Age: 2 years
I like: Smoothies, boobs, cars, spraying people with the hose pipe, animals, pretending to be a monkey

Monkey impersonation
Sleeping
We are all but done with day naps now. In fact we are actively avoiding them since whenever Little O sleeps in the day we struggle to get him to go to sleep at night. What mostly happens these days is that he goes through the whole day without a nap and then goes to sleep like a log by 7.30… with the entire cast of Bing and Cars in bed with him. He still wakes up in the night but it’s only once or twice at the moment and he usually goes back to sleep quickly. It’s got its pros and cons. Day naps do give whoever is looking after him a little breather but the quick bedtime is great.
Eating
Little O continues to be a bit of a fuss pot when it comes to food. He is a big fan of yogurt, beans, crackers, ryvitas, fruit and various unhealthy things but he generally ignores everything else. We continue not to get stressed about it. This seems to be fairly standard toddler behaviour and as I am still breastfeeding, he gets a lot of nutritional benefit from that. He is happy, healthy and full of energy so we just let him be.
Communication and socialisation
Little O is an absolute chatterbox and is putting together more and more little sentences. He is still enjoying getting me to ask Alexa for animal noises but as he has learned the noises he joins in, which is adorable. He is such a happy, affectionate little person and he is so much fun to be around. My favourite recent moment was asking him to draw in Mr O’s father’s day card. He did a bunch of squiggles and then thrust the pen back at me and said, “ta-da!”. It’s also become easier to eat out with him as he’ll actually sit at the table and draw and play with his toys long enough for us to eat. We get occasional toddler tantrums but they’re really not that common and pretty manageable.
Mobility
The buggy wars are raging and it is taking more and better bribery to get Little O into his pushchair in situations where it’s not a good idea for him to walk. He has received a trike for his birthday in the hope that that’s going to encourage him to sit down and also be less work for us to drag around just in case. He is an energetic and nimble little human so he clambers all over everything. I wish he had a little bit more sense of self-preservation but mostly keeping a close eye on him stops us from major injuries. Recently he’s been having a great time visiting a trampoline park with Mr O and Mrs O Senior.
As Little O is now 2, I will be reducing these updates to quarterly. I will be posting some pictures from his birthday party on the weekend but there won’t be another progress update until September.
All sounds very familiar from the way our grandson developed. He will be four in December, and is still fussy with food, only just out of nappies, and beginning to say awkward things in public places, like cafes. “That man’s not a lady, he’s a man”. (An elderly chap with long hair at the back, formed into a grey and greasy man bun.)
Little O looks to be on the right track, in every way possible. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Wow, 2 already. Time flies.
Wow, amazing how quickly the time goes. He looks so happy and healthy, and that party looked absolutely amazing!
He had such a blast. I think it was one of the best days of his life.