Happy 2nd Birthday, Leander!

Today, my sweet little boy turns TWO year old!
I simply cannot believe that my tiny little baby boy turns two years old today – it seems like just yesterday that Derrick & I were crying in the ultrasound room as the tech told us: “It’s a boy!”
Over the last two years, Leander has become this fiery little spot of sunshine in our family. We literally cannot imagine life without him & are so ridiculously thankful for his little spit-fire personality in our house.

Here’s a little update on what Leander’s up to these days:

• It’s been a whole year since we introduced Leander to his blankie & it still remains his absolute favorite & most cherished possession. He affectionately calls it “gankie” & literally carries it everywhere. In fact, we used to leave the house without it, but I very quickly learned: the blankie must come with us at all times (it stays in the car, but it must be in the car when we return or else there will be a melt-down). I do my best to sneak it into the washing machine as often as possible (it gets pretty grungy after being dragged everywhere). His favorite (most soothing) position with the blankie is to be sucking his ring & middle fingers of his left hand, while holding a corner of the blankie, in his right hand, up to his nose. It’s so sweet to see!
  While Braelynn has never been specifically attached to any singular object for more than a few weeks at a time, Leander has imprinted on his blankie & I see him loving it until it disintegrates.
• Speaking of Braelynn – Leander adores his big sister. He follows her around & wants to do everything she does. And what’s challenging is: he actually attempts to do everything she does! If she climbs up onto something – so does he. If she craws underneath something – so does he. If she is sitting & playing – so is he. If she is watching tv – so is he. If she is crying – so is he. If she is running around – he’s chasing her. Most of the time, it’s cute. But other times, it gets a bit dangerous. He’s a brave little dude & thinks he can do anything, after all!
  Overall though, he loves her & she loves him so so much. They truly do have a sweet relationship (even if he destroys her stuff on occasion) & I hope they are best friends forever.
• Leander’s a decent eater – he’s not a champion, but he does a pretty good job. His favorite foods are: cinnamon rolls (you should see the literal dance he breaks out in when he realizes we’re making cinnamon rolls!) pancakes, bacon, chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, Kix cereal, bananas, broccoli, pizza, and literally everything else, he just dips in ranch dressing & we’re good to go. He LOVES ranch dressing.
• A few weeks ago, I asked Leander to throw something in the trash for me & now he thinks he should throw everything in the trash. It’s actually scary to think that we’ve probably thrown out a good handful of objects that Leander tossed into the trash can without us knowing. He has tossed plates, forks, cups, spoons, and toys into the trashcan. We’ll be cleaning up & we’ll ask him to put something away, and instead of putting it in it’s box/container, he’ll walk into the kitchen & toss it in the trash.
• Somewhere along the line, Leander learned to “fake sleep” and “snore” and it’s absolutely hilarious to witness (it’s probably something his big sister taught him). He’ll grab his blankie, lay down, close his eyes, and fake snore – oh it’s so funny.
• Speaking of sleeping – Leander continues to be the best sleeper in our house. He loves his bed (and his blankie in his bed). He was waking up once in the middle of the night & I would nurse him (the one time a day I still nursed him), but we all came down with a super-cold last week & that was the end of that. He couldn’t really breathe out of his nose & so he refused to nurse 2 nights in a row & so that’s the end of our nursing journey! I nursed Braelynn until she was 2 years old, so that was my goal with Leander – and we made it (ending just 8 days ago). Since then, he’s pretty much been sleeping through the night (like I always knew he would). He still takes a nap in the afternoon – overall, he just loves to sleep!
• Last week, when we were sick, he really became attached to me. And now, since we’ve all recovered from our bug, he’s still attached, but he manifests it differently: he’ll walk by & wrap his arm around my leg & rest his head there. Or, he’ll crawl over to me on the couch & want to just lay on my chest. Leander’s never been a huge snuggler (Braelynn is our snuggle-bug), so it’s melted my heart to have him suddenly want to cuddle. I hope it’s not just a passing phase but something that sticks!
  Accept when both he and his sister want to snuggle with Mama at the same time – then they both get angry at each other – oops!
• Speaking of which – Leander is incredibly strong-willed & knows exactly what he wants. The trouble is: he can’t always communicate what he wants – which leads to frustration, both on his part & ours. He’s saying more and more words every day! But he’s 2 – he can’t quite form a complex sentence yet (which is totally normal). He tries so hard though – he’ll look straight at you & babble on for a solid 30 seconds & then look at you like, “Well, why aren’t you carrying out my demands?”
• Leander loves to play – he loves cars & anything with wheels & will walk around the entire house, running his car (or truck) over every surface he can touch: walls, doors, windows, radiators, the couch, etc. He loves dinosaurs and loves to ROAR with the few he has (shhh, he’s getting a whole bunch of dinos for his birthday!) He also loves to be rough & thinks it’s hilarious to run over to me, if I’m sitting on the floor, and PUSH me backwards. Of course, he’s not quite strong enough to actually push my backwards, but I oblige him & fall back anyway, which he thinks is hysterical.
• Up until yesterday, I was convinced that Leander was going to be a leftie. He seems to always eat with his left hand & just seemed to be left-dominant in everything he does. That is, until yesterday, when I noticed he ate his breakfast, lunch, and dinner with his right hand (go figure!) I guess we’ll just have to wait & see on that one.
• OH & just in case you think taking photos of this little dude is easy – it is the HARDEST THING EVER. Leander simply hates sitting still. He has places to be, things to play with, places to run off to – sitting for Mama to take his picture is at the very very bottom of his priority list. I’m so thankful to have gotten at least a few fun photos of my little man though (but boy, is it a TON of work – it’s totally worth it, but I was sweating & starving by the time we were done!)

Of course, there is SO much more I could say about our little man, but I’ll cut myself off there.

This weekend, we’ll celebrate with a little “Cars” themed party here at our house (yep, he’s still obsessed with Lightning McQueen) – I cannot wait to see how excited he is to blow out his candles & open all of his presents!
(If you’d like to see Braelynn’s 2-year-old photos, just to compare, you can find them here!)

All of the photos in this post were taking in Leander’s freshly painted bedroom! Just, don’t mind the fact that he doesn’t have baseboards & the paint doesn’t quite meet the floor – one of these days we’ll get around to fixing that!