skills, especially for a boy" said the woman at the park. I think he certainly meets the 200+ word vocabulary milestone. He can say "hydraulic" and "articulated" and he even knows what they mean (his obsession with machines continues!).

He is singing! He spontaneously bursts into song and we can actually recognize the melody. His favourites: Old MacDonald, Down by the Station, and the day's current favourite: "There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-O. B I N G O...."

Shapes, colours, letters. He's got the basics down pat. Last night, he sang the alphabet song and sometimes he recognizes letters when we point them out. He still can't read, but it's freaky because he's memorized a lot of things and it appears as if he's reading them. He knows his basic shapes and colours, too.

Discovered DVDs! When we took the train to Nova Scotia mid-February, we brought along a portable DVD player. He now understands how DVDs work and a version of the Mighty Machines is always in the DVD player downstairs at all times.

First imaginary friend. He woke up one morning last week and told his dad that he has a dog. His name is Emma (apparently, he is not constrained by conventional naming rules) and he is green and white (but sometimes, he is black and white). He is this small (thumb and forefinger held 5 cm apart) and he loves to cook. Dex walks him everyday. Some days, Emma disappears because he goes to the market to buy sausages.

Finally, things are changing so fast. It's getting tougher and tougher to keep up with the changes!

(Part 1 of this post is on physical changes.)