Two or The Year Without Pants

Here's a little peek inside our world with Dean, the two-year-old.

• Apparently, pants are the devil when you're 2.  Dean's been taking his pants off for a long time, but these days, he takes them off every time I turn around. (And sometimes when I don't!)  We were talking to the other Lanes over the weekend on Skype and Dean took his pants off.  We went to the grocery store yesterday and Dean tried to take his pants off. I bent down to pick something up off the floor this morning and Dean ran behind the couch and took his pants off.  What gives?
• We've started potty training.  We have had a successful #1 in the potty once. Marcus is actually taking the lead on this, which has impressed me. We have a little potty training kit we got for free from Pampers that has reward stickers and a Go Diego Go trophy to put on the potty when the child uses it.  So far, we're pretty sure Dean' doesn't really get what's going on, but he certainly likes to sit on his frog potty and he gets really excited when we cheer for him.
• His drawing skills have changed so much in the past couple of weeks.  For a while, he did scribbles, then straight lines.  Now he's doing lots of swirls and zig-zags.  I've been working with him on writing a D and he's interested. He got a 2-sided easel for his birthday. One side has a chalkboard, the other a dry-erase. Truth be told, we have yet to try out the dry erase side because Mama is scurred of a toddler with a marker!  Instead, we use the clip on that side to secure coloring pages and he colors them.  The chalkboard was an instant hit, though,and he uses his sidewalk chalk to create his masterpieces.  Sometimes he'll put the chalk in my hand and put it on the board so I'll help him write his name. However, dude does NOT like to share his crayons.  Whenever he's coloring, I'll try to join in and he'll immediately drop his own crayon to take mine.  I guess he thinks my color might be better.
• The great food fight has begun.  Calling it a fight isn't really fair, mostly because we don't let it turn into one.  Our doctor told us his appetite would change and it most certainly has.  There are days when all he eats is a bowl of Cheerios, a pear and a nectarine.  (Fruit is our constant.)  Other days, he polishes off a pork chop and eats normally throughout the day.  Today's been pretty good--we got a scrambled egg in him at breakfast, had a yogurt mid-morning, then pasta with marinara sauce for lunch, a pear for a snack and dinner's cooking now. He will most likely not eat the dinner because it involves chicken and, like pants, chicken is the devil.
• Christmas and birthday gifts have turned out to be wonderful.  He was really ready for some new toys and the ones he got have been enjoyed so much.  Favorites are the aforementioned easel, a little dump truck full of mega-blocks and his Little People Farm and Garage.
• Dean has finally developed an interest in pretend play!  Every day we feed Grover, brush Stu the monkey's hair and play "Night Night."  He loves to take me over to his mat, make me lie down, hand me a toy to cuddle, give me a big kiss and say "Night Night!"  I am then to close my eyes and snore loudly until he screams "Wake up!"  We played this for an hour last night.
• He's gotten much more independent in his play lately.  Usually, whenever he switches activities or picks up a book, I try to join in. These days, he wants to be left alone a litle more to explore and do his own thing.  I love watching him sit with his books and point out the different animals and what sounds they make or "read" himself a story. 
• My champion tooth-brusher is starting to try the easy way out of brushing his teeth at night.  For some reason, the morning session always goes fine, but at night, he takes the toothbrush, points out Dora and Diego (they're on his toothbrush), sucks off the toothpaste, then hands the brush back to me. Um, no, sir.
• Dean has always enjoyed dancing, but he REALLY enjoys it now, especially since he sings along most of the time.  He even dances in the car.  Marcus turned on the radio the other day and "Single Ladies" was on...Dean went INSANE! He sang along to the "Oh, oh, oh" parts and danced as well as he could in the carseat.  When we got home, I put it on my iTunes and he broke it down as only a toddler can.  "Elmo's Song" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" are still the all-time favorites.
• He's such a little PERSON now.  Up until Christmas, I still really saw him as my baby. He's certainly still MY baby, but he's definitely a big boy.  I can't believe how much he's changed in the past year and I'm both terrified and super-excited about what the next year has in store for us.

Comments

[eva]

Clearly a super-genius, what with the independent play and pottying and all. You're lucky he EVER brushes his teeth ... Megan almost always pulls the "suck the toothpaste off" trick and then screams while Brad holds her down for the real deal brushing.

[Heather]

I have to get up there soon.. I know I keep saying it but, DUDE, I have to actually do it.

[J]

OK, if you don't bring him here right now, I'm coming there. Love that hair. :)

[rkmama]

With that hair and that smile? He is just the cutest.
Rowan used to be SO territorial about her crayons. The minute we sat down to color with her she'd slowly slide the book or page away from us and pretty soon she just blatantly pulled the crayons out of our hand and informed us that it was her picture, which was a bummer because I LOVE coloring books.
Keaton's always been a bear about brushing his teeth, only unclenching his jaw if we pretend we are birds or a lion or some other animal doing the brushing complete with obnoxious sound effects.
And Single Ladies? I'm convinced is toddler crack I bet Keaton and Dean could get a good harmony going with the "oh-oh-oh"'s.