The Latest and Greatest of Nate

I haven't posted much about Nate since I have been horrible about taking pictures and super busy. I don't really have any super fabulous pictures to share, but here's an update on what Nate's been up to as a crazy 2-year old.

Nate has taken a real interest in stuffed animals and little animal toys. Right now he's very into Dinosaur Train and has earned several dinosaurs as rewards to good behavior and sitting at the table for all of dinner. He likes to pretend that his toys are helping him do things like open the garage or pick out a book. It cracks me up that he has such an imagination.

He also tells us what he is "drawing". For example, tonight in the bathtub he informed us that he was drawing a big castle and a meerkat. I still haven't figured out where he learned about castles and meerkats.He still scribbles, but in his head it is something.

Nate knows the letters T, A and O. He loves this show called Super Why on PBS and he's very into "super letters" right now. He can count to 3 also. Although I'm a teacher and I'm all for giving kids a head start on their education I am not a fan at the age of 2 of doing anything more than comes up naturally in our exploration of the world. When he's ready and interested he'll learn more ABCs and numbers.

Nate still loves to read. We read at least 4 books a night and more if we are home during the day. He has favorites and certain topics he's interested in right now like trains, but he'll read a huge variety of books. We have tons of books from his baby shower and some from my classroom in his room to choose from plus books we check out from the library every few weeks. I can't remember if I blogged before that we got Nate his first library card already. Nate even has some parts of some books memorized now.

Nate is in the No stage, but he's moved from no to nope. He says it even when he means yes sometimes. He's so silly. He doesn't actually say yes yet, but it's very clear when he wants something.

We are definitely dealing with the terrible twos, which comes and goes and seems to be worse when he is sick like right now.

Nate still sleeps in his crib and has not climbed out yet. Right now he likes to sleep on his pillow pet Larry and be snuggled up in his blanket. He also likes to bring all his friends to bed with him so we have to limit how many he has. He's not too attached to any one toy or animal. It just depends on his interest for the day.

Nate has gotten to be a pickier eater lately, which I am still getting used to after him eating everything and anything all day long. He just doesn't have as much of an appetite so sometimes he's just not interested in eating, especially at dinnertime. However, he loves fish like salmon and tuna. He won't eat shrimp though for some reason. He also loves any snacks Eddie eats, which includes trail mix and chips like salt and vinegar among other flavors. He's a pretty adventurous eater when he's hungry.

He's still the cutest and the smartest kid in the whole world in my opinion. I'd rather be with him even on his bad days than with 28 children that belong to other people. I'm looking forward to Spring Break and summer so I can see him more.