Holt is 2.5!

 "But none of them will ever love you the way I do, it's me and you, boy"

I'm really not quite sure where this half of year has gone. Oh yes I am, taking care of an active 2 year old AND an infant. I can't even believe that in 5 months, Holt will be a 3 year old. 3 is so much older than 2!!! Since Holt turned 2 he has become super talkative. I am seriously impressed by his communication skills. He has a memory like you wouldn't believe, not always a good thing, and his vocabulary grows by the day. He says some of the funniest things, wouldn't you know I can't remember most of them as I type this. Here are a few of my favs:

Holt Sayings:

• "Make Holt sick, have to go to the hopitiable"-When he doesn't want to eat something I have given him to try
• "It's too fit Mommy!"- When something is too big, or small to go somewhere. He must have combined "Too big" with "it doesn't fit".
• "Holt loooove..."- Holt loves a lot of things. Holt love candy, Holt love cookies, Holt love grapes, etc.
• "I'm alake now!" He means awake.
• "Kix it please."-Fix it please
• "Uh oh, what happened?
• "Ooops, almost forgot my bines!" He means vitamins.

Holt looooooves:

• All things Toy Story. Even refers to himself in 3rd person as Buzz Lightyear.
• Being a nakey boy, I can barely keep clothes on him
• Reading. He can pretty much memorize a book and read it back after a couple of times of us reading it to him.
• Pretending. He pretends to cook. He pretends his toys are doing what he has seen them do on Toy Story. Pretends to take care of his "babies" which are all his stuffed animals. He has such a great imagination!
• Cause and effect stories. If I do this then I can't/can do this, and then I, and Mommy will be...He makes up stories all the time.
• Naming things and knowing what people's or animals names are
• Squishing Mommy
• Wrestling with Daddy (AKA jumping on Kyle as hard as he can) 
• Putting his stuffed animals in timeout for "not listening to me!" He's quite the disciplinarian.
• Being chased
• Helping me cook
• Singing...anything

Holt had a 2.5 year checkup also. No shots, just a quick meeting with the Doctor to see how he is doing. He was so good during his checkup.  Here are his stats:

28lbs 4oz (32%)
36.25" (50%)

As you can see he is very skinny. If his eating habits do not improve by age 3, the doctor said we will possibly need to attend a Feeding Disorder clinic. Because his percentage was up from 25%, he was not that worried. He fully expects him to grow out of this by then. I on the other hand am not so sure since he has been this way since he started table foods. He lives on crackers, fruit, and milk pretty much. I have kept him on whole milk for the fat and calories. He will not eat meat, beans, rice, pasta, veggies, pizza, chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, hot dogs, or any of the basic toddler diet staples. I have to give him pediasure several times a week to make sure he is getting enough calories and protein that day. The doctor told me to continue this.

He is truly a well behaved little boy. We get frustrated with him because he is so good so often, that when he does act out we almost don't know how to handle it because we feel he knows better. I have to remind myself that he is only 2. Almost everything is a struggle or a fight though. Diaper changes take 5 minutes. Telling him he needs to get dressed or put his shoes on results in a meltdown nearly every time. Telling him it's time to eat also results in tantrums. He's pretty good at tantrums, and I'm pretty good about ignoring them so they don't last long. He absolutely loves playing! He can play quietly in his room so I don't have to worry about him. When he is playing outside, I do require him to tell me when he is going in the grass, meaning he's going to his playset. I have to be out there with him for obvious reasons. He only thinks he can climb the monkey bars. He tells me every single time too. He's so good sometimes that I have a lot of trust that he is doing what he is supposed to be doing! He is free to play on his trampoline which is currently on our porch and within sight of the living room when he is behaving well. I try not to hover too much and I think that is why he is able to play so well independently. He does love when I play with him too of course. We play Buzz Lightyear and Zurg. Basically I fall down when he aims his "laser" at me. He almost always requires a dance partner, prefers that to dancing alone. I'm happy to ablige. I could go on and on, and I probably should so that I always remember how much fun we are having together at this age. Don't get me wrong, we have our moments. We spend ALOT of time together, it's bound to happen. He's a 2 year old boy and everyday I'm terrified he is going to hurt himself badly! I do love that we can have conversations that make sense, it's such a joy as a parent to see him becoming this little person. His teacher just sings his praises at school. So many times she has told me that he always listens to her, even looks around at the other kids like "why aren't you over here doing what she just asked." He follows directions well. Recently she sent home a list of things the 2 year olds need to work on and she told me to disregard the list because it did not apply to Holt. Say what? Talk about a huge compliment to Kyle and I as parents.

We have not fully jumped into potty training with him for several reasons. I needed to keep as much of my sanity as possible after we brought Jett home and while dealing with his colic. Holt shows nearly every sign of potty training, but I've been waiting for a big one...that his dirty diapers bother him. He went through a brief phase where this happened and he took his diaper off himself and waited for me to change him, even found him standing in the toilet once with you know what everywhere! I also did not want him to regress since he sees me changing Jett all the time. Anywho, we plan on working on it soon and I expect him to be trained with no problem by his 3rd birthday.

He is truly a wonderful big brother. I expected to see some jealousy on his part since we spent so much time together, but there hasn't been any. He absolutely adores Jett! He is always wanting to help out with him and tries to make him laugh. I have yet to see him act out towards him in any way. Holt actually got really upset the one time he accidentally hurt him. I no longer have to worry about if Jett is ok if I leave the room to go to the restroom. I couldn't have asked for a sweeter big brother for him.

We absolutely adore our oldest boy!