How's my Little Guy Doing?

[littlemrsmarcel]

With all the craziness of being transferred with the Navy and the moving plans and the holidays... I haven't really taken the time to update everyone on Leland; how he is, what he's been doing, how much he's grown! So this is a Blog Entry just about Leland! =)

Leland is such a big boy, now! Every day when I pick him up I find myself commenting "I don't remember you being this heavy!" His last recorded height and weight was 3' 3" and a whopping 36.6 lbs! What a man! His eyes are as goregous a blue as ever and his hair is growing out long again, browning out from his sandy blonde colour. His legs are very loooong! He's getting so tall!

He loves to sing songs, now... he's got most of them memorized from his "ABC"s to the "Cars", "Wall-E" and "Kung Fu Panda" Soundtracks. He loves to sing "Mommy Songs" (that's what we call them) too, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", "Somebody to Love" by Queen and "Ain't No Sunshine (When She's Gone)". Music seems to be his favourite thing and is a big part of his day, now. He prefers music time over TV time, which is always a plus!

For Christmas he got a lot of cool stuff- starting with a brand new twin sized race car bed, which he LOVES! Telling him it's bedtime isn't a big deal anymore. Now he actually wants to go to bed! Along with that, Gavin's parents bought him his very own large flatscreen hi def TV for whenever he does watch his movies (mostly first thing in the morning and late in the evening). Though I'm often finding GAVIN in there, laying in Leland's bed watching Leland's TV... Kind of like when he randomly told me he was wondering if he should buy me a PS3 for our Anniversary. Exactly WHO was the gift intended for?

Anyway, back to Leland...

I think the coolest thing that happened this past December was Leland got to witness his first snow ever. =) I guess watching the Backyardigans must have prepared him for it, though, because we woke him up and when I opened the blinds to the livingroom window, he jumped on the couch and screamed "SNOOOOW!!!" Hahaha! So I dressed him in footie PJs, shoes, a jacket, gloves and a hat (which he refused to keep on) and we played outside in it. He wanted to stay outside and threw a screaming fit when I drug him back in... but he was complaining that his hands were "burning" and his hair was getting wet, so I brought him in and put him in the tub. He made me promise we could go back out into the snow... and I did... but unfortunately it melted pretty quickly. By the time he was asking to go back out, the grass was already showing.

Speaking of him making me promise... Leland's vocabulary has definitely grown just in the last month or two! And so has his personality. He does things and says things that completely boggle (yet entertain) us. In example... the other day I was text messaging back and forth with a friend and Leland came into the livingroom and said "Momma, where's my blue cup?" I said "Hang on just a second, honey, and I'll help you find it." Well, you know kids, a second is a year to them... so he grabbed one of my hands from the phone and yanked it, saying "Come on, Momma, come on! Help me find my blue cup!" I said "Leland, just wait one second!" and pulled my hand back. Leland walked up to my side, grabbed my cheeks with his hands, pulled my face to the side and said "Look at me! Momma! I need to find my blue cup! Come on!" I was dumbstruck! But burst out laughing! Whenever he is acting up and not listening to us, we cup his face with our hands and say "Look at me" to get his attention- and he used it to his advantage! Hahaha, word of advice, don't do anything to your kids that you don't want done to you! Lol.

Aside from the odd (yet funny) things he does, Leland has become a regular sweetheart. He says "Thank You" and "Excuse Me" and "Oh! I Sorry!" Right now we're working on "Please", which he's having a harder time with. He'll bring you something, pat your arm and say "Hey, can I have this?" and we remind him constantly to say "Please", but he just sits in silence for a second and repeats the question. =/ So now we're making an effort to say "Please". So if you happen to visit our house, remember your manners so we can teach him his!

I love how he's becoming the happy little boy he was for his entire first year. I never believed in the Terrible Twos... my explanation for them being that toddlers reach a certain point where they realize they have emotions and aren't sure how to deal with them, but I'm surprised at the fact that the closer we get to his third birthday, the sweeter and sweeter he is turning! He was a happy baby his entire first year and then BOOM! When he was 14 months old he just woke up one day in a rotten mood and it just stuck! But now he just isn't as cranky anymore... I mean sure, he still has his days (don't we all?), but for the most part every morning is a brand new day to him. He wakes up, climbs out of bed, walks down the hall into our room, walks up to (or sometimes crawls into) the bed... and when I open my eyes he says "Hi, Momma!" like he hasn't seen me in years... (then again, if one second to a child feels like one year... imagine what eights hours a night feels like?) He's always armed and ready with hugs and kisses and never seems to run out of ammo. Where has my little boy been hiding all this time? Maybe his Sweet Side had to go into seclusion to do some super secret karate kid training to come back and kick the evil Toddler Tornado's hiney? Whatever the case, I'm happy he's back!

Our biggest challenge we have yet to overcome? Potty Training. Personally, I believe in no pressure. Kids do things when they're ready; They're born when they're ready (or they should be, anyway), they walk when they're ready, they talk when they're ready... let the kid poop when he's ready! Leland tells us when he's "goin' poopit" as he says, but doesn't tell us when he pees until after he's wet. So I went out to Barnes and Noble and bought this potty training book that caught my eye, called "Mommy! I have to go potty!" It's full of doctor's opinions and stories from other parents who went through potty training... and just in the first chaper, I read something that made absolute sense to me. In the book, it says that all toddler's bodies develop at different rates (duh) and that some toddler's rectal muscles are stronger much sooner than urinary muscles, which is why they recognize the urge to poop faster than the urge to pee. Until the muscles become strong enough, your toddler will not be able to hold in their tinkle, and thus will only know they've gone to the bathroom after they've already gone. (Oh! *enter epiphany!*) So if you're a potty training parent like myself and you're stressing over why your child hasn't told you that they've "gone pee pee", don't lose sleep over it. They'll tell you when their muscles tell them. And obviously, their muscles haven't told them yet! This answer leaves me satisfied for the time being. =D Hopefully it helps you, too!

So let's see... what else... Oh! Leland has become a little artist! (Like his Momma!) and is always drawing on miscellaneous papers, receipts, mail... so we got him a large art desk and lots of colouring books and paper and crayons... and I got him a HUGE dry erase magnet board (like four feet long) and dry erase markers to sit down with him and teach him to write his letters and draw shapes. =) And when we're not doing that, it's a great place for his alphabet magnets! I've also noticed that Leland switches back and forth between his left and right hand (like his Momma!) and I hope he continues to do this... it helps out so much when it comes to drawing and multi-tasking! I'm just hoping that when he starts Pre-School his teacher won't do what a lot of teachers do and try to "correct" him on which hand he uses to write or draw with.

Somewhere in all of this awesomely cool toddler-ness, there is bound to be some sadness, though. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about this until he was at least five years old and in school... but Leland has already brought up the "baby thing". I mean, not in the way a five year old would... but I guess because of the whole Doula thing and looking up videos and whatnot, Leland has begun talking about Babies. He points at Babies, he wants to hold Babies, he pretends that his toys are Babies... Let the slow torture begin. Tomorrow (January 10th) makes exactly 2 years of Infertility and TTC. =/ I was dreading the day he would come home from school and ask why his friend had a brother or sister and he didn't or, even worse... that he would sit on Santa's lap one Christmas and ask for a baby brother or sister. (*mental slap and calming breaths*) But we're slowly moving out of the Fertility phase and looking into Adoption, since the Navy helps out with it. Leland would make an awesome big brother- even I would be jealous!(*oldest child in the family*)

So anyway... that's all the big updates on Leland! =) He's doing great, thanks for asking! Lol.