Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Napping, and other accomplishments


After a hiatus of more than four months, Tucker has begun napping regularly again. I have been hesitant to put those words into print lest that jinx this new trend, but I am cautiously optimistic that my stubborn boy will continue actually sleeping during his rest time. Why is this so nice? First and foremost, we have had zero tantrums since the napping has become somewhat consistent again. ZERO. It is so much nicer to be around a well-rested two year-old than a cranky-hyper-tired one. Enough said. Second, dinner time isn't so much of a crunch. Without a nap, Tucker disintegrated at about 6 pm, which meant we needed to start putting him to bed by then at the latest, and to do a bath, much earlier. A 7:30 bedtime is much more civil for everyone involved.

Other recent developments in Tucker's young life include his interests broadening from all things wheeled. I've heard that you usually can categorize boys into truck boys, ball boys or dinosaur boys. Tucker has always been a truck boy, and he still likes his trucks, but the days when the trucks march all over the house and are inseparable from him seem to be gone, at least for now.

In the meantime...
*This summer balls are quite the hit and he is very interested in throwing them, collecting them, rolling them and trying to catch them.
*Tucker's imagination is exploding. He rounds up his Winnie the Pooh characters and enacts things with them, talks to them, etc. Sometimes it's harder now to figure out what he's saying because half the time it's some imaginary thing that has no basis in anything close to what the conversation at hand is about.
*Tucker's love of dressing up continues to grow. His latest acquisition is a football helmet which he runs around the house with. He also likes to put on his mud boots as a fashion statement, and to dress us with hats. Poor baby sister--I fear she will be dressed funny by her older brother.
*Tucker is very into reading right now, and into snuggling in bed. He will get up on any bed, at any time, crawl under the covers and say its night-night time. He also loves to "read" to Ducky, and will read books by himself for long periods of time. He especially loves his Bible--but will only read the stories about Jesus. He gets mad when I try to read him other ones.
*Tucker's creativity is blossoming into the first artistic urges I've really seen. He sits at his table and methodically scribbles with his markers, and paints pictures that take more than two seconds each. He proudly presents them to me and waits for us to hang them up in the hallway upstairs.
*Tucker is also obsessed with his upcoming birthday. We began talking about it to get him ready to switch rooms (which will happen on his birthday), vacating the nursery for a big boy room... but we began talking about it so early that he is ready for his birthday NOW and it's still more than a month away.