Hank: 2 Years Old Update

STATS:
Height - 35 inches (69%)
Weight - 28 lb 10 oz (57%)
Head - 49 cm (57%)

Oh boy! These past 6 months (or however long it's been since I last updated on Hank) have been a bit of a roller coaster... and we're talking a daily roller coaster, with highs and lows happening constantly.

The major low part of the past 6 months has been sleep.  Since moving to Akron (almost 6 months ago) Hank has yet to get into a good sleep pattern.  We had a lot of changes this past summer - moving to a new city, living in a hotel for 3 weeks, moving into a new home and transitioning Hank to a big boy bed.  I know it sounds like a lot, and I guess I was expecting the kids to be disrupted a bit... but I never could have imagined that my once 7:30pm-7:30am sleeper would become an up all night, waking early kid (especially 6 months into the change).  The bad sleeping has looked a little different over the past 6 months, but currently Hank's typical sleep schedule is to go down around 8-8:30pm, wake anywhere from 1-3 times each night (usually around 12:30-1:30am and 3:30-4:30am) and then get up for the day anywhere from 6:15am-7:30am (I consider anything before 7am too early).  Right now, whenever he wakes up, he pops out of bed comes over to the door and immediately starts crying at the top of his lungs.  We leave him to cry for 2-5minutes, go in, open the door and without saying any words tuck him back in to bed.  Silently taking him back to bed works for right now because it requires little from Ben or I in the middle of the night, but it also has not solved the issue as a whole.

We have tried letting him cry without going in at all.  We lasted 10 days and after seeing no progress or improvement (still waking at night and crying for anywhere from 15-45 minutes at a time) we decided it was much easier on our family to go back to sleep in the middle of the night after only hearing 2 minutes of crying versus 45 minutes of crying (especially at 3 o'clock in the morning!).

 I basically am at a loss as to what to do.  Most days I'm ok with the current status quo, but usually about once every other week I have a break down about why my son has stopped sleeping through the night and what I'm going to do when he is waking at the same time as June... hopefully this extremely long phase is over soon.

Naps- these have been up and down too, but currently he is napping pretty well.  He usually sleeps about 1hr 45min - 2hrs, although sometimes he wakes after 1hr 30min, and sometimes he sleeps for 2+ hours.

 Despite the bad sleep, Hank is a pretty happy boy during the day.  He is a lot of fun to be around and brings a lot of joy to our family.  Things people comment on the most about him- how wild/risky/daring he is... his sweet hair line... how much he looks like Ben... his beautiful eyes and sweet smile... how cuddly he is... how he sucks his thumb all the time. 

 He is all boy - loves to throw things, play football, play with any ball, play with trucks/cars, play with trains, being outside, jumping on the trampoline and wrestling (with dad).  He also loves dancing, doing puzzles, painting, playing with play dough, snuggling and reading a book, and taking baths or swimming in the pool.  One thing that is funny about him that I didn't experience until much later with Lucy is how picky he is about what he wears.  We have expanded a bit now (and learned how to get him to do what we want) but for a long time Hank would only wear gym shorts, tennis shoes, and it was tough to get a shirt on him.  Now I can usually coax him into other clothes, but he typically has an opinion about what he is going to wear (anything with football or cars on it is a win). 

 He and Lucy play pretty well together.  More than half the time I am so thankful they have each other because they are playing so well together and find some much joy in each other (there's a way that they play and communicate together that I could never replicate).  The other part of the time they are fighting - usually instigated by Hank (he wants something Lucy has so he throws a fit, or hits her, or grabs whatever she had and throws it away from her... that's right, he's a stinker - he usually just wants to take stuff and throw it so that Lucy can't have it).  He definitely gets more time outs than Lucy did at this age, but I think being a second child has a lot to do with that! And he hits/bits way more than Lucy ever did too.  Currently we use time outs or breaks to deal with his bad behavior.  I'm not that strict about the time out, but mostly want him removed from the situation and to come back with a better attitude... this seems to work for now!

 He has been talking a lot lately - I would say I understand about 75% of what he's saying and strangers understand about 25%.  He's been repeating songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC, and Rock a Bye Baby... but it's mostly the tune, he's still working on enunciation of all the words.  We are working on colors and shapes... I would say he knows a few of these, but hasn't really mastered either concept.

 I would still say he's a somewhat picky eater, but I don't cater to him too much.  I try to offer him a variety at meal time, and he typically will only eat half (or less than half) of what I set out.  I think part of it is just him losing some of his baby fat, and but part of it is his stubborn little personality (which shows up in what he wants to wear, how he sleeps, his food choices, etc.)

Some funny/popular things he says: "oh man", "where's daddy...(I answer him)... oh", "I wanna come", "I wan some", "I wanna show", "I wan lunch" (said for every meal of the day or snack time)... I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of for now.

Hank - your second birthday is tomorrow and mommy will be 35 weeks pregnant with your little sister.  It's hard to imagine you as a big brother, but you have grown so much in the past few months, I know you are ready for the challenge! (And that you will appreciate your sister focusing on someone else besides you all the time).  I am so thankful to have you as the little man in my life and so thankful for the bond I already see developing between you and your dad.  We love you so much and continue to take delight in just being with you... I can't wait to see all this next year brings and watch your personality continue to grow!

(I usually do a more formal photo shoot for birthday updates, but since I just did pumpkin photos that turned out pretty good and I'll be taking photos on hank's birthday tomorrow, I ended up just doing a photo dump from my phone here... not as good, but I'm just impressed I am getting this post up in time!)