Daniel Quarterly

Daniel is 2.5 years old today! This picture was taken this morning as he danced around the living room. He loves to sing and dance and that is so indicative of his personality. He is such a happy, silly child. He loves his brothers and follows Jackson everywhere. He is a brute and constantly jumps on Daddy or Jackson to wrestle. He is also sensitive and gets his feelings hurt when Jackson doesn't want to play with him. He is my snuggly middle child and he is just so so special!

(7/13-8/12)

*Daddy and Jackson have been away for the weekend for Uncle Mark's wedding. Daniel and I have had a fun couple days alone, and I realized that Daniel needs more attention than Jackson does. He is still more solitary than most 2yo, but he wants to be sure I'm paying attention. I think Jackson provides this attention most of the time. He grabbed my hand to make sure I was coming upstairs with him, he keeps bringing me toys and saying what they are, he doesn't want me in a different room than him. It's very endearing, but I'm definitely glad he's happy to play with his brother most of the time. 

*knows a lot of animals- says hippo, lion, raffe (giraffe), ushroo (kangaroo), and more when he's playing with Noah's ark. 

*Daniel was SO HAPPY to have Jackson home! He kept taking toys over to him and trying to play and jumping on Jackson, but Jackson just wanted to relax and have snacks.

*has always loved playing with people's hair when he settles down to sleep. He did this in the church nursery and has always done it while he nurses. If hair is up he gets frustrated! I have my hair in ponytails when I'm putting him to sleep and have to pull it out so he can use a handful to settle down.

*I feel so badly about this: Daniel was playing with all the puzzles on the floor by himself. I was resting on the couch, feeling all Preggo and uncomfortable. He piles up all the pieces to one puzzle in one hand and picks up the puzzle board with the other and dumps it all in my lap roughly. It hurt me so I reacted and tossed the puzzle board on the floor and said "No!" I wasn't really yelling at him, but it hurt his feelings and he just started sobbing. Not a manipulative whimper, but a hard cry. I told him I was sorry and asked him if he wanted to do puzzles with Mumma and he said ok. I picked up the board and he happily put the pieces in it looking at me for affirmation each time. I praised him and he was just so happy. He is such a sweet, little boy and I need to slow down and remember that he is still so little.

*7/22 Daniel has continued to go pee pee on the potty regularly. He likes taking showers with me in the morning and when he gets out he has been peeing on the floor. I started telling him that pee pee only belongs in the potty or his diaper and putting him on the big potty. Today he said he had to go gah gee after the shower and pointed to the toilet, so I put him on and he went. Then he ran into the living room. When I came out there to put on his diaper he said "I go pee pee on the stairs". He showed me exactly where and it was just a couple drips, but it was a very clear sentence.

*7/28 was Daniel's last time nursing. I didn't realize it would be his last time (like so many lasts in childhood) and it makes me so sad. I was trying to nurse him to sleep for his nap before the sitter arrived. He was almost asleep when she arrived and I knew he wouldn't fall asleep on his own. I left for my Dr. appt and never came home as he sent me to L&D to be monitored and baby Chase was born that night. Daniel did fine going to sleep at bedtime for our babysitter, Nikki, and then went to sleep at nap and bedtime for Matt while I was in the hospital. So we decided a clean break would be best for Daniel, especially since he can see that the baby needs to nurse. He fussed when he saw me nurse Chase at the hospital, but he was fine when I offered for him to sit next to me and cuddle while I did it. When we got home he was more distraught and kept asking for nom noms. He was overly tired and didn't understand why I was saying no and why the baby could. We made it the whole evening and through bedtime without nursing so hopefully it only takes another day or so of this for him to understand. I do miss that special time with my little bear though. 

*first week of August: we've been having a rough time with Daniel. Lots of fits, crying, screaming, throwing things at people when he's upset, hitting. Partly the age, partly the adjustment of new baby and no nursing. I am thankful that Daniel mostly obeys when we ask (usually the second or third time, but he acts silly when he says no the first time). Hopefully we can be firm with him and he will learn quickly. 

*8/7 Jackson often pees outside- he does it in the same place every time. Daniel saw him, went and stood there, and tried to pull down his diaper and shorts. So I went out to help him and he peed! 

*It only took about 5 days for Daniel to adjust to not nursing. He will still do a double take when he sees Chase nursing and then look at me to see if maybe he can too, but he doesn't ask anymore. He still wants me to sit and snuggle him at nap and bedtime until he's fully asleep. Hopefully soon he will let me leave when he's mostly asleep and then maybe he'll stay in bed and fall asleep on his own. Baby steps!

*8/8 started saying yes and nodding his head very clearly. It is so adorable! He still says ok sometimes but when I repeat what he says or what I think he wants he says yes. 

*I knew that after bringing Chase home Daniel would seem so much bigger to me, but it is still so surprising. He is still fairly small for his age and definitely not overweight or anything, but he seems so solid and "fluffy". He eats well and is very active so I'm not at all worried, but he just seems so "full" now- but probably just because I've been carrying around a little baby all day. 

(8/13-9/12)

*8/16 Daniel has had just an explosion of speech. He picks up on words and correct sentence structure so easily. Today he saw it was windy outside and said "it's winding outside!" because it's been raining a lot so he's been hearing that it's raining. 

*because of his excellent communication, he has begun to get upset with me when I punish him. He doesn't always want to come sit next to me or get a hug from me afterwards. It hurts a little, but I hope that also means that he is beginning to truly understand punishments.

*love playing "zombies". He waves his arms in the air like a zombie when he asks to play. Jackson, he, and Daddy chase each other around like zombies. 

*Daniel is slowly learning his letters and numbers correctly. Sometimes he says them correctly every time and others he seems confused. He holds up the magnetic letters/numbers and sometimes can't figure out what it is and he guesses multiple times. He is getting better though with more and more letters correct every time. He knows the concept of phonics but usually only does the "huh huh" sound after every letter he identifies.

*8/27 I really need to work on potty training Daniel. He will walk into the bathroom, take off his shorts and diaper, climb up on the potty, go, wipe, then flush the potty all on his own. I'm sure if I put him in underwear that it wouldn't take too long before he was fully trained during the day. I just am too lazy and don't want to clean up the messes for the first few days. Plus Chase is still so needy so that would make it more difficult. 

*when Chase was napping Daniel asked Matt "brother?" Matt told him where Jackson was and Daniel said "more brother?" Asking where Chase was.

*has been wanting to watch Wreck It Ralph nonstop. He asks for "Ralph? Ralph please? Watch it?" Every day. We don't watch it every day, but pretty close!

*as of 9/1 he knows a b c d e f h i j k l o s u v w x by sight. A lot of the other letters he thinks are f's and then he'll just guess. He's learning though, even though I'm lazy at working with him. We do go through some abc books and when he plays with our box of letters I ask him which ones he holds up.

*loves to sing "icky gicky spider"

*having a hard time learning to take turns. He has begun to want every toy that Jackson starts to play with. So I tell him he needs to wait his turn and he throws a fit and tries to grab the toy away. He sits in time out when he doesn't calm down and wait patiently.

*when someone is going potty Daniel gets one square of TP, puts it in the potty, flushes, puts down the lid, and the re-rolls any excess TP that is hanging over the edge of the roll. He is very precise and it is adorable.

*9/4 sent him to Sunday School in a pull-up because we ran out of his diapers. He told them he had to go potty and he went in the potty! He had already peed some in his pull-up, but I cannot believe he told them he had to go potty! 

*when he talks about his brothers he calls them "wuh-son" and "eh chess" (baby chase). It is adorable.

(9/13-10/12)

*so sassy, asks me what my cliff bar is (which he knows) and I say "Mumma's yummy" and he says "no, Daniel's yummy!"

*usually is pretty good about saying the name of the person he's talking to, but has been saying his own more often lately. Like "thank you, Daniel!" Or "bye, Daniel!"

*9/15 went poop in his diaper and went into our bathroom, took off his diaper, climbed up on the toilet (getting poop all over it), tried to wipe, pulled the piece of toilet paper he had while still attached to the roll all the way into the living room and dropped it (the end all poopy), and stood there trying to wipe himself and looking for help. Both Matt and I were occupied while he was doing this. Thankfully he didn't get poop anywhere else. I am glad he's trying to potty train himself but man! I'm so not ready!

*9/16 has taken his own diaper off each time he pooped today (3x). 

*when he's not obeying or fussing in our faces I count him but at 2 I ask him if he wants to go sit in time out or if he wants a spanking depending on the crime, and he will usually say "no!" And change his attitude. I'm glad he understands punishment. Sometimes he will put himself in time out to calm down but he'll sit on his bed and cry until the time out is over. But then he's happy as can be.

*9/17-18 Grammie and GrandPops were here to meet Chase. Daniel just loved to play with GrandPops and was constantly being held by him. He loved having more personal attention.

*9/20 noticed 3 out of 4 of his two year molars are halfway through. That's probably why he's been a little fussier and why he wakes up at night crying. 

*slowly asked for "watch other swee swap". It took awhile but we figured out it was "watch mother goose club"

*9/22 Mumma has really bad poison ivy and it limits her mobility and her mood. Daniel has been sensitive to that and his little feelings have been hurt often and he wants lots of extra snuggles to make up for it. Bedtime had been difficult because he doesn't want Mumma to hold Chase, he wants Mumma to lie down next to him (sitting on the edge of his bed isn't enough). But tonight he asked Jackson for the big shark. Then he was crying while sitting in bed with it and I asked him what was wrong. He said "Mumma shark", he wanted me to put it behind my back so it didn't hurt, which I told him happens when I sit in his bed. What a little sweetie! After that he snuggled up to his pillow and was asleep within 5 minutes.

*9/26 the past couple days Daniel has been overly fussy and asking to sit on my lap. He has definitely noticed the baby taking up most of my time and he is not happy about it. At bedtime he said he didn't want baby Chase to be in the room so Matt took him and Daniel stopped crying. I kept asking if I could get baby Chase and Daniel would say "no, no baby Chase. I'm just sad." That breaks my heart a little for him and it will certainly make bedtime more difficult if this continues. 

*such better speech and language development than Jackson at this age. He has been screaming a lot when he gets upset so we've been working on using his words and not screaming. I told him "no more screaming" and he said "one more screaming. Ahhhh!" But it was a quiet scream- just the same sound he had been making. He is learning to push the limits but hopefully we can punish him more effectively since he understands more. 

*Daniel's favorite color seems to be orange. He constantly asks to wear his orange shirts and he chooses orange things often. We'll see if this continues.

*Whenever Daniel notices that I'm not holding the baby he runs over, arms raised, "hup! Hup!" And is just so happy when I pick him up and snuggle him.

*understands when he's being punished. When I discipline him I tell him what he did wrong and that he shouldn't do that and he nods his head. When I tell him to go sit on his bed in time out he will usually cry but he will go sit and stay until I tell him to get up. He really doesn't like spankings- but I reserve those for if he is doing something dangerous or when he screams/tells Mumma no- then he gets a small spank on the mouth.

*has begun to have an opinion on his clothes. He likes to choose what he wants to wear and refuses to wear anything else. 

*afraid of the wind. Jackson was afraid of the wind at this age too. He'll go outside to play, there will be big gusts of wind and he'll either scream or cry and yell "winding! Winding!" 

He has grown up so much in the past couple months! Hopefully in the next couple months I can tackle trying to really potty train him. Since we'll be moving in March he may regress some, but I think he'll be ready to go when I start trying. He is solidly in 18 month clothes, but I've gotten out the 2T clothes even though they're too big. He is such a smart little boy and is so so observant! I am so blessed to have a happy, smart little second born who loves his whole family and people in general.