My little baby Wyatt is 2. I still call him “the baby” far too often and then I turn around and he is running, talking in sentences to Logan and doing everything on his own. He definitely isn’t a baby any more, but he’ll always be MY baby. It is so exciting to celebrate his 2nd birthday. As he grows up, two things have gotten really clear: 1. He has a very different personality that Logan, which is delightful as a parent to see (so much is pre-programmed) and 2. He and Logan are the best of friends and get so much delight out of each other. When you have a second (or I imagine subsequent ones), it feels like you take energy away from the first, but by this point, it is so clear the positive impact having a sibling is having on both of them. We really have gelled as a family unit and I honestly never thought I’d be this happy to be a mom. IT IS THE COOLEST!
Okay, more about Wyatt, he is still relatively short (25%) but weighs plenty and he is developing great. He is climbing, running and can jump with 2 feet. He passed his “development questionnaire” with flying colors (100%). All my old fears of physical development are clearly in the dust. Starting about 20 months-ish one of his most popular sentences was “by myself.” Whether it was getting into his booster or into the car (or anywhere else), he wants to do it on his own. He is willing to work at it too. To get in his booster, he drags my chair towards his, crawls into my chair and then transfers into his booster. He is a hard worker and he is coordinated enough to pull off quite a few feats. He is capable of walking everywhere out and about on his own and is improving his ability to listen and go the right way. He isn’t thrilled by having to hold hands, but he has learned to accept it. He much prefers holding logan’s hand than ours. Sometimes when my arthritis is bad and I need to use a cane, I love that I can hold wyatts hand and then he’ll hold logan’s hand while we cross the street. This keeps everyone safe and I love that my kids can be adaptable. Wyatt loves parks and running around but is slightly more hesitant than Logan was. He loves stairs but he isn’t a giant fan of big slides. He will swing, but isn’t interested in swinging for long periods. He loves to run and chase though. He’ll often come up at home and say “chase you” and run off. He wants us to chase him wherever he goes. We also sometimes say “fee fii fo fum, I smell the blood of a wyatt man” so he’ll sometimes run off saying that. It is quite adorable.
Of course nothing is better than attention from Logan so they’ll play for long periods together on an activity one of them concocted. Lately they have been putting their blankets over the seats of their little cars and playing some game I don’t understand but they love. They also love to play in their beds. Logan recently upgraded to a big twin bed and we put the toddler rail on Wyatt’s crib so that he can now get in and out by himself (which of course he loves). He was very jealous of logan’s big boy bed, so the crib modification has been great for him. He doesn’t get out on his own at night even though he can. One of my original hopes was that he would get out to fetch his pacifier or toys on his own so he didn’t yell so darn much in the morning. That hasn’t happened but he loves his bed. He does need to stop using his pacifier soon so that will be a challenge in the months to come. I think we might wait until after christmas travelling, but we’ll see.
Although Wyatt is very independent, he is not as opinionated as Logan was. At this age, you had to ask Logan for everything “do you want this shirt or that shirt” “do you want to flush your toilet or not.” Wyatt doesn’t care that much about his clothes, though he will pick it out if you ask him. He likes especially to match logan. He cares about flushing toilet, but he’ll do every time and never forget so it isn’t as problematic as the parent. Overall I realize that we ask him his opinion far less than we did Logan. Then again with one kid the whole world revolves around them, and Wyatt has known since birth that that wasn’t true for him. We do try to advocate for him and make sure we don’t always chose what logan wants because he will cry harder.
Verbally – Wyatt is a very verbal kid. He has soo many words. Of course (detecting a theme?) his language has developed differently than logan. Wyatt still isn’t as good at pronunciation, though he makes progress every day. He now says “water” instead of “wawa” and has generally worked on pronunciation. Some words he is stubborn on though. He always says “push butt” instead of “push button.” He calls Logan “Lilo” but can fully say “logan.” He just prefers to call him “lilo” and honestly I think Logan prefers it too . Wyatt has a more extensive vocabulary than Logan did at this age. Partly this is because of exposure. Logan didn’t know the word preschool and didn’t eat as much junk food. So there is more exposure and more words to go with it. He has a very good understanding of simple request and also can ask for things, however he doesn’t understand complex things as much. We can do short term bribery often, but if he doesn’t perform the task he still wants the candy. It does motivate him to try harder (this is mostly related to potty training). He doesn’t understand the sticker charts that logan did. Those concepts are too abstract. That is totally normal for his age though.
Fav people – Logan is his favorite person. Outside the family (of course he loves mommy, Julia and daddy too), he loves Papa and Mimi a lot, but has an extra special bond with Papa. He also really loves Grandma and Tina and Mimi Maria who we skype with regularly. Skype is such a wonderful way to connect to family. He is quite a social person and has taken to hugging people who come over, which is pretty funny. He’s never been that huggy to us, but now he will hug when he ask (and he gives really good hugs). He’s also learned to kiss and he makes the cutest kissy noise.
Fav toys – playing in cars, anything paw patrol, things he can take out and put back in, houses, trains. He is a good player and can play on his own or with Logan. He is not interested in screens like Logan (and most kids) are at this age. That means he usually plays on his own while Logan watches a little TV while I prep dinner.
Emotional – He’s a pretty stable kid, with less highs and lows with Logan but he is a little more intense in some respects. He yells more and hits more. It probably comes from being a second kid and getting less attention. However, he is pretty go with the flow and is happy just about anywhere doing just about anything. He shares pretty well but does need to work on his propensity to hit people with toys. He will just brain logan with a toy he is playing with while they are happily playing together. It isn’t due to anger, he just wants attention. He used to hit when made but he has learned over the last 6 months that he can’t do that and you can watch him get mad, pull his arm up and then stop himself. He also is working on his self soothing skills when he is overwhelmed or in pain. He knows that his pacifiers and his animals calm him so he will go in his room and get them. Sometimes he’ll even sit in his chair or get in his crib. The pacifier is his main way to calm himself. I really like that he has learned to recognize that he is upset and that he goes to get the pacifier to calm. That is great emotional awareness. Of course we need to swap out the pacifier for something else, but I’m glad he’s learning the building blocks of coping skills.
I joke that Wyatt is my little introvert and I think that could definitely be true. Where Logan generally thrives in a crowd (of kids), Wyatt doesn’t. He gets clingy and just cries and wants to be held. It is interesting to me because he was so outgoing as a baby and now is less and logan was the opposite. I think he is figuring it all out and once he understands better what it means when someone leaves (they will come back) or what it means to go to a playdate (we all stay), he’ll hopefully calm down a bit.
Wyatt is full of joy though and can make a game out of anything and loves having fun. He has a big smile and laugh and will always smile at you if you smile at him. It is so fun to be with him. He also has great focus and can do an activity for long periods. In fact he can wear most of the rest of us out on things (30 plus minutes doing sandbox, bath, or a particular game). And of course he’ll do anything with Logan.
Food – Wyatt is a fairly picky eater in some things and not in others. He actually doesn’t like some of the toddler staples that logan has sadly become so attracted to (grilled cheese, pbj, pizza, bagel). He does like mac and cheese though. That kid lives for mac and cheese. He is pretty good at eating protein (hot dogs, sausages, cheese, etc) and loves fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, grapes and mango are his favs, but he’ll eat many). He REALLY hates veggies, something we could convince logan to eat a lot of his first two years. Wyatt hated them at the beginning and still does. He is somewhat willing to try our adult food, but seems to really be averse to most of it. I look forward to when he gets a little older and we can start figuring it out more. If logan declares he doesn’t like something it is inevitable Wyatt won’t, so when he is less into following logan, this might change. He also may be able to express better what he doesn’t like. Both kids like a decent amount of spice and would eat our candied spiced (seasoning and cayenne) pecans for every meal if we let them! Wyatt has a sweet tooth and he loves candy and annie’s bunnies and especially likes fruit snacks. He LOVES popcorn and will eat it all the time, even the low calorie healthy stuff, though he and Logan are both junkies for caramel corn at the famers market.
Health –
Wyatt is pretty robust and healthy. He’s had a few bad colds this year but he is a trouper and it takes a lot to get him down. He’s had a pretty rough last month or so, including his first croup case and first trip to the ER and new record high temp of 104.5. I’m hoping we’ve used up some of our winter cold karma and things will be better moving forward. He doesn’t seem to have asthma like Logan, but he got diagnosed between 2 and 3. However, when he had a nagging cough this spring, they tried him on albuterol and it did nothing (unlike logan who responds like a classic asthma kid). He has no lasting heart problems, reflux problems, and symmetry problems. He is developing perfectly and isn’t that such a SIGH of relief.
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I also joke he is going to be my athlete. He has a great arm and can kick well. He picked up a bat at a friends house (first time ever) and hit the ball of the tee 3 times in a row, HARD! Being 25 percentile for height he has a small strike zone too. I see being a lefty slapper in his future . He is actually more interested in sports on tv too and will let me watch them and yell “go huskies” though part of that is because he doesn’t care what is on the tv.
Wyatt hasn’t fully learned his numbers and letters yet, which is something logan had down at 2. The big difference is screens. Logan played ipad educational games while we fed wyatt and learned a lot. Wyatt doesn’t care to play them, so hasn’t learned. He can count, but his 1-10 goes “1,2,(3 optional), 5, 6,8,9,6,8,9,6,8,9” It is a funny loop at the end. He knows parts of the alphabet song and can recognize a few of the letters on the wall. Julie is going to start doing more learning with him while logan is at school, but it is a little hard to make wyatt do what you want to do, since he is just has happy to ignore you, wonder off and play on his own. He also isn’t terribly interested in reading. He’ll tolerate a book most days, but will often run off and screw around or turn his back while you read. He doesn’t get mad about it, he just does his won thing. I wonder if some of that is a 2nd kid thing too. If logan didn’t want a book he would cry, because we were supposed to be attentive to his needs. If wyatt doesn’t want something, he knows he can do something else. We’ll have to work on teaching him focus.
Alright this has gotten long and I’m too tired to edit, so I apologize. Wyatt is such a special kid and I’m so proud to be his mommy. I remember how much I couldn’t wait until the age when I could make dinner and my kids could play together on their own. We are THERE! In the next year I expect we’ll see what’s personally emerge even more as he understands abstract concepts and learns to exert his will more. I think we’ll also see his relationship with logan strengthen (and probably develop friction) as this happens. Logan is a pretty good friend and likes to play collaboratively, so hopefully it all goes smoothly.
Thanks everyone for the well wishes on his birthday. Truly a special day as my last baby becomes an official toddler.
