Oh my goodness! How can my baby be 2 already!?!? I can hardly believe it, (yet in another way I can totally believe it because he has acted like he was two for months now).
A few things about my Kent Dude at 2 years old:
Kent is about 36 inches tall which puts him in the 97th percentile for height.
He weighs about 33 pounds which also puts him in the 97th percentile for weight.
He wears size 3T clothes.
Kent knows all of his letters and their sounds (for the most part) and can recognize about 10 or so words.
Kent loves to read books and will sometimes even bring books to Rachel and ask her to read to him.
He loves Rachel. He wants to do everything she is doing. Always. And she loves him too for which I am grateful. They like to pretend together and play together and I just love to see it. They fight a little too, mostly because he takes things from her that he wants to play with, but they are good friends and I love it. Rachel often tells me, "Kent is just so cute! I just love him!"
Kent says his own prayers, for the most part. I have to remind him to say more than just, "Dear Heavenly Father, help us to choose the right. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I have to tell him to say thank you for things, but he says it all on his own after that.
He loves to be outside and he loves to be doing anything active.
He loves to jump off of things. At the park he jumps off of the top of the picnic tables on the the grass. At the pool he jumps off of the side of the pool into the water. At home he jumps off of chairs or off of our big bean bag.
He loves to do somersaults and he runs every where.
Kent is tall enough to turn all the lights on and off in our house, a fact that he absolutely loves and does often during the day.
Kent loves his daddy, and has been missing him like crazy! He loves to talk to daddy on the iPad and he keeps telling me "Dada come home, on the bus."
Kent loves to put a hat on, find a bag and pretend to go to work like Daddy. Seriously this kid cracks me up. He has to at least have a hat to go to work, but usually a bag and a stuffed animal too. He will go out the door (or to another room) for a few seconds and then come home from work.
His favorite movie of all time is Frozen. He is too active to sit long enough to watch very many movies, but he will always sit still if Frozen is on. It is really quite funny to see him that way because he is glued to the screen. We watch hardly any TV at our house and he is so wiggly that we don't see him that still and awake very often, so it just makes us laugh to see him like that.
Kent says his L's like Y's (mostly), his R's like W's, and usually drops the s off of the beginning of words that start with s and then an consonant, for example nake instead of snake. He talks pretty well though and talks a lot. Mostly he wants to talk if he hears Rachel talking, even if he doesn't have anything to say. He just wants to be like her.
Rachel likes to sleep with a stuffed animal at night. Kent saw Rachel doing that every night and decided he wanted to sleep with something every night too. Sometimes he picks normal things like a doll or a stuffed animal to sleep with, but often he picks different things like a toy car, or a toy cup, or a toy plate, or a ball, or a block. In fact, we have one of those big balls that you find in the bin at Target or Walmart and he has requested to sleep with that as well. That is where I drew the line though. I knew he would never sleep with that in his bed.
Kent is extremely independent and wants to do almost absolutely everything on his own. Most two year-olds are like that, but he has always been like that. Definitely more so than Rachel. Rachel asks if she wants something, but Kent just goes and gets it on his own if he thinks that he can. For that reason he gets more stuff than Rachel does. A few days ago Rachel asked me, "Can I have those grapes on the counter?" I looked at the time and said, "Dinner time is in 20 minutes. I would rather you waited, and I will give you the grapes with dinner." Kent heard us talking about grapes and went and just started eating them. Rachel then complained because Kent is getting the grapes after I just told her she couldn't have them. She definitely keeps an eye on her brother and lets me know when he is getting into trouble or doing something that isn't quite fair.
Kent is a major tease and loves getting a reaction out of anyone, but his easiest target is the one closest to his own size. He is forever and always doing things to get a reaction out of his sister, from pretending he is going to bite her or pretending to eat her, to stealing her spot every time she gets up. He will do just about anything to get a rise out of her.
When Kent is talking to Rachel he calls her "Wacho Pie" I love that he always adds the pie at the end of her name. Super cute!
He calls him self "Kent-a-dudie." Also Super cute!
He can take his clothes off all by himself, so he often doesn't have clothes on because after I get him dressed, I turn around and he doesn't have clothes on again. Then he tells me all day long that he is cold. Lol. I tell him "Then we should put a shirt on you!" and his response is always, "No wear a shirt, I get a blanket." He loves blankets and carries them around all day long. Kent is just now learning to put his own clothes on though and doesn't want me to get him dressed. He wants to do it himself and I think now that he is learning to do it himself, he may start to leave clothes on more often, because its kind of a novelty.
Kent loves to play at the park, and his very favorite all time thing? The swings. He is so active and busy that I would think that his favorite thing would be the slides or just climbing on things, and while he likes those things, they just can't compete with the swings. He absolutely loves to swing.
Kent is shy, which always catches me off guard to see that side of him, because he is always so wild and energetic at home, but it takes him a really long time to warm up to other adults. He doesn't have a problem with other kids. He loves other kids, but with other adults he is quite slow to warm up. In July we visited my family in St. George. We FaceTime with my parents every Sunday so Kent sees them and talks to them, but it took him a week to willingly give my parents a hug on his own, and this next picture is the only time I think he sat on one of their laps, and he only did then because he saw his cousin Lexi on Grandpa's lap and they had a little rivalry going on while we were there (they are the same age).
The only adult that has been the exception to the aforementioned shyness is Grandpa Bulloch. For some reason, Kent just loved Grandpa Bulloch even the first day we were at his house. The first thing he would say when he would wake up in the morning or from his nap while we were there was, "Where Gwampa?"
We have been working on potty training Kent for a while. Rachel was soooooo much easier to potty train. Kent is getting better and doesn't have accidents very often, but he never tells me when he has to go. It is mostly him just holding it until I remember to take him. He can do it all by himself, but he just doesn't go. Sometimes he doesn't want to go in and go when I tell him to, and he will tell me "I want Wacho (Rachel) to take me!" So Rachel will put her arm around him and say, "Run, run, run to the potty!" They run to the bathroom and Kent does his thing. Rachel sometimes telling him what to do. Sometimes just waiting in there with him. Sometimes running out to me to tell me, "Mom, Kent pooped!" She is a good little cheerleader for her brother. She is also a good little helper. She will sometimes come out and say, "Mom, Kent missed a little, but don't worry, I cleaned it up for him." The first few days after Jacob left for his trip to Morocco, Kent didn't want me to take him potty and I was at my wits end to know what to do for him, but then Rachel started taking him potty and that solved a lot of problems for me. If Kent ever does have an accident, Rachel always runs and gets him new underwear while he is sitting on the potty without even being asked, and Kent will say, "Thank you Wacho Pie!" He wears underwear all of the time at home (except nap time and bed time) and I still put him in a pull-up when we leave the house, mostly just in case I forget to take him potty. He likes to go potty in stores or other places though and that is the time that he will actually tell me he has to go potty.
He is the so incredibly active. Way more so than Rachel at this age (or probably way more so than Rachel ever will be at any age). He runs all day long and when he isn't getting enough physical activity is when he gets into things more. He is always getting into things plenty though, he just gets into things that he knows he shouldn't when we haven't had enough run around/jumping/somersault time. As active as he is, he wears himself out, and he crashes hard. All he has to do to fall asleep is stop moving for a few minutes. Getting him to stop moving for a few minutes isn't always easy though.
If I have to get after Kent for something, he will often tell me, "Mommy, don't be sad at Kent! Just listen!" Sometimes when Rachel is sad and getting hugs he will say to me, "Rachel sad? Rachel need hugs? Kent hug Rachel! Kent not sad! Kent listening!"
Kent loves to color and draw and cut with scissors. He doesn't have the attention span Rachel does to do that kind of thing, and mostly he ends up stopping and climbing on her chair and trying to draw on her paper too. Often though I see them sitting in chairs next to each other sharing crayons and coloring. Kent will say to Rachel "Pwease hep me Wacho (Rachel) Pie?" She will lean over and write a letter on his paper and then he will color over it and then he will ask her again, "Pwease hep me Wacho Pie?" He will do this with her as long as she is willing to write letters on his page for him to color on.
There are so many things I could right about my sweet, wild boy. I love this kid so much. I love the fun determined energy that he has. I love his quick smile and laugh and I love his strong will, (even though it sometimes contends with my own). He is really sweet and loves hugs and kisses and snuggles from his mommy and his mommy loves them too. Our family definitely wouldn't be complete without him and I'm so glad he is part of it. Happy Birthday my Kent-a-dudie boy!
