vocabulary

Little man J at 2 years 8 months old

- Stacey 2 Comments

So my biggest little man is going to be three in 4 months time! How? How?! I must say I am really dreading him becoming a ‘threenager’ as he is absolute terror enough at the moment and we are really struggling with him.

He is becoming more & more independent every day. He can now manage to unfasten and take his shoes off, he takes his own coat off, he starting to be able to undress himself. He’s progressed really slow in these areas (but advanced in others) but we are finally getting there – since he’s been at nursery he has been progressing so fast.

His vocabulary is coming on in leaps & bounds. In his last update I mentioned that he needed more encouragement in saying simple sentences – well he is now coming out with the most random sentences, using the longest words ever! He takes me by surprise every week now and I have to ask him to repeat it as I think I’m hearing things. He likes saying ‘That’s my favourite’ at the minute. Some words are so funny though as he means one thing but it sounds like another rude word – for example, ‘smack’ comes out as ‘f**k’ (he says this when I ask what he did to N – you’ll find out further down) and ‘stick’ comes out as ‘s**t’! I shouldn’t laugh but it’s too funny. He can now count to 10 unprompted too – it’s taken a while but he’c catching up! – and he knows all of the colours.

He is loving reading at the minute and often repeats what’s coming next (mainly because we read the same ones so often!). His favourite books at the minute are Stick Man and his Iggle Piggle words book. I have finally moved all books from his reach though as he is a bit of a book ninja and more often than not, rips pages – they’ve had to be sellotaped back together – so now I’m mainly buying board books! His favourite song/rhyme at the minute is Row Row Row Your Boat, and he loves screaming at the crocodile part – ear plugs are essential!

He is being such a pain food wise at the minute. Every week I will collect him from nursery and he will have eaten something that he won’t touch at home (grr). At home, he will ask for something, take one bite then decide ‘No I don’t like it’ and ‘You eat it’ (grr). Meal times are a pain in the rear as he will barely eat anything, but I don’t give him anything different unless I know it’s something he genuinely doesn’t like as I’m not cooking two different meals when N will eat what we eat (most of it he is just being awkward with though). His favourite foods are the minute are grapes, sausages (still), bread & butter, and jelly.

As I said above, he is being such a little terror at the moment. We’re really struggling with his behaviour towards N. He will smack him, push him over, throw toys at him, sit on him if he’s on his knees, poke him in the eyes… I know some will say this is normal toddler behaviour towards younger siblings- which yes it is – but the way I am feeling at the minute it is getting me down so much as you just can’t do anything with him. Anything we have tried, doesn’t work. He will just do it again. And again. And again. Even at stay & plays they have noticed, so it’s not just me. I’m going to write a separate post about it as I have so much to say, but we have a health visitor coming out on Monday to discuss it.

Apart from the extreme terror that he is being right now, he is doing great and I say it every time, but I’m proud & amazed at the bright, clever little boy he is becoming.

Family Friday

Little man J at 2 years 4 months old

- Stacey 2 Comments

It seems forever ago that I wrote J’s last update – maybe because I’ve only been doing it 2 monthly, and N’s updates monthly. Since then he has developed a lot – he is learning so much at the minute.

His independence is growing more & more. He now asks to wash his hands when he has been playing outside, and before he eats. He asks to brush his teeth – he used to hate it – though sometimes he does just suck the toothpaste off rather than actually brushing!

He is still being a great big brother and he is becoming closer to N every day. He has started showing him his toys, and reading to him. When we are playing and N is asleep in the bedroom, when N wakes he will hear him over the monitor and say “Oh, N wake!” and go running to the door to be the first person he sees. He cleans him up when he has been sick. (Even writing this is making my eyes leak, realising how much he has come to love his brother).

He is coming out with new words every day, some that I’ve never even said to him! One thing though; I may despise a certain cartoon pig, but he learns a lot of his words from there, unbelievably! (As well as a certain elf & fairy…). My favourite of his new words are “love you” – I’ve been trying to get him to say it to me for ages now, but he finally said it a few weeks ago! My heart melts. He’s not one to express his love for me vocally, he would much rather shower me with kisses (aww).

He has become a bit of a fussy eater – the only meat he will eat is ham, chicken if it has a coating on it (!), or sausages. Vegetables, he will only really eat peas or sweetcorn. Most other things he will gladly eat, but he used to eat such a variety of these things. He has become more adventurous with fruit though, so he does get his 5 a day still, even if it is from sweet things! His favourite fruits at the minute are grapes and oranges.

His favourite words at the minute are “No thankyou cancoo” – ask him to do something, no cancoo; ask him if he loves you, no cancoo; ask him if he wants to go somewhere, no cancoo. Though ask him if he wants food – “Yes please pease”! He also likes to tell people they have a big bum – Daddy has the biggest, apparently (yay, not me!). He has learned lots of new animals and can now count to 5 – he is behind some of his peers with numbers, but his other vocabulary really does astound me every day. He loves pointing at the pictures in his books and telling me what everything is.

He recently moved into a full size single bed. He kept falling out of his cot bed with the sides off – mainly because he likes to stretch out and it wasn’t wide enough for him! He hasn’t fallen out of this one yet, but we have found him hanging off the edge a couple of times! The bonus with this bed is that if he wakes in the night, one of us can actually go and sleep in his bed with him as we fit – and it’s actually comfier than ours!

Potty training has progressed a little since the last update. He will now sit on the potty for 10 minutes at a time, though he still hasn’t done anything on it. He can tell me when he has done a poo and a wee in his nappy though. We have been taking part in Potty Training Live! so I will be writing a post on that soon.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that we had been to his first parents evening and his key worker was a little concerned about his behaviour, so they were going to introduce a reward chart & stickers. I’m pleased to report that it seems to be going well and he is getting at least one sticker a week. He does tend to lash out when he is tired though – not that I am excusing his behaviour at all, but pinpointing it helps a great deal. He also no longer gives me a second glance when I drop him off, he just heads straight in and doesn’t even say goodbye!

Would you like to read J’s updates monthly like N’s, or every two months as they are at the moment?



Family Friday


Little man J at 2 years 2 months old

- Stacey 2 Comments

J is becoming a proper little man now. He is quite tall for his age, so sometimes I often think he is beyond his years and forget that he’s not much over 2!

Since the last update, in the last month or so he has become so independent (if not stroppy when he can’t do the things he wants to do, so we have to reverse and let him do it himself!). He loves to take his own rubbish to the bin (for example when he has had a banana or box of raisins), but when the kitchen gate is closed and he can’t get in to do it he has an almighty tantrum. He also loves to get down from the table himself. Daddy recently took him out of his booster seat and got him down, but he screamed and screamed because he wanted to do it himself. I told him to put him back because of this, and he got down with a huge grin on his face!

I mentioned in the last post that he has a girlfriend – well now he has two! Our neighbour is the aforementioned girlfriend (who also goes to his nursery on the same day) but he has another one at nursery, F. F is new there and when she first came in they were immediately attracted to each other and he took her under his wing; they are inseparable and always playing together.

He is still learning lots of new words – sometimes he says words that I haven’t even been trying to teach him. He copies practically everything you say though so it doesn’t surprise me. He has also started learning his colours – his favourite one at the minute is green, to which he says greenhouse – I didn’t even know he knew that, or where he heard it! His favourite word at the minute is no, in a very stroppy tone…

He is obsessed with apples at the minute. Whenever we go in the kitchen he asks for one, but he takes around an hour to eat it! He also asks for chocolate & lollipops – he has a tub on the fridge which is full to the brim as practically every time family visit, they bring him some! It remains full though as it’s an occasional treat and I give him fruit instead – luckily he is a big fruit eater.

We are getting another step closer to potty training. He now regularly refuses to wear a nappy and screams blue murder when I try and put one on him, but when he gets on the potty he sits for a few seconds and then starts screaming and gets off! It’s progress though… Maybe we will have made more progress on the next update!

Definitely the correct choice of t shirt here…



Family Friday

Little man J at 2 years old

- Stacey 5 Comments
Well I can’t believe the original little man is now 2 years old. I haven’t updated about his progress as regularly as I should have, but it is my mission for the year for now, for both of them! Since my last update nearly 6 months ago, he has come on so much in lots of areas. 

He has so many new words (lots of them with thanks to Peppa Pig!). I’m not going to list them this time as there are way too many to keep up with nowadays; he’s saying at least one new word every 2 or 3 days. There are lots of animal names and noises; food words; greetings and goodbyes; toilet activities; and he’s starting to recognise body parts. He can also now count to 3! Although sometimes he says 1, 2, 8!…

Although he knows the words for wee & poo, potty training is still a no-go at the minute. He usually uses it as a hat – luckily he has done nothing in it at these times! He has sat on it a couple of times though, but he doesn’t stay there long enough. He doesn’t even tell me when he’s done a wee or a poo so I don’t think he’s quite ready anyway. (After I’d written this I had to come back to edit it as he brought me his potty saying ‘wee wee’ – he sat on it with his nappy off but just played with himself instead! Typical man hey!).

He still doesn’t have all of his teeth! He was a late starter and at 2 years old he still only has 12 – his molars started coming through at 20 months. He does have another two coming through right now though. 

We recently took both of the sides off J’s cot bed after removing one of them a few months ago. He had stopped falling out of the side that had been removed so we thought we would remove the other too, and make it even more like a proper big boys bed. He now falls out of the other side sometimes, but I can’t imagine he hurts himself as I find him laid on the floor asleep! We still have his routine though so this has worked well for us. 

He has started young and has a girlfriend – the next door neighbour! Her grandad asked her one day do you have a boyfriend, and she said “Yes, J” – cute! They have loved playing together ever since we moved in but this was just lovely. They are quite close, whenever they go and call for each other and the other isn’t in, or they have to come in for their tea etc., they always run away crying & upset. Young love, hey?!

He is gradually getting use to being a big brother. He wasn’t so sure at first and would poke N – like he was testing that he was real or something! Although when he first met him he gave him a kiss and kisses him all the time now, as well as tickling his feet. He also helps me with nappy changes and puts nappies in the bin. I think he will be much better when N starts moving and he can play with him! 

Little man’s latest

- Stacey Leave a comment

I’ve recently realised I don’t update on little man’s learning & experiences as much as I should, so I’m going to start doing so more. It’s been a long time since I have updated on him! 


He has learned a few new words/phrases since my last update. 

  • hot (from us telling him not touch things because they are hot) 
  • cat (he loves sitting at the window looking for cats) 
  • Lily (his girlfriend next door – he spends his days calling her name and looking out of the window for her!)
  • gog (for dog)
  • there (when I ask him where something is) 
  • baby (he’s started saying this a lot, and knows what a baby is now – good job!) 
  • what’s that? (usually pointing up to the sky, so sky may be a new word soon!) 
This means that at 18.5 months he has (at least) a 16 word vocabulary. 

A few nights a week he ends up in our bed. Daddy goes to work before little man wakes up, so when he does wake up he climbs out of Daddy’s side of the bed. The first thing he does? Empties Daddy’s underwear drawers! All of them! Though he has started being a good boy  and putting them back when he’s finished. And then proceeds to repeat himself.  

A few months ago I also wrote about him hitting other children. It seemed to be just a phase, as recently he has started to cuddle, kiss and stroke them instead! I knew he could be a lovely little boy in others company if he wanted to. (He hasn’t stopped his tantrums since then though, if anything, he’s gotten worse! And it usually results in him injuring himself. Over the weekend he ended up with a bleeding nose & mouth, resulting in a swollen lip and swollen & bruised nose from face-planting the floor in an extreme strop). 

One of his favourite new activities is climbing onto the windowsill! We have low windowsills so it’s a constant battle to stop him. He started by climbing over the back of the sofa, and then us taking him off and telling him no. He knows he’s being a monkey by doing it as he puts one leg up, looks at us and smiles, we tell him no, then he proceeds to do it anyway! Now, he goes around the side of the sofa and puts one knee onto the radiator and pulls himself up. I’m scared he’s going to try and climb out of the window so they are constantly closed too! I think he may stop going this way though when the weather gets a lot colder and the radiators are on…