Roman James @ Two Years & Five Months
It’s been entirely too long since I’ve made an update about my sweet boy. Although I won’t be blogging too often for awhile, I really wanted to get this update in because I haven’t made a “Roman Update” since before Marina was born! So much has changed since my last one that I could never fill in all of the pieces, so I’ll just pick up where we are now.
I haven’t had much time lately to pull my camera out to take pictures, but I’ve been wanting to make a video of Roman for a long time to capture his precious little voice. Everyone remarks about how sweet it is. He sounds like a little fairy child and I just love it so much. Of course, you can’t hear it all that well in this video because he has a cookie in his mouth most of the time! I was attempting to use the cookie as a treat if he did well in the recording, but as soon as he saw the cookie, he had to have it immediately.
Hello, two-and-half-years-old. 😉
Growth & Appearance: You are the most beautiful little boy that I have ever seen. Your blond hair, creamy skin, & bright blue eyes take my breath away all of the time. You are big — tall and thick. When you are around other children your age, you look like a little giant. Most people guess that you are three or even four. I’m always informing people that you’re just two-and-a-half which comes as a surprise to them. You wear a size 3T in clothing and a size 8 in shoes.
Sleeping: A couple of months back, naps started to get crazy. No matter how much we would try to wear you out, you would lay in your crib and scream, cry, sing, play or jump for about 45 minutes before finally passing out. Other times, you wouldn’t ever pass out and after an hour, we would just give up and take you out. We even got black out curtains for your windows and kept the house perfectly quiet, but it didn’t matter. On the rare occasion that you would fall asleep, you’d sleep for nearly three hours. But then, you would stay up much later at night — sometimes until 10pm. It became such a circus, that we just decided to cut out your naps and put you to bed earlier.
Now, you go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 pm and you’re so tired by that point that you fall right asleep and sleep through the night. You wake up between 6:30 and 7:30 am. It concerns me a bit that you’re not getting naps, but every baby — I know you’re not a baby anymore 🙁 — is different and we’re just doing our best and following your queues.
Occasionally, you will still take a nap in the afternoon when you really need one.
Talking: In your last update, I wrote that your vocabulary was rapidly expanding and you had mastered a few phrases. As of today, you speak as fluently as any preschooler that I know.
Your vocabulary is expansive. You do get caught up with grammar now and again (verb tenses and correct pronouns). You also get nouns and adjectives backwards sometimes. You speak the Spanish way. For example instead of red dog, you’ll say dog red. Which is how it’s done in Spanish “el perro rojo.” But overall, you speak incredibly well. You use full sentences and your vocabulary blows me away.
Being able to communicate with you is such a joy. You have truly become my best friend.
Development: You love to sing and dance. You are an incredible artist. You love to paint and draw. The “pictures” that you draw never cease to amaze me. You’ve become much more coordinated and you can run fast now, too. Summer is over now, but you got quite good at swimming around the pool with your float vest on this year. I have a feeling that you’ll be swimming on your own next year.
Favourites: Dora the Explorer is your favorite show. Your favorite foods are spaghetti and pizza. Your favorite toys are any that allow you to build — blocks, train tracks, strings that you can tie from place to place to create suspension bridges. You have a very engineering mind. Sometimes I call you “my little architect.” Your creative mind and imagination are so beautiful to me. I couldnt be any prouder of you than I am now.
Dislikes & Behavior: You’ve become extremely shy around strangers. You clam up and actually can’t even open your mouth when a stranger speaks to you. I watch you struggle to open your mouth and it just doesn’t happen. It’s not too surprising considering how shy your Papa is. On the other hand, you are a loud, boisterous ham at home! When you’re with us there isn’t a shy bone in your singing, dancing, silly body. Also, your shyness goes out the window around other children, too. You’re so playful & friendly with other kids.
As for your behavior, you’re doing fairly well. You have your moment. As evidenced in the video! I decided to keep that in to show just how temperamental you can be — from tears to smiles in seconds flat. I imagine that it’s all a normal part of the toddler experience and I’m sure that we’ve got a couple of years of it left to come. That’s alright with me! Most of the time you are just my darling boy.
You’ve also settled so well in your role as big brother. You are just so sweet, gentle, and loving with your baby sister.
I’m sorry that this update is a little bit short, but it’s taken me a month just to get these little bits down. I hope you will someday enjoy the video as much as I do. I’m so glad I’ve finally captured you on film, my little love.
Always & always,
Mama