Nathan's Milestone Update

I haven't done an update on Nathan's milestones since a few at his second birthday and I didn't want to forget some of these. Here's a quick list along with random pictures I want to save:

• Drinking from a cup. "Two hands, go slow"...I'm a broken record!
• Knows all letters of the alphabet (not just the song), and knows the sounds of several (so far S,C,A,B,T and M)
• Can say his numbers up to 20, can count objects more reliably but tends to say one more number than there physically is.
• Can make 1 to 5 with the fingers of both hands. He uses both hands a lot. Not sure whether he'll favor right or left yet. I think he colors with his right hand but eats sometimes with his left. 
• LOVES to sing. All the time. Also "conducts" at church along with the song leader. He isn't a dancer, he just enjoys the singing.

Eating watermelon at the church on the Fourth (and dripping it all over Mommy's white capris)

• Has switched from Wheel of Fortune to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse before nap (on the weekend) and bedtime. This started when he had scarlet fever and we needed him to be still during the day.

Doing the "Hot Dog Dance"

• Still in size 4 diapers though I'm wondering if we need to move up a size. Showing interest in the potty but only usually fully clothed. Have gone 2 times in potty but we are not formally training yet.
• May 31st - after bath while getting his diaper put on said he needed to poo poo and wanted to go in the white potty. So we got up and he ran to the potty with Daddy. Daddy took off the diaper and Nathan sat on the potty. He went tee tee in the potty then said he was all done. We cleaned up with toilet paper and he had some gas (I guess he thought it was poo poo feeling). Then he helped pour the tee tee in the big potty and flushed it. So excited and happy!
• June 20th - before bath after I got him undressed he asked to tee tee on the potty. Nothing happened. So we took a bath and said he could try again afterward. So we got out of bath and dried off really well then sat on the potty again...this time he tinkled!! I think he was motivated by being told he could help pour the tee tee in the big potty and flush by himself, haha. Who can ever tell what kids will do!
• Size 2T clothes but some shirts need to be 2/3T. Still wearing size 5 shoes but he might be going through a growth spurt.

Bubble mustache with Daddy

• Jumping with both feet off the floor for several months. Throwing and kicking much better in the months following his birthday.
• Baby sister: says he loves her (also loves Minnie and Daisy and the ballerina from Goodnight Houston) and likes to give her hugs and kisses. However, he still doesn't want mommy or daddy to hold her and asks us to put her down. He says "mine" (mommy/daddy) and looks really sad. No aggression but an uptick in yelling at home. Teachers say there is a "yeller" in his class now. Greeeat.
• ::enter stage left, baby sister. Enter stage right, terrible twos::
• We had our first scream fest the other night after he was abruptly removed from the dinner table for playing with his milk (all over the front of his shirt). I snapped (but just to be clear Nathan was the only one doing the screaming). The punishment: no Mickey Mouse Clubhouse before bath time (you'd have thought I was beating him from the reaction this got. Believe me it was really hard not to spank that little bottom.) Jimmy backed me up when Nathan tearfully appealed to daddy, and held Olivia while 2 weeks postpartum mommy broke the doctors orders ("don't pick up anything heavier than your baby, no excessive bending, picking, pushing, pulling" uh huh...right) and carried the 30+ lb kicking screaming crying 2 year old upstairs and gave him a bath. More like a fast soapy rinsing since the stamping and throwing of objects recommenced in the bathtub. He cried for daddy and since I had already overtaxed myself I let Jimmy come up to read with him and put him to sleep. Meanwhile I got Olivia and held her and cried at the kitchen table and waited for my appetite to come back so I could eat the dinner that was in the microwave at the time of the meltdown. Sensible, huh. On the plus side he hasn't had a similar episode since that night. I guess taking away MMC was traumatic enough to stick for now.

Picking the sole surviving peach from the tree in the back yard.

• Still loves books. Current bedtime favorites are Goodnight Houston and Goodnight Aggieland. Also the Mickey look-and-find book he got when Livy was born. He pretends to read his books by making nonsense sounds or by reciting a book he knows by heart, even if he has open a different book. For example, he'll have a random book open and start reciting 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar.' (pronounced cater-peeler with a pause between parts).

Adores his Popo.

• He is still very articulate for his age. Jimmy and I can understand easily 95% of what he says and I think other people can get 75% or better (someone correct me if I'm delusional). He speaks in full sentences most of the time and understands (and uses correctly in a sentence) abstract concepts such as "both of us." I'm not sure why but I find that particularly impressive.  Don't get me wrong, he still mispronounces words like yellow (lellow) and others I don't pay attention to, but he picks up on corrections pretty quickly. He also started deliberately mispronouncing words at around age 2 because he thought it was funny. It started with the number five which he would say as "fauf" and laugh hysterically.
• Perhaps the biggest milestone of all: Nathan has been sleeping through the night since Livy came home. He had been irregularly for a few months (we'd have good nights and bad nights) but now  every night for 3 weeks straight has been good. He still has bad dreams occasionally that we go in to soothe away but that's it.  I've been scared to put it in writing... He still sometimes wakes up between 5:00 and 6:00 am but will generally go back to sleep until a decent time. He'll ask, "Time to get up??" Currently his bedtime routine starts with dinner time. Then it is one episode of MMC, bath, 2 books and "night night." We still stay with him until he falls asleep.

Clearly from before he started sleeping through the night in his own bed.