Coghills in Florida : Leo 2 Years and 4 Months

I almost said 28 months.
But didn't, because I know how people find that annoying... haha! And I know it's annoying, but for blogging about one's development I think it's sort of relevant, right?

My Leo is well on his way to being 2 and half!! It's crazy!

I don't even know where to start with all the things this kid does! He has so much personality and interests and energy!

Since my last post specifically about Leo he has become a big brother! I don't know how much I can or should brag about what a great big brother he has been... but I have seriously been blessed with the best big brother for Houston! Leo has a great balance between loving and doting on his baby brother and sorta ignoring him (in a good way!) and giving Houston and I space when we need it. He'll give him kisses and ask to hold him and share his toys with him... but when I'm nursing Houston he's perfectly fine to play by himself or sit next to me and wait. It's been such a relief.

In terms of learning I can barely keep up with Leo. He's constantly wanting to know more and more. He requests to do flash cards, haha, and his new favorite questions are - what is that called? what's that do? what's that smell like? (usually asks about smells when it's something he wants to eat or drink! ha!)
He knows the alphabet perfectly - can sing the whole song (including the difficult lmnop part clearly lol) he can recognize every letter - he has upper case down and is getting good with lower case too! He can spell his name! Granted he does have a super easy short name :) He can count to 20! He can recognize every number 1-10. Double digits are still tricky. And we've started with counting in spanish! He can do 1-5 by himself perfectly and 1-10 with a little guiding. We're going to try to keep adding more and more spanish... he and I can learn together.
One way he's gotten really good with letters and numbers is by "playing" Scrabble and Rummikub. I keep some board games under our couch (we seriously have NO storage!) and he has recently discovered them. He loves them because he thinks they're grown up games and something he shouldn't be able to play with, but jokes on him.

I've been encouraging him to "read" he has dozens and dozens of books memorized and so instead of just saying the words I've been pointing to each word and having him say the story as we go. Who knows if this is working, but there are lots of words he can recognize, so maybe. I've read that a good thing to do is label things around your house so I might work on that soon.

Leo still loves to do art, for which I am thankful. Water color paints and markers are his favorites. Also his dry erase/chalk board easel that I keep in the kitchen keeps him occupied while I cook sometimes. He's getting pretty good at drawing things! He can make faces, sorta and draws lots of snakes and worms :) and for a 2 year old I think he is actually sort of exceptional at coloring within the lines. But I'm his mom and think he's exceptional at most things...
We also do sidewalk chalk almost once a day or at least every other day! And we've added a spray bottle to our tools and he loves to "make the chalk dark."

He is a great helper around the house these days too! He throws away every single dirty diaper for me! Puts his clothes in the washer or hamper. Puts away his clothes in his drawers. Cleans up his toys - sometimes. He's finally tall enough to see into the silverware drawer and can put away the clean silverware into the right spots! He can sweep with a broom, dust, and clean up spills with a rag. He does dishes... which is usually just playing in the water with a scrubby brush, but it keeps him occupied for a while! He helps cook - he loves to stir and pour things. And he's getting pretty good at spreading pb and jelly on a sandwich.
I really just let him try to do anything that he has interest in. I think it's sorta Montessori of me, yeah? haha

He's been doing really great with potty training! We've had a few more accidents in the past few weeks since Houston was born, but I fully expected that and have been pleased with how well he's done still! He pretty much wears underwear everywhere we go now and only a diaper at nap time and bed time. He's not happy about having to wear a diaper then though... he says diapers are for babies lol.

Next week they're letting Leo go to the 3 year old class at Bible School at our church! We''ll see how it goes, but the children's pastor said she thinks he's mature enough, haha. Or they just wanted my help in the crafts so they knew I'd need to put Leo somewhere ;)

I know I brag a lot about how smart Leo is, I'm a super super proud mom! But what makes me even more proud is how well he behaves and how sweet he is to me, his dad, and his baby brother. He is thoughtful, helpful, and polite. He seriously is such a good boy and makes my life easy.

I wanted to skip Mickey this trip because I was tired (34 weeks pregnant) and didn't want to wait in line, but my sweet boy kept asking all day long - see Mickey now??