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Two and a half years…so when do you stop counting months? Anyway, we thought it would be a good time to give you an updated snapshot of our little guy. Six months after his birthday, we can honestly say that the “terrible twos” have arrived: more whining, tantrums and power struggles, but all and all they are better than I have expected (knocking on wood, touching iron, etc.). I still like this age a lot better than the “ones”.

Keegan is doing great, and it is amazing to see how much he has changed in just 6 months. We took him for a check up visit, so we have the most recent measures. He is still on his curve: 25% for weight (12.7 kg/28 lb) , 50% for height (90.5cm/35.6 in), and 25% for head circumference. The doctor found him well, and well developed. Despite his standard height, finding clothes that fit him is a real challenge. 24 months are usually a little too small, while 2T are usually gigantic, especially lengthwise. Even more surprising, Italian clothes are even bigger and longer, like Italy is a land of giants, right? So non of his clothes really fit him: they are either too big or too small.

Isn’t he stylish, with his made in Italy clothes?

What’s new with him? Well, the biggest news is that he is now starting to potty train: the teachers at school decided to try to let him wear underwear a couple of weeks ago, and he has been doing great so far. Very few accidents, and he usually asks us to go pee.He even used the big toilets in public bathrooms, at the doctor, at Target, at friends’ house, etc…but he draw the line at the porta-potty. His reason: ” they are yucky and smelly. Too much paper and doodoo”…and who can blame him? Now, as far as poop…we are not so lucky; Nothing worked so far: we tried bribes (M&Ms and stickers), we tried peer pressure (“all your friends are potty trained and are moving to next class”), we tried to let him stay in his underwear so he will get dirty and get grossed out (he could not care less, while mom, on the other hand, is the one who is TOTALLY grossed out by the cleaning up) and we even tried to buy him a small potty. Nothing. He refuses categorically. Oh well, it will happen. We are just hoping it will happen accidentally one day…

He still likes to read books, or even better, to listen to us reading him books, and he now repeats some of the words on the page. He was given the language and comprehension test at school, and supposedly he scored really well. He was able to clearly pronounce all the letters (except R) and he can understand a story and “retell it”. He was given a test for 3 years old an up. His vocabulary is increasing rapidly, and while English is definitively his first language, he is pretty fluent in both, and knows pretty much the same words in both languages. He may even start a simple Spanish class soon. He is very interested, since his teachers at school speak some Spanish to the kids.

He is still very active, and never sits still. He loves jumping and kicking the ball. He has been going to swimming lessons. We went to a different school this year, and he seems to be enjoying it more (maybe just because he is older). After about a month of “parent and me” swimming class,  he graduated to his first swim class without me in the water. He did well…a little shy maybe, but he did not cry. (-: While he is not yet able to actually swim, he knows how to hold his breath and blow bubbles under the water which is a great step toward water safety. To encourage his swimming skills, we have been playing in the water a lot. While he is not too fond of the big pool — too cold— he LOVES the small, blow up one we bought. And since the weather has not been that great or warm lately, we ended up filling it up with warm water from the garage: so he spends literally hours in there.

The hat and the glasses lasted exactly 3 minutes before being tossed in the water

Some other milestones:

• He has known most common colors (yellow, green, red, blue, orange, brown, black, white) since he turned two, so now we are working on more sophisticated colors: light blues (azzurro) tan, magenta, etc.
• He walks on tip toes
• He has been “counting” (or better yet, memorizing a string of numbers) till 12  in Italian and English (and some Spanish) for a while: he is working on actually counting objects. He can count till three/five so far
• He recognizes many letters of the alphabet
• He speaks in “long sentences” and uses past tense, plurals and some prepositions. He links multiple sentences together. He can retell an event, somewhat
• He is asking “W” questions: Who and What? He is especially curious to know what things are for, and what we are eating, if he sees us chewing
• He is interested in Spanish and wants to learn/hear new words in any language
• He loves to “dance” and sing. He sings familiar songs, or make up the words for his own creations. He hums too.
• He starts playing pretend games. He especially likes to pretend we are going to Seaworld or at the pool
• He started understanding how to play with simple puzzle with cardboard pieces.
• He can recognize most basic shapes. He can sort by color and shape.
• He can put on (and unfortunately off) his pants, underwear, socks, and some shoes. With help, he can put on a shirt
• He enjoys being naked, immensely
• He has bad dreams: which means he often wakes up in the middle of the night, and needs comforting. Yeah, like we needed his sleeping to get worse!
• He gets up from his crib without problems. And yes, he will get his own bed as soon as construction is over, so we can actually fit a bigger bed in his room. He does nap on a full size bed, though, and he only fell off of it once.
• He expresses affection openly. He shows affection for familiar people spontaneously…and he really likes kisses from girls.
• He can identify boys and girls, most of the times.
• He can push the pedals of his tricycle by himself, but he is not too interested in it
• He wants to do lots of stuff by himself, so we are constantly hearing “I need to do it”
• He can draw circular shapes and lines
• He knows his full name, how old he is and can show it with his hand. He also knows the street where he (and Jada and a couple of other neighbors) lives, as well as his city (San Diego) versus the city and country where his grandparents live (Milano, Italy). In a couple of books he can point out the general area of USA and Italy. He also knows he lives on earth and not on another planet. (-:
• He has a good memory: he recognizes streets and remembers things that happened a few months before (he is better than mom on this one)
• Two other things he does better than mom: kick a ball and using 3-d/spacial skills. Since he was 2 he can recognize from outside the house, even with the blinds drawn, mom’s bedroom or his own bedroom…I still have issues with that
• He can stack cubes in tall towers, as tall as he is.

He is still quite the social boy. This means we still have no breaks, and that he requires constant attention, but it also means that he is enjoying playing with other children. He is generally quite good (for a toddler) at sharing and waiting his turn, which makes for pleasant playdates and quite a lot of adult conversation. He is still better with one-on-one interaction  rather than large gatherings: he becomes a little shy when there are a lot of people and children, and needs a little time to warm up.

One of such fun events was Torin’s birthday party. The whole yard was a kid’s dreamland, with a water table, the bouncie and a huge slide/swing playset.

There were kids of varying ages, but Keegan mainly played with the guest of honor. These two really get along well, despite their 6 months age gap. Of course he loved to play, but the pinata was definitely a big hit (no pun intended). None of the little guys was able to smash it, but they had fun trying. And of course, it was even more fun to grab the candies that fell out of it.

Then, it was time for cake, or cupcakes. Keegan enjoyed his chocolate one, while mom feasted on the jummy Nutella/banana/nut dessert that Krista prepared. Adult food and beverages were also available to make it a really great party.

We dove home with an exhausted but happy toddler that night, and we really marveled at how much he has grown and is becoming more and more his own little person everyday. He already has his own favorite sentences, and typical expression and his own sense of humor. We are grateful to have him in our lives, terrible twos notwithstanding.

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