The Lutz Family: two and a half

The little man turn two and a half today. I can't believe how old he's getting, how fast he's growing, and how much he's learning.

At two and a half:

- Ryder's talking has finally come around full circle. He was definitely slow in the talking department. I thought he'd never be able to have full conversations with us. It's amazing how much his language skills have totally taken off in the last month or two. He talks in full sentences, strangers can understand some of his conversation, and we understand him 99% of the time. We still have moments that we can't understand what he's saying, but for the most part we are over the hurdle. On days when Derrik isn't home with us Ryder can tell him what we did without me really having to help much with the conversation.

- Now that our talking has finally taken off we are working on our learning. Ryder has zero patience to sit down with me and try to learn so we have to be sneaky about it. He's great with physical things. We started him on some basic puzzles a couple of weeks ago, and were shocked how great he was doing. The puzzles had the picture on the board, and he had to put them in the respective spot. We were mixing three different puzzle pieces in a pile on the floor, and he was still mastering them in minutes. We moved on to some real puzzles. The wood ones with a border still, but no help with the picture in the background this time. These are still a work in progress, but he's doing really great really looking at the picture and figuring out where they go. We're trying to teach him patience and not to get frustrated if something doesn't go in on the first try. We've also been working on counting. He's doing really great to five, and sometimes gets to ten and other times it's a strange concoction of numbers all mixed together. Just weeks ago though his counting was "1,6,9,6,9,6,9" so we are definitely making progress! He is counting everything from toys, to coins, to pictures in his books, and I truly think he'll master it so soon. I know lots of other kids are so much further advanced then this, but we are just so happy that Ryder is finally showing an interest and making some progress in learning! I'm sure the next six months he'll make hure milestones in this department.

- I have no clue what his height is, but all i'm saying is it is significantly taller then it was over the holidays. We are awaiting some warmer weather quickly out here because he has suddently outgrown most of his jeans and his long sleeve pj's! We were having a period of time when he was wakign up in the middle of the night screaming in pain telling us his legs were hurting. Putting it all together now it's quite obvious he was having a growth spurt!

- Ryder is big into us reading to him right now, really seems to grasp stories, understands full tv shows and tells us about them, and has started really watching kids movies with a purpose instead of just background noise. He's watched Cars for about a year now, but just now is interested in actually switching things up. I think we might be ready for a date to the movie theatre soon. We were waiting for Cars 2 that is supposed to come out this summer for the first go around, but if something good enough comes out before that we might have to give it a shot.

- Ryder is so independent. I think we could leave him home alone and he'd survive just fine. He goes to the fridge to get his own drinks now, tells us what he wants to eat, plays amazingly on his own... I am so greatful for this and know it'll be a huge blessing once Landon arrives. Although it makes me sad when I try to play with him and he tells me "Mommy go sit" or "Mommy go away"... a real sweet heart right there!

- Although he is independent he also loves us so so much. He is such a sweet cuddler, hugger, and kisser when he wants to be. At night he gives the sweetest kisses, makes us do "BIG kisses" when Daddy is home when we both kiss him at the same time, and hugs us both a good two or three times with all his mite before he goes to sleep at night. I loveeee when he yells "sweet dreams" from bed as I close his bedroom door at night. He kinda melts my heart :)

- He's sleeping great. We had a little rough patch when he was getting out of his big boy bed to sleep on the floor, but it's great now. We've set up a great routine for him before bed, and he pretty much goes down with no fight what-so-ever. I will always be thankful that Ryder since birth has been very good to us in the sleep department.

I know there is SO much more he is doing... of course when I go to write it's so hard to remember. Two and a half is great... we are loving this age, he's so much fun, and so much easier then he has been in the past. If there was ever a time we were truly ready to welcome another little one into our family we think this is the time. Ryder's going to be a great big brother!!!

He likes to pile his puzzle pieces on Landon