Piglet at 2 1/2 years

Our dear Ethan is 2.5 years old, and I'll probably get hit by the blog curse after saying this, but the terrible twos haven't been too terrible so far. He is still a sweet and darling boy who is struggling with his role as big brother to little Sophie. He's not too willing to share his toys and will push Sophie away if she's too close. Other times, he's so happy when she wakes up from her nap or when he gets home from school.

As for school, he's really enjoying himself, and the teachers all think he's hilarious. He loves singing in all three languages, although he still mostly uses English to communicate with people. I've been hanging out when I drop him off to see him interact with other kids, and he's always laughing and saying hi. He has been mentioning that he hit James, a kid in his class, but I'm not sure if he actually did since his teacher hasn't mentioned it. I told him to be careful since James's dad is a cop!

Lately, his favorite sayings are "buy chicken, buy rice!", "Mommy help!", "Donald Duck", and the nonsensical "dee dah bah". Donald Duck is because he loves the Philharmagic 3D movie at Disneyland. Not sure why he's always saying "buy chicken, buy rice", but he says it to everyone. When he wants me to give him a bath or put him to bed, a few "Mommy help"s will do the trick. And then there are the times when he's still talking jibberish and always in the form of "dee dah bah".

Meal time can still be a challenge, but he's fattened up since the Christmas stomach virus episode. He's always asking to watch videos when he eats, mostly because we'll surf youtube when we're at a restaurant to keep him in his seat. Still, he's had a few instances where he'll watch the video, forget to chew and then puke =( There are other times when he'll completely surprise me and eat everything on his plate without my once telling him to EAT!

Thankfully, he hasn't been as sick as when he started nursery school. He still has a constant runny nose, as do all the kids practically, but sometimes, he gets a wet cough that he just can't get rid of. He has been taking a multi-vitamin to keep his immune system strong, but some of these germs at school are pretty persistent! Sometimes, we'll give him medicine so that he doesn't have to miss school, but I notice that his behavior changes significantly after he gets sick - not sure if it's the meds. He's very disobedient, almost developing an attitude and ignoring all instruction. Even his teacher has complained to me about it.

We're slowly trying to get him to use the potty, and every now and then, he'll pee on cue at school. We bought him a new potty as he seemed adverse to his old one, and he'll try to use it sometimes, but he's still not 100 percent ready yet. I really want to get him trained soon, but our trip to Baltimore might mess things up a bit. Is it too much to ask for him to be trained before 3?

Finally, he's been attending Kiddy Gym on Sunday morning, and he absolutely loves it. I've noticed that he's developed a slight fear of heights (probably from me - I have issues going down stairs), but he's very willing to flip upside down and hang off bars if the instructor is spotting him. We signed up for 12 weekly sessions back in November, but because he was sick all the time, we haven't finished our current program yet. We're probably not going to continue with this particular gym since it's quite far for us. Gymboree just opened two branches here, so we might try that one next, but it would have to be after we get back from B-more.

Happy 30 months, Piglet =)