Two-year checkup

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Roman loves the sound of the crinkly paper at the doctor's office. He is about 35 inches tall and 23.5 lbs. His scar from surgery is practically invisible; he healed within a week and now has two matching baby balls and no risk of a hernia.

The doc said people should understand about 50% of what he says, and Gene and I looked at each other and then kind of shook our heads, as if to say, "Uh...noooo, that is not the case doc." Now, "I" understand about 90% and Dad understands at least 75%, but the average strangers here's "ah-ah" about 80% of the time. But, of course, we're not the least bit concerned. Roman knows well over 100 words and at least 100 signs and is still doing puzzles about a year ahead of his age.

Both his grandmas, his pa-pa and his auntie Lisa and cousin Kittie visited him in the last 2 months, and they all left knowing several signs. I wouldn't understand 10% of what he said without them! He is also putting together sentences pretty well. When we returned from Orlando, he really missed Jagger; he was hugging him and playing chase. Then he said/signed to his dad, "Throw, ball, ball, Jagger, GO!" He is also really good a lining his cars up by size, color, and type, and he loves to tell us the color of everything. And, when we're making juice, I can tell him how many apples to put in and he counts them out.

Some of his words are really funny though: bicycle is "goo-goo," thank you and thirsty are still "bee-bee" and finished is "dee-dee." Sorry is "sza-sza;" baby is "unh-unh;" and he says and signs his own name now too, "mo-man." But, then he'll say, "New jeans!" clear as day. The doc asked if he understood 2-step instructions, and we said it was more like 5-step instructions. He understands everything we say, and still loves to help- laundry, dishes, cleaning. Yesterday, he found a mosquito on his dump truck, so he went and found his shoe, killed it, then got a tissue and wiped it up and on his way to the trash, he stopped and picked up two of mommy's used tissues (that she left by the sofa) and threw it all away.

He also loves to share his food now, for real, not just pretending to share and then quickly putting it in his mouth. And, he LOVES to give luv-a-luv; he hugs and kisses us all the time. He does this to other children too, especially babies; he hugs them and says, "Awwwww." And he shares his snacks with them too. But his mommy does not like when they share their snacks with him; yuck! The crap people give their kids to eat. : ( No surprise the kid eating goldfish, string cheese and cookies has been sick 4 times this year while Roman has yet to be sick even once in his life. I'm happy to say that Roman is a really good eater. His favorites are still apples and avocados, but he's now tasting most of what we eat, just without the salt. Yesterday we had pumpkin pie for breakfast, which he loved, made out of carrots, avocados, dates and pumpkin pie spice, with a walnut-date crust. I know what you're thinking, but I promise it's the best pumpkin pie we've ever had.

Lately, he has been saying, "Mom! Mom!" instead of ma-ma, but he still says da-da. He needs to do everything by himself; you can't even touch him when he needs to pee or he moves you hand and says, "no, mo-man." He will play by himself for hours and even go in his bedroom by himself to play. Oh, and his memory is crazy- last week we were at the park and he went over to this one place and said, "poop." Because, 6 months ago, he stepped in poop at that very spot. And, if I take a different route going home, he will say, "No, home, home, go!"

Well, that's all I can think of for now. It's often difficult to get photos and videos of him because he's on the move and always stops what he's doing when he sees the camera, except when he opens his mouth and blinks his eyes quickly, which is his smile; or what my dad would call cutin'.