Almost Two

This little guy is almost two years old. How that is even possible, I don't know. His birthday party is only a couple more weeks. Crazy!

Ollie is an affectionate little guy. He likes to demand kisses and hugs at random. He is very out going, talking to pretty much anyone who will pay attention to him - strangers on the street, store clerks, kids at the park. I am afraid to admit that I have "that kid" - the kid that never stops talking. It is pretty entertaining most of the time, until he repeats the same word a bajillion times until I acknowledge him by repeating the word back to him.

He is still OBSESSED with matchbox cars. He drives them all over the house, sleeps with them, parks them in rows, races them across the couch, takes them in the shower. He loves them more than any other toy he has and he has a ton of toys. He also loves to listen to music and dance to music, although he doesn't like us to dance with us and promptly tells us to stop when we try to bust a move with him. He has started to sing along with us when we sing him songs before bed.

Ollie is sleeping in a "big boy bed" now. We transitioned him when we moved and he has been doing great. He stays in bed (knock on wood) until we come get him after he wakes up and goes to bed without a fuss. He seems to take longer to fall asleep, but other than that it has been a pretty seamless transition.

Ollie is also becoming very independent. He was wants to do it by him "self" all the time. Putting on socks, shoes, getting into the car - you name it. He speech as just taken off - lots of 2-3 word sentences, has a huge vocabulary, and he comes up with some hilarious commentary from time to time. My recent favorite - he tells us to "check it" when he has a wet or poopy diaper and backs up to us so we can peek in his diaper. He pretty much repeats everything we say, which as resulted in a couple verbal mishaps. Ooops. We are working on that.

Ollie has also discovered his imagination as of late. He often pretends to be various animals - tigers, dinosaurs, monkeys. It is pretty cute. He is also working on learning his alphabet. We have foam letters in the shower and when he takes showers with me he hands me the letters and I ask him what they are. He knows about 10 letters by heart and then is knows a whole bunch more associations, like quail for "Q" and race-car for "R." It is so fun to watch him learn. He also likes to "read" his books, which is pretty much just him memorizing the stories. It is pretty adorable.

He is a pretty likable guy. Pretty easy going (for a toddler) most of the time, although he has his moments. We have started some extracurricular activities. We are doing gymnastics and swim lessons right now and he is loving those activities. To sum it all up, we love this little guy to pieces. His adorable little smile just melts me every time. Watch out ladies - this little guy is going to be a heartbreaker.