What's up with the boys?

Last week Malcolm finally had his 2 and half year appointment and we "celebrated" Eamon's 4 and a half year birthday.

Both boys are into superheroes right now. Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Hawkeye are the most common choices. Malcolm especially loves the bow and arrow heroes and Eamon tends to stick to the punching heroes. They have costumes and weapons and action figures so the superhero play morphs from one set of toys to the other. They also love to play with their Duplo Legos and build all kinds of things, from rockets to dinosaurs to robots. Of course books are a favorite activity, and sticker books are a fun "project" with Mom. They also both love to draw and it is fun to watch entire stories take place on one page. Octonauts and dinosaurs also are common themes of play time.

Malcolm is growing so fast. He still wears 2T, but I have moved him up to 3T and he seems to find them more comfortable, even if the pant legs are still a little long. We got new shoes and I have been squeezing his feet into size 6 shoes, so we moved him up to size 8, though they are a little big. He talks all the time now, especially when he is supposed to be doing something else, like eating. He tells great stories and is intelligible most of the time.

He is allowed to have his Nuk during the night, but no more day-Nuk. This change still brings much woe and strife when he is tired, but we have also learned that he is very sensitive to getting enough food and drink. Often he is grumpiest right before meal times, but as soon as he gets some food in his belly, he is fine again. If he cries and asks for Nuk during the day, some almond milk or water often helps him get over the mopey-ness.

Malcolm is still sensitive to dairy products too. He can have yogurt on occasion, ice-cream every now and again, and ranch dressing with certain meals without staying up all night. However, too much or too often gives him a belly ache, gas, and general discomfort. Fortunately, American cheese is the only type of cheese he likes right now, and that doesn't seem to bother him.

Eamon is also growing too, even though he is still in 4T clothes. If he grows any more, his pants will be too short, though I am hoping we can stay in 4T pants until shorts weather and just move up to 5T in the fall. He is getting much more coordinated: running better, climbing better, pedaling better, and he is enjoying his abilities. He loves to play outside, except when it is cold. His fine motor skills are getting better too. He can use his spoon, though he doesn't like to. He loves to write and draw, though his perfectionist tendencies sometimes frustrate him. Puzzles are fascinating to him and if he can dance around while putting them together, he can focus on them for long periods of time, though he likes it best when I help him.

On his half-birthday, we cut the Nuk, and gave him a "nerf" rifle as the promised reward for giving Nuk up. Unfortunately, the giving up of Nuk also triggered the giving up of naps. He is surviving the Nuk transfer better than I am surviving the naps transfer, though it has been a bit crazy with extra-home work that I am trying to get done during nap time.

He seems to take after his father with his verbal skills and enjoyment. He loves poetry and rhymes and will ask me to repeat them again and again until he can say them. He loves stories and is beginning to make up his own. And he comes up with amazing phrases that he uses in his games. The other day when he was being Batman, he wanted me to say, "What is that piece of night?" whenever he ran into the room.

He loves to learn new things and tell them to others. He makes connections between sounds and letters, though I haven't started to teach him to read yet. He is fascinated by plants and animals and their classifications. And he makes funny connections about such things. The other day, he drew me a monster and said there was only one of these monsters. And it was a daddy so there would be no more baby monsters and when it died, it would be extinct like the dinosaurs.

In other news, we finally got a family photo!