30 Months

Roman is now two and a half years old and there is so much to talk about. He is expecting his new baby brother in just 2 weeks and is thrilled. I'm always surprised by how much he seems to understand. He is always kissing my belly and telling the baby night-night. He says things such as, "Roman pat baby, help baby go to sleep," or "Roman read books to baby," and "Roman help feed baby, baby can't eat apples and bananas, baby drink mama's milk." The other day we were on a walk and he said, "Go walk with baby, Mama, Dada, Roman, Jagger; Dada carry baby, Roman ride big boy bike." He likes to say that the baby is getting bigger and will come out soon.

Although Roman is still nursing, it is only first thing in the morning or at night before sleep and it seems as though he would probably give it up without any trouble, but I wanted to minimize the new changes in the coming months, so I still offer. We talk a lot about how much babies nurse and sleep and we've even started asking him to play alone in his room quietly. We mostly did this because lately he's decided that he doesn't necessarily need a midday nap. He is still sleeping great at night, 11-12 hours, and wakes up dry and happy. But, sometimes he doesn't want to nap, so one day I said, "Ok, you don't want a nap, fine, but Mommy needs one so you can stay in your room and play." As I walked toward the door, he looked as if he was going to cry and ask me to stay, then, as if a great idea had come to him, he said, "Jagger play Roman's room?" I said, "SURE!" And I told him he could come out when the music stopped. It worked like a charm and I'm sure will come in handy when Mama and new baby NEED a nap.

Roman still LOVES to read, anything and everything. He is even starting to read on his own now (pretending too anyway). He wants us to tell him what certain words say or write words for him, then he tries to read or write it himself. I think he knows more than I think. Out of the blue, he will point to a word and read it, and I'm thinking, where/when did you learn that? And even though we've never sang the ABCs to him, he has picked them up anyway. I guess he has one toy that plays the song. He points to signs everywhere and says, "b c d a b c f g" or some other random letters. He also loves to sing and his two favorite songs are Happy Birthday and Twinkle, Twinkle. Also, he counted to 17 the other day. I had no idea he could do that. He will often line up 10 trains or more on his track and count every one of them. It's one thing to rattle off numbers, but to grasp one-to-one correspondence at this age is pretty cool.

Some other funny quotes recently: "Mama, Roman need cookie, make Roman feel happy." He also loves to finish his sentences with the desired answer: "Mama, Roman want eat pie, yes, okay." "Mama's milk sooo good." "Roman go outside, play sandbox. Starts to rain, Roman come inside, Roman big boy." He's getting much better at using pronouns and articles too.

He takes his shoes on and off and always places them in the basket. He goes and gets his own clothes when he's ready to get dressed and likes to put on his underwear by himself. He also loves to wash dishes. He scrubs them, rinses them and then places them on the dish towel. We never told or asked him to do it, I guess he's just been paying attention.

Every Monday, he gets dressed really fast (mostly by himself) as soon as he hears the first garbage truck. Then, he waits by the curb until they've picked up the trash, recycling and leaves (3 big trucks in all). It's a big day for him. He also knows how to Skype GaGa all by himself, he says, "Roman see if GaGa home, press green button." Then of course, he wants to watch a Thomas video on YouTube. So far, it's only occasionally and he accepts pretty well if I say, "Not today."