Mason Porter,
Oh my goodness how you have grown!! I feel like I write that every time but since your 18 month letter you have serious grown up from baby/toddler to what feels like an actual little man.
At your 2 year check up you weighed 28.8 pounds (57th percentile), were 32.5 inches tall (13th percentile) and your head circumference was 48.3cm (40th percentile). You definitely had quite the growth spurt in height these past 6 months. You are still wearing size 4 diapers, 18 month fleece sleepers & mainly 18 month clothes. There are a few 24 month shirts you can wear but 24 month pants are out of the question.
You are still a very slow teether! Teething is just hard for you little one. You have all of your teeth now except for 1 canine tooth and your 2 year old molars. We know your last eye tooth is almost through because we've been able to see it forever & we are suspecting your molars are coming in but really don't have a way of knowing unless we chance sticking our fingers in the back of your mouth.
Over the last 6 months you have started going to the sitter that your cousins have all used, Miss Stacy. She has been special to our family since Addy was born & we are so glad we have the opportunity to use her with you. You absolutely adore her & she you. There are 3 other little boys there and your cousin Grace goes there as well. The interaction with you and the boys there has been so great! It has really helped to develop your talking and your friendship skills. It has also been so good for your schedule! You have always been our schedule boy and you work like clock work for meals and naps.
The past 6 months your talking has blown us away! You have always been a talker and further ahead in your word count, but now you are saying full blown sentences & many of them have taken us completely off guard. It is so much fun because we can actually have real conversations with you. To date the longest sentence you have said is 7 words long. Some of the phrases or words that have caught us off guard or made us laugh:
"Don't worry Mama, I got your back"
"Woah Daddy! I bit it!" (after falling)
"strawbawine"-trampoline
"wite a queen"- Lightening McQueen
"Copee"- coffee
"wippee"- Blippi
"Poo butter"- Peanut butter
"Craynons"-Crayons
"Colnint"-Collin
"cryning"- Crying you constantly tell us that everyone is "cryning" even if they aren't. We are interested to see how this plays out when the new baby is crying a lot.
"Bawoom"- Balloon
"Miss Freena" Miss Fritter
You transitioned yourself from a crib to a toddler bed. One day at nap I mentioned to Daddy that you were trying to climb out. About 10 minutes later Daddy checked the monitor and we couldn't find you. Sure enough when I went in to check on you, you were in the corner behind the crib hiding and playing. That day we transitioned you into a toddler bed. I was terrified because when you didn't want to go to sleep you would try to shake the bars of your crib down. You complete surprised me at how well you did! To this day you have gotten out of bed 1 time when you weren't supposed to and as soon as we said to get back in your bed you did. If you wake up at night or in the morning you don't get out of your bed, you wait for us to come get you. You also like to put yourself down. So if we say "ok Mason time for a nap" you will find your "night nights" (foxes) and go get in your bed.
You are a pretty great sleeper. Since we sleep trained you, you have been one to put yourself to sleep. We have had the occasional struggle with night wakings for: night terrors, teeth and growing pains. And have still weathered the occasional sleep regression. But Daddy is a champ and normally the one that is able to comfort you back to sleep.
Your current schedule:
6:00-7:00: Wake up
Breakfast is always at Miss Stacy's. You aren't a breakfast eater and refuse it on the weekends here often.
11:30: Lunch
12:20: Nap. This lasts from anywhere between 1.5-3 hours.
3:30: Snack
6:30: Dinner
7:45: Bath
8:00 Bed
Eating is still hit or miss at our house with you. If you are teething you will just straight refuse to eat period. We have found lately that you prefer to eat later so are more apt to try new things if we offer dinner at 6:30 vs. 5:30. You are also more apt to try something new if we completely ignore you. If you aren't feeling your dinner and we pretend you aren't even at the table you will give in and eat. If we try to coax you into trying something it's absolutely just not happening. Your favorites: Any fruit but mostly bananas, apples, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, pizza, spaghetti (mostly just the meat sauce), yogurt, french toast, pancakes, donuts, Mac & Cheese, grilled cheese & peanut butter. You still hate eggs and potatoes of any kind.
You have started to learn SO MUCH the last 6 months! You blow us away with how much you pick up. Daddy is of course so proud you can tell him each different construction vehicle. You've even taught Mama the names. You are able to identify all of your colors including grey and navy blue. You can identify the shapes: circle, triangle, diamond, oval & sometimes square. You still call a rectangle a phone & it makes us laugh. You are also able to put some puzzles together. You can tell us & show us the emotions for happy, sad, angry, scared, funny. In fact any time you laugh you insist on telling whatever made you laugh that they are so funny. You like to find all of the stop lights and tell us what color they are and what they mean. Green means go Mama! Red means stop Mama! We may be biased but we sure think you're a smartie!
You still live to be outside rain or shine. We started letting you go out in the rain some days and I think those are your favorite days! You are all boy running and jumping in puddles. You got a new swing set for your birthday and that thing has paid for itself multiple times already. You absolutely love it!
Your favorite toys are still cars. You have a serious love of Monster Trucks, Cars vehicles and construction trucks. Basically if it is a tool or it has wheels you love it. You have recently discovered Blippi on YouTube and fallen in love with his shows. Especially The Monster Truck Song and The Excavator Song.
You are very inquisitive & want to figure out just how things work. You would spend every night in the garage with your Daddy if you could tinkering with and fixing things. You like to get the right tools to adjust the wheels, name the different tools and if something is broken that Daddy needs to fix you are right there with him fixing it up. You even have your own little head lamp.
Speaking of right there with Daddy. You are officially 200% Daddy's boy. You love your Mama when Daddy says no or you are hurt but 99% of the time you only want your Daddy. More than that you want to do absolutely everything exactly the way your Daddy does it. Wear his shirts, eat what he eats, where he eats, mimic his every move. You are like him right down to his independent personality and somehow have even adopted his southern accent for certain words. It is adorable to watch and melts my heart. There is nobody I'd rather you be like than your Daddy!
Mason, you bring us so much joy and happiness! I love watching life through your eyes! You are so positive and excited about everything. You aren't scared of anything (literally the most fun part of your birthday was trying to pop all of your balloons until you succeeded) but rather take on everything with confidence and excitement! I hope you always have that outlook on life. I am so excited to see you fulfill this new role of big brother! I know you are going to be great at it. You are already expressing so much excitement for the baby to be here!
My very favorite saying between you and I is I will say: "Mason I love you sooo" and you repeat "much" and baby boy I do love you SO MUCH! I hope you always know that without a doubt! I am so proud of who you are becoming and cannot wait to watch you continue to grow.
Love,
Mommy
