Andrew Update - 2 years 2 months

(Some of the pictures are kind of old ... i.e., his birthday party, but oh, well).

Andrew has had a bit of a crazy month with a new baby brother here. Plus, it seems like the terrible twos are starting to hit in full measure. He definitely isn't a baby anymore.

So, Andrew really likes baby Seth - most of the time. He is really gentle with him and loves to hug and kiss him, especially his toes. He tells the baby "Okay" when he is crying (more like fussing since Seth almost never cries) and pats him gently and pushes his swing a little bit. He does get upset/jealous when I am nursing and sometimes pretends to hit the baby, but mostly because I just told him he couldn't run cars over the baby or the nursing pillow.

On the other hand, he is not so happy with us (pretty typical, I think). He says "No", "Go away", "Stop it" almost constantly. He tells us that we are mean or that he hates us (his vocabulary has really expanded). He orders us around all the time - where he wants us to be, what he wants us to do. He has always been a little defiant, but that has definitely ramped up. Changing his diaper, going or leaving anywhere, taking a bath, taking naps, and sometimes eating are usually met with tantrums and lots of screaming and crying. Instead of wanting to be comforted when he is upset, he usually will go to his room and shut the door and tell us to go away. So, lots of noise and lots of screaming. I just try to tell myself this won't last forever, because it is very tiring. More tiring than a newborn for sure.

Andrew has decided (for the most part) that he is done with diapers and is always trying to have us let him wear underwear. Most of the time Katsu obliges and sometimes I do. The thing is, he still doesn't seem really interested in using the potty. Us telling him to sit on the potty is met with major tantrums. But I get really really tired of cleaning up dirty underwear. I am still not sure how this will all resolve.

When he's not in the terrible two's part of his day, he is a pretty terrific kid. Andrew's vocabulary is still through the roof compared to a few months ago and he talks incessently. He loves to ask the same question over and over and over and over .... he still doesn't say why, but lots of "What"s and "Where"s. He also seems to be pretty deep in the world of his imagination. He is constantly telling stories about his cars (which might as well be dolls for how he plays with them sometimes), his stuffed animals, and his other toys. His cars' new favorite activity is going to church, which they all do multiple times a day. Andrew must really like going to church because he talks about it ALL the time. Yesterday, in a pretty typical speech:

Andrew: Bye, Mom. (he says this multiple times a day too)
Me: Where are you going?
Andrew: To church.
Me: Oh, what are you going to do there?
Andrew: Hit the girls.

I told him that we shouldn't hit anyone and then he proceeded to act out how the girls were going to cry and then he hid (I guess cause he was going to get in trouble?). Our poor nursery leaders.

Thankfully, Andrew is still playing pretty well by himself (mostly with his cars), still loves reading which we do hours each day (a huge fan of Curious George and Richard Scarry books), and loves to go outside on walks and to the pool. Hopefully, his anger at us will dissipate in the coming month and he will suddenly use the potty perfectly (ha ha ha).