Progress Report

I used to write progress report posts for the Girl but I seldom do it for the Boy. He is always expected to just keep up and I must admit that I didn't notice as many of his milestones. I was organizing the blog the other day and noticed quite a few Girl posts lately and so I thought it's time to think about the Boy and only the Boy. I took some pictures of him. It was a fun exercise. He cooperated for a little while and then went nuts. He tried to hide from me, put his face flat on the floor, make ridiculous faces and most amusingly, close his eyes.

IQ: He seems pretty smart to me. Okay... I am biased... He can retell events of the day. He can engage in pretend play. He can count up to 20 (but he doesn't understand one to one correlation). He is somewhat bilingual - better than the Girl was at this age but not as good as the Girl is currently. He can recognize some letters of the alphabet. He knows his colors.

EQ: He is clingy as heck! Dropping the Girl off for school is such a pleasant experience but such is not so with the Boy. It's been at least 6 months and he still cries EVERY TIME I drop him off. It kills me to watch. Other than that, he is usually quite cheerful. He can be very agreeable. Most people who know him have heard him say, "Okay" to pretty much anything I ask of him. He is very fond of big sister. He spontaneously say "I love you" to me about 5-6 times a day. He has yet to give me a kiss without being asked.

Social Life:
He has friends but he prefer the Girl's friends. He gets overwhelmed easily when there are too many people around. Once he warms up, he can be very friendly. For instance, he used to cry when I walk into the Y with him for fear of being dropped off at Child Watch. Now, he walks in there like he owns the place and often shows off his toys to strangers who work out there. He also loves going to the Girls school. It cracks me up every time he pull out a chair for himself at breakfast at the school and demands food from the teachers. The teachers are very kind and usually indulge him which only encourages this behaviour. I swear - the teachers there probably think I never feed my children at home.

Eating habits:
He is a pretty good eater. He prefers Chinese foods to American foods. His favorites are jook and soup made by his daycare lady. He hates pretty much all things I cook for him. So at home, he eats well when I heat up precooked things like chicken nuggets and pizza. On the nights that I actually cook him rice or pasta, I have to feed him and chase him down to eat.

Motor skills:
Not much fine motor skills to speak of. He is quite impatient with drawing. He hasn't produced much more than a couple lines on a sheet of paper. He is better at fiddling with puzzle pieces than the Girl was, though. His gross motor skills are also better than the Girl at this age. He can climb up and down the stairs on his own when the mood strikes. He can walk over 1o blocks with us when the mood strikes. He is still not a big fan of the water but I hope to start swimming with him regularly again this summer.

Physical growth:
He is a whole 35lbs of yummy goodness! He is pretty tall. I haven't measured him in a while but I think he is only a couple inches shorter than the Girl. Well... she is pretty short so that ain't saying much. Let's just say 3T pants usually fit him pretty well. His hair is definitely wavy like Daddy's and his complexion is becoming more fair.

Sleeping habits:
He naps 2-3 days in a week and sleeps through the night 3-4 nights a week. When he sleeps through the night, he would sleep for 11-12 hours. We are trying to teach him to go back to sleep on his own when he wakes up in the middle of the night. I think we are making some progress.

Potty training:
We have made ZERO progress with this and yes, it's all my fault.

Special skills:
He is a master at making sweet faces at you when he knows his is in big trouble. He is also very good at hiding body parts to avoid being accessible. For example when I say diaper change, he is very quick to sit down and say, "you can't get me". He is also the designated messenger in the house. Whenever the Girl wants something that she is pretty such I am going to say no to, she gets him to come ask me. It's hilarious how some of these messages are transmitted. The Girl says, "Go tell mommy I want to watch Tianna (princess movie)" sometimes ends up being "Girl wants no bad witch and the frog but *I* like McQueen!" When I say "tell the Girl to clean herself up and come talk to me herself", he would pass on the message of "mommy said talk to yourself!"

Conclusion:
The Boy is a happy, healthy, cute as pie (according to me) little person. He is growing up faster than I can keep up with. It has been a fun-filled, crazy, loud, and entertaining 2.5 years! We love you, Baby Boy!