Cooper: Two Years Old

Cooper turned two almost exactly a month ago.  It's been a busy month full of sickness, fall family activities, and such, so here I am just now posting about him being two.  His 2-yr old doctor appointment was today, so I finally have stats to post as well.
Height: 35" (75th percentile)
Weight: 28.4 lbs. (50th percentile)
Head Circ.: 20-1/2" (95th percentile)
All this means that our little guy is growing taller, thinning out, and finally starting to grow into his head a little. :o)

As Cooper's birthday was nearing, I started practicing with him how to answer the two questions everyone asks children: How old are you? and What is your name?
If you ask how old he is, he'll hold up one finger and announce, "Tooper two!"
If you ask him his name, he'll say, "Tooper!"  If I prompt him, he'll say, "Tooper Dames," and if you're really lucky you might get "Smiff" at the end.

I couldn't resist this photo the other day.  I hadn't done laundry, and he was out of clean pants to wear, so I pulled out some new 2T size jeans and sent him off to school.  When he came home, this is what his pants looked like.  We were singing "pants on the floor" all night.  Such a skinny guy!  He's right in between 18-24 month and 2T in both pants and shirts.  He wears a little of each right now.

Our little guy is no longer a baby, and will quickly tell you he's a big boy.  We even bought him some big boy pants (pull-ups) to start the GRADUAL potty training process.  I'm not forcing it with this kid.  He's like clock-work though, so this morning as his usual time was approaching, I took of his diaper and let him go commando for a bit, thinking I'd be able to help him identify what was about to happen a bit easier.  I was multi-tasking getting myself ready for the day, and missed the opportunity.  Needless to say, I had a little present waiting for me in my room, and a very concerned toddler who was confused about why that ended up there and not in the potty.  All I could do was laugh about it as I cleaned it up.  Totally MY fault.  We are all products of our parents' successes AND mistakes, right? ;o)

I just LOVE this photo of him.  He loves to sit out on the front porch in the evening and play "I spy."  His favorite thing for me to have him guess are different colored flowers by the front porch.  He knows his colors, but still gets some of them mixed up.  If he's not sure, he'll usually guess "dreen!"  He sings the ABC song often, but some of the letters in the middle are more sounds you'd make if you weren't sure of the words of a song.  He can identify the letters A and O, and will proudly do so at any opportunity.  He knows lots of animals and animal sounds, although his elephant imitation sounds more like a rooster than an elephant.

His favorite things are firetrucks, school buses, tractors, BIG trucks (which he calls "BEEG chucks!") and trains.  He likes to listen to sounds outside and identify them (birds, bugs, airplanes, trains, cars, motorcycles, helicopters, etc.).  We live not far from a small airport and train tracks, so we get lots of aviation and train sounds.  Cooper would live outside and never come in the house if we'd let him.  Well, either that or in the car.  He loves to "drive" the car.  He'll tell you where he's going, and what he sees.  All of this while the car is turned off, sitting in our garage.  His imagination is budding!  He's also become quite the backseat driver.  Just in the last week or two, we've been driving and he'll say, "Doh dat way!  No! Dat way!" and he'll point the direction.  He gets upset when we don't go the way he wants.  He also likes to think we'll let him drive, and will make a mad dash for the front seat when we're trying to get him in his car seat in the back, all the while screaming, "Tooper drive!"

Coop loves to go to the local elementary school to play on the playground, and to see the school buses in the parking lot.  He knows where the playground is as we pass by, and will beg to go to the "paydound" and see the buses.  He can climb on the playground equipment with little assistance, and go down the slides himself.  He also likes to swing on the swings laying on his belly, but gets excited when one of us pushes him on the swing, and the other swings in tandem with him.

Cooper loves to sing, and is starting to make up songs to familiar tunes.  His life is fast becoming the Cooper Smith musical. I love listening to his little songs about what he's doing.  He also just recently started really pretending when playing.  When he plays cars and trucks (which is OFTEN), he makes all the noises, and tells a story.  Last night while I was doing the dishes, he was playing with his fireman action figure and some matchbox cars, pretending there was a fire and he was saving them all.  There were lots of crashing, screaming, and heroic "save you!" sounds.  It was the first time I noticed him playing so detailed.

Speaking of dishes, Cooper has "chores" he's expected to do.  He cleans up his toys before school, before meals, and before bed.  He helps me unload the dishwasher, and knows where the tupperware bowls and lids go, where the silverware belongs, and where other various bowls and such belong that are at his height.  He also likes to think he helps fold laundry, which is more like a wadded up bunch of clothes that I'd already folded neatly.  But he's really good about putting his dirty clothes in the hamper when he gets undressed, which I still have to coax him to do.  He does NOT like taking his clothes off.

The doctor was impressed today with Cooper's vocabulary.  Sometimes others can't understand what he's saying.  But he's getting pretty good, and others can actually carry on conversations with him now.  It's fun to see him communicating.  The other day at the playground he made friends with a little girl (3) and boy (5).  They had fun playing, and Cooper was sad when they had to go home.  He came home and told me "fends doh home.  Tooper sad."  It was so cute.

Despite the temper tantrums, which usually happen when he's tired or hungry (after all, he does have those Christensen genes in him), Cooper continues to be a very happy, very energetic, very loving and easy-going kid.  He makes every day wonderful.  We love you, Coopsta!