What are Jack and Cullen up to?

I can't believe in exactly one week they'll be 2 1/2! Here's the latest on their rapidly developing interests and abilities:

*At last, Jack says “YES!” At 2 ½, one of them finally gets it! Until recently, they would only say it if we forced them to repeat it after us, and even then it was rarely. A couple weeks ago I heard him (or maybe it was Cullen) say it once or twice unprompted but this week Jack is suddenly saying it all the time! This is a big parenting triumph for me, I’m so glad to finally have at least one son who answers in the affirmative!

*They know most of their shapes including circle, square, triangle, rectangle, star, and heart. They can tell you that a circle is round and a triangle has three sides. They also just learned pentagons and know that Daddy works in one and they excitedly point it out every time we drive by.

*They can draw straight lines and circles. Jack apparently wanted to demonstrate his lines on our couch last week. So we’ll be investing in a couple of slipcovers this week.*Still completely obsessed with fire trucks and trains… and fire hydrants. I honestly never realized how many fire hydrants there are in the world until these boys took an interest in them!

*They can count to 5 and they try to hold up the correct amount of fingers. They’ve got 1,2,4 and 5 fingers down pretty well. Three is tricky though! They can actually count all the way to 10 but they usually skip 6 and sometimes 2 as well. They’re very proud of their counting though and will often shout out random numbers at strangers and then get extremely upset if their genius isn’t fully appreciated by these strangers.

*They’re beginning to memorize some of the lines on their most watched fire truck and train movies. I guess that makes me a terrible parent. But I already knew that.

*They will literally repeat the same phrase dozens of times until you finally acknowledge them and either respond to their question or repeat the phrase back to them. A simple "Yes" or "Ok" doesn't cut it, they will keep up their constant repetition until get the answer they're looking for. I think this is largely responsible for the deterioration of my mental state recently.

*They recognize numbers 0-10 and several letters by sight. I was completely shocked when they first pointed to a 4 and said “Four!” So now that I know they’re capable of recognizing letters and numbers, we’ve begun working on it more and they’re picking up more numbers and letters quickly.

*They love to help around the house with little chores like watering the plants, feeding the cats, clearing the table, doing the laundry, dusting, and taking the trash out. And they’re wonderful at cleaning up their toys! We clean them up each day before naptime and again at bedtime. Sometimes they dawdle but they never complain, I’m thankful that they like to help so much!

*They are getting really bossy with each other. I think it’s mostly just their habit of copying what I say though. But hearing Jack tell Cullen he can’t have any candy because he didn’t try to go potty is pretty funny.

*Whenever I tell them something is gone or they can’t have any more they immediately say “Buy more ___________ at the store?” The other day I told them I wasn’t going to make any more pancakes because they had already eaten 3 each and so they asked me to go to the store and buy more “pay-pakes” all day.

*Still pretty picky eaters but not nearly as bad as they could be, I guess. I’ve heard of some kids who won’t try anything at all and live off of hot dogs or macaroni & cheese, so I’m thankful they at least like some healthy foods and don’t ask for sweets or snacks a lot. And I’m learning a lot of little tricks to make their food healthier. More bang for the bite!

*They’re just beginning to be interested in what they’re wearing but I think it has more to do with sibling rivalry than actually caring about their clothes. If one boy has a race car on his shirt, his brother also must have a race car or something equally as cool, like a fire truck. The other night we were getting ready for bed and I realized a little too late that the other race car pajamas were still in the laundry. It took about 5 minutes of consoling before Cullen finally pulled himself together, stopped sobbing “raaaace caaaar” and agreed to put on his animal pajamas instead.

*They love to go the pool but don’t really spend all that much time in the water. They climb in and out, walk around the outside, play with other kids, or just sit on the edge playing with their pool toys most of the time. The one exception is when we go to the big pool instead of the wading pool (which we only do when Daddy’s with us) and then Cullen wants to jump in whether you’re ready to catch him or not!

*Still great nappers too... most days at least! They actually play in their room together for an hour or so before they finally fall asleep. But since this means an extra kid-free hour for me, I couldn't be happier! Altogether, they usually are in their room, either playing or napping for 2 1/2-3 hours every day. I call this my 'down time' even though I usually spend the entire time cleaning, organizing, getting dinner ready, or doing other random household stuff. And if I'm lucky, I get time to blog :-) It doesn't matter what kind of morning we had, I always feel so refreshed having a clean house, a homemade dinner cooking and happy, well-rested kids!