Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Greyden Roy - 2 1/2 years!

My sweet Roy Boy,

When we hit your 2 ½ year mark recently, I knew it was time to pull out my camera, take some shots, and then sit down and write an update about you. So here it is.


Life has been so intense lately. Time is flying by faster than I can keep up with, and although it’s a relief at moments when I consider the trials we’re going through, at the same time it’s sad because I will never get these days back and there really is so, so much joy in them. I look at you now and I’m like oh my goodness where did my baby go. You are slimming out, your face is changing, you’re losing your rolls. You talk like a legit kid, play make believe, and run around with your brother and play games with him. You aren’t at all baby anymore. You’re all kid.


At halfway through age 2, I can say that so far it really hasn’t been too bad. Yes, you have tantrums, stomp your little feet, and tell us “no!”. You wake us up many nights, refuse to eat vegetables at your meals, talk back, and bawl your head off when I make you walk instead of carrying you. And you’ve been known to hold onto a tantrum for up to an hour and a half (we watched a whole movie while you threw a fit upstairs). For this one particular tantrum I’m thinking of, all you had to do to get out of your room was reply “Yes” when we asked “Are you ready to be nice?” But instead, you’d look at us and reply, “I not ready yet.” So we’d put you back in your room, and the tantrum would continue. For an hour and a half. Stubbon, stubborn child. But really, overall, you’re not a bad kid and haven’t been too hard to raise as a two-year-old.


Other miscellaneous tidbits about your current little self:
  • You somehow manage to regularly survive on less sleep than your daddy or me, which baffles us on a daily basis. You often take forever to fall asleep in the evenings, wake up several times during the night, and then wake up in the morning chipper and ready to seize the day, typically much earlier than we’d hope. You come into our room and announce, “It’s morningtime!!” with a grin on your face and your little slobbery thumb hanging out of your mouth.
  • You hate wearing socks without shoes and are barefoot most of the time. We find random socks of yours laying all over the house and now send you to daycare in fuzzy crocs without socks every day because we know you’ll rip them off the second you get there.
  • When you wake up from your naps, you always stand at the top of the stairs and beg for someone to come get you and carry you down. When we finally oblige and head up the stairs to get you, you run away squealing and laughing and hide in your room.
  • You take ten hours to eat a meal. And that’s with us spoon-feeding you at least half of it. We’re not sure how much of this is due to your EoE and how much of it is just your personality and you developing bad eating habits. We’ll see.
  • We’re currently trying to get you to stop sucking your thumbs (yes you suck both of them) by painting them with Nibble No More every night. We’ve only been doing it a couple days, but I think we'll be successful.  You seem to see it as a sign of being a big kid, and so you eagerly remind me every night to put the gross tasting stuff on your thumbs.
  • You show no interest in potting training although I am 100% you could do it incredibly easily. Given all the doctors appointments and diet changes we’re going through with you right now, we’ll probably wait until life is a little more settled before we conquer the toilet. But it’s coming, buddy, so prep yourself.
  • You love to sing and amaze me by very often singing on pitch. I am so excited to see if this is a talent that will continue to develop over time. If it does develop, you’ve definitely got the vocal chords for singing. You can make our ears ring with how loudly you speak; your voice just seems to carry incredibly well. When your daddy was struggling with his concussion, he’d have to wear earplugs around you because the crispness of your voice would send pains shooting through his head.
  • You know most if not all of your letters, most colors, many shapes, and many numbers. I’m not exactly sure where you learned all of them. Let me just say that I would NOT be an ideal candidate for home schooling.
  • When you get scared, whether watching a cartoon or reading a book, you plug your ears. Somehow that’s supposed to help.
  • Although you were not cuddly as an infant, you are now incredibly loving and affectionate. You will frequently just walk up to me or your daddy, wrap your little arms around us, and say, “I love you, Mommy (or Daddy)...” It is basically the most precious thing ever.
  • You loooooove to pray. You now pray for all of our meals and at bedtime. Occasionally Krew wants to pray too, and then you either pray together or take turns praying for the same meal or bedtime. You are not willing to let a prayer opportunity go by without participating.
  • Lately you’ve been into knock-knock jokes. Of course none of them make sense and I’m not always sure that the punch line is even in English. But you love to tell them nonetheless. :)

You absolutely adore your older brother and love to follow him around and play with him. He’s slowly starting to enjoy you more, now that you know how to talk so well and are learning to play the same things as him. He’s even occasionally let you sleep in his bed with him, which completely melts my heart.

You are about as opposite from Krew as we could have expected. Where he is quiet, introverted, sensitive, and often melancholy, you are loud, extroverted, difficult to upset, and either hot or cold. Where he’s blonde and blue-eyed, you’re brown hair and brown eyes. He prefers to build things, draw, write, color, and create, while you prefer to play make-believe and drive cars all over the house and yell at the top of your lungs. Not to say you don’t ever have moments where you’re both crazy together or want to play the same things. You do. But in general you approach everything from very different angles.


To finish up, I interviewed you and videotaped it. Without any further ado, here is your 2.5-year interview:


We love you Sweet Boy!