Jonah is 2.5!

I cannot believe my little man is 2.5 now! Time is really flying now and we are on our way to the big 3! It feels like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time that he was born and we brought him home. I am sure this feeling will not change.

Jonah turned 2.5 on Monday, January 21st. I am just now getting around to blogging about it though.:( There are so many things he is doing now and he is getting so independent. I will try to get them all logged here in some sort of organized fashion.

Eating:
Jonah is still a pretty good eater but he is on the picky side too. He will eat ham, hotdogs, bologna, chicken nuggets but he does not like much ground beef. He just recently started eating scrambled eggs again. He still loves his fruit the best. He loves drinking his milk (2%) and will drink plain water really well too. We never give him coke or much caffeine to drink at all. He loves grilled cheese sandwiches and just last night he ate his own big ham sandwich and loved it. He also loves snacky chips and goldfishes a lot. He eats oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast. I don't worry too much about giving him sugar in the morning because he definitely runs it off by lunch. His favorite special treats are suckers and M&Ms if he goes on the potty chair. We are trying to incorporate more veggies at supper and sometimes he will eat them and sometimes he will take a couple of bites and then he's done. At least he tries most everything we ask him to. I am going to work on trying some recipes that disguise the veggies within the meal.

Sleeping:
Jonah has moved his bedtime to around 9:00 most nights. He is in the bed after stories by 9 each night but sometimes it takes him till 9:30 to go to sleep on his own. We have had issues with him calling out to one of us to come "wock him" and sometimes we do but most of the time it's just a ploy to delay sleeping because he doesn't go to sleep when we rock him. So we have gone back to ignoring any requests from his room and telling him each night to be quiet and go to sleep or he will get in trouble. Only once has Michael had to get stern with him about hollering out to us from his crib. He sleeps good with maybe just a couple of cries during the night but most of the time it is in his sleep or he is cold. He gets up at 7:00 most mornings too. He still takes a good nap of 1.5 - 2 hours every afternoon. He really needs some kind of nap but could probably get away with just an hour nap and go to bed a little earlier.

Playing:
Jonah still plays really well by himself but has started wanting us to play with him more. He asks us to play with him on his train table usually. I think he will do well with having a playmate in his future. He still loves to do puzzles and look at his books. He has started to want to interact and play with us without toys more. He loves to wrestle with his Daddy and for Mommy to chase him. He loves to be chased and loves to just run around. He does this mostly when we are at church (big buildings) or outside when the weather is nice. He also has recently started playing on technology on his Nana's Kindle Fire. She has several toddler apps that he loves to play but we try to keep those to certain blocks of time so he is sure to play with actual toys and get some movement in too. He calls is "Nana's reader", so cute!!

Personality:
Such a big personality for such a little guy. We can understand almost all of what he says and he is really talking in good sentences. Like he will say (a lot) "I do it" or "I do it myself". He is still timid in new situations and sticks close to us when we go places, which I like. I am glad he doesn't want to jump ship when we are out and about in parking lots and stores. He is actually a really big talker around us but when we go out in public he is quieter. He knows that he has to whisper in church, which I think is amazing that he is already doing that. I figured we had a while to go before behaving in church would be expected. Now we just have to work on sitting still in church LOL. He is still a big lover. He gives us lots of hugs and kisses and doesn't mind it. He tells us he "woves us". Daddy has gotten lots of unsolicited love though. I usually have to beg for it. LOL Jonah is usually a happy kid and glad to be doing whatever we are doing for the day. He is particular about how things should go though in his normal routine. If we do something one way one time that is how he wants it done every time and he lets you know. He is definitely a typical 2 year old in he is always testing what is acceptable. He does say "please" and "thank you" without having to always be prompted and he is learning that we don't tell Mommy and Daddy "NO" we say "no thank you" but even then we still have to do whatever it is. His big thing right now is finding us somewhere in the house and asking "what you doing Daddy?". So cute! Or he will ask "what's that?" a lot.

Behavior:
Like I said he is typical 2 year old. One day he will be very obedient and the next day he is testing all his boundaries again. He is very independent and wants to do most everything he can himself. I just hope that carries over into potty training soon. He does have a tempter that flares at times but we usually try to use time-out to let him calm down. Thankfully he is not a throw-himself-on-the-floor-screaming kind of toddler. He just cries and gets a little loud and sometimes he will stomp but that's about it. Once he repeatedly defies a command a couple of times that we know he heard and understood he does get a diaper spanking (not hard) and sit in time-out. Usually that is all it takes and he is good to go. We have learned the hard way that when he gets too hungry (hangry) there is nothing much that will work discipline-wise until he gets full. So we try to not let him get to hungry. Some kids it's if they get too tired but for him it's hunger that brings out the beast. LOL We try to not punish him for bad behavior choices too much when we know hunger is the cause and just take care of getting him fed. He is usually back to his normal self once he is full again.

New skills or things Jonah has learned:

-knows all his letters when he sees them but not really what order they go in
-learning some numbers by sight but he can count to 10 really well. He just skips seven a lot.
-really good hand/eye coordination
-started to try singing more (Jesus loves me mostly)
-trying to spout out whole sentences on his own
-going in the potty chair before his bath most nights but not any times in between
-really good at helping us by fetching something we ask for and bringing it right to us
-helps with putting away laundry with Mommy
-he can do more for himself physically like climbing into his booster chair
-he figures out how things work really quickly
-his memory is really good and he can recall specific things he saw or did from several days ago.

I cannot think of anything else to add but I think this should be enough. LOL

We just love our little man and are so proud of the little kid he is turning into. He has lots of new things coming his way this year and I know he will handle them like a champ!