The number one thing about Spencer right now is his obsession with “choo-choos.” He LOVES trains. The closest thing we have to a train was a SF Trolley car, but he pushes that around like a “choo-choo.” He puts regular toy cars in a line and calls it a “choo-choo.” He takes apart all the pieces of bread in his sandwich, lines it up, and calls it a “choo-choo.” He takes out the bottom part of a toy basket, step into it, pulls up the sides, and walks around calling it a “choo-choo.”
We are not sure how this train obsession started, since we didn’t have any trains, but somehow he has developed a love for them and all things “transportation”. He loves seeing big semis on the freeway, and construction tractors on the side of the road. He loves flying his toy airplane around the room. He loves the Little Tike’s old school ride in cars. We don’t have one, but a few friends do and it is all we can do to rip him out of them when its time to go. Its interesting that even though he will join Aliyah in her tea parties and doll playing just so he can someone to play with, he is totally in line with typical boy interests – trains, cars, wrestling, growling, building tall towers to just ferociously knock them down, etc.
He loves to help me cook, and always pulls a chair to the counter to “help”. He does a fairly good job adding measuring cups full of ingredients into the mixing bowl, and is an expert “taster”. It’s all I can do to keep his little hands off the food and out of my way. He is so quick and sneaky in his “tasting” that he has touched raw meat and licked his fingers before I could stop him. He didn’t get sick, luckily. :)
He at the cutest stage right now. The way he tries to say words is adorable. His facial expressions are precious. And he just does the cutest things. However, among all this, he is probably at the hardest stage for young kids. He doesn’t really like to follow the rules. He doesn’t like staying in timeout. If he doesn’t get his way he pushes or tackles or hits or yells or pulls hair (he has gotten really good at pulling Aliyahs hair) or throws an enormous tantrum. And at 35 pounds a big tantrum is hard to handle. He likes to throw his food on the floor when he’s done, or when he’s not done. He can only use sippy cups because he dumps out his drink on the floor after the first sip. He likes to push chairs around the kitchen and climb up on the counter and get into things. He likes to play on the computer. He won’t hold my hand to stay with me in public. He can weasel his way out of the grocery shopping cart seat belt.
On our vacation to CA this summer, Spencer learned how to climb out of the pack’n’play the first morning. That night I had to put him down about 30 times before he stayed. On the vacation, he did ok, most of the time staying down after a few times putting him back in bed. But he started getting up at 5:30. At home, we thought maybe the crib would be harder to get out of, but it wasn’t. The first morning he was up at 5am in our room waking me up. A few times I had to spend an hour or two putting him back in his bed for nap or at night before he would stay. But a 4:30 to 5:30 wake up time was consistent. We were waiting until after the Utah trip to make any bedtime changes. And in Utah I ended up just having to sleep with him to keep him asleep all night. Which I LOVED!!! It was one of the sweetest things just snuggling with his big squishy baby body. Aliyah was never a sleep snuggler—she always moved around so much when she slept she’s never been allowed to sleep in our bed. So this is the first time I have ever had more than a newborn sleep next to me. It will probably be some of my sweetest memories of Spencer as a toddler. But after a few days (or weeks, I don’t remember) of being home, I got tired of waking up at 5am and just hauled all the furniture out of his room, threw his mattress on the floor, and turned his doorknob around. And since that day, our problems have been solved. He goes to bed right away and doesn’t get up until about 6:30 or 7. And he knocks on the door to get me to come get him—its cute.
Aliyah was never this physically challenging. She may have been more difficult but more in just an always crying and whining and throwing fits type of way. With Spencer I feel like I have to physically reign in or control his behavior every five minutes to keep him from hurting himself, others, or destroying the house.
Despite having all that boy energy and aggression, he is a very sweet and sensitive boy. He loves babies. I have a friend with a little baby, and he want to hold her every time she comes over. And he does a great job holding babies. If he sees babies he loves to softly touch them and try to kiss them. The other day he saw a baby on a big box of wipes. He tried to get me to open it, thinking there was a baby in there.
He is very quick to say sorry and is very concerned when someone gets hurt. If he accidentally bumps me, he immediately says “sorry momma.” If someone is really hurt or sad, he comes up to them with a very concerned look and gives them a hug and tries to make them stop crying. He has a little Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that is his favorite and one day it fell and hit a toy. He was genuinely concerned about Mickey and quickly picked him up, rocked him, said “Its ok keekee (Mickey)” and told me he thought Mickey’s nose was hurt…”nose…nose” (Somehow Spencer’s nose is the thing that always gets hurt—he’s always saying “ow…nose”)
He will say hi to any stranger that walks by. He shows off a lot, but running around and acting silly, when we have guests. He likes to be silly and try to make people laugh. He loves to be with people, but he does ok playing on his own.
