eat much

I failed in the 2.5 update to mention Ian's eating habits or lack thereof.  To be all kinds of honest here I despise feeding him, now now lay off judging mothers I still feed him I just don't find joy in it.  I find mealtime to be all sorts of frustrating and irritateing and it turns into how many bribes can I try before I find the winning combo.  Dinner options consists of:
cheese pizza (which lately he's been pulling the cheese off of)
mac n' cheese paired with the any of the following often all 3: mixed veggies along with a pinky size of whatever meat we are eating that night and fries (often times sweet potato fries) 
Waffles or any breakfast item of the like.
 I know, I know such a wide variety to get you through 7 days worth of dinners. Yet, at the sitters he will consume chicken noodle soup (only took him a yr or longer to warm up to that meal), popcorn chicken, fish sticks, peanut butter and crackers, etc.  I know he is capable I guess I'm just not willing to host 5 toddlers every night for dinner so he will eat.  We all eat dinner together (aside from fire station nights) and for the most part on the nights we are altogether at least 2 meals a week we all eat the samething or parts of the samething. 

I will back track and start with breakfast which rotates between: waffles, pancakes, french toast sticks, and cereal all paired with a smoothie containing strawberries, banana, spinach and milk (and oatmeal when I remember). So I'd say we rock breakfast!

Lunch is again better than dinner but still a huge task to get him to eat. Usually consists of yogurt paired with any of the following: apples, grapes, carrots, PB&J (1st time was yesterday after not eating it at home since December), crackers, soft pretzel

Snack: depends on when he wakes from nap which is another thing I forgot to mention.  We still nap anywhere from 2.5-3.5hrs.  I'm thinking we may need to start cutting naptime a bit shorter as bedtime is not pretty.  So maybe I'll start with waking after 3hrs and see how that goes for bedtime.  Anyways snack if snack time is needed usually whatever is leftover from lunch is offered.

Needless to say our menu options are small.  When we do get him to try something (a pinky size protion) after trying is then totally done with eating and whats nothing to do with whatever is remaining on his plate even if it's something he really likes such as mac n' cheese.

Yes, he is growing and developing as he should so I guess I shouldn't be all that concerned it just annoys me. He knows it annoys so it's a power struggle, that I feel he is totally winning.  Heck, we had to resort to giving him the option of going to bed or trying ice cream, he finally caved and he LOVED it!  Score: Parents 1 vs Ian 1,000,000,000 We're getting there, right?

ugh...off to plan our meals for the week.

2.5

Ian my little man you are 30 months old also known as 2.5yrs old.  You have tons of words and not just words but sentences.  Lately you've started adding "ey" or "y" to words. Here are some off the top of my head:
Forkey= fork
army=arm
mouthy= mouth
helpy= help

You have started to dress yourself, the 2 holes in your shorts sometimes throws you for a loop and well a t-shirt causes you just as many struggles.  I would say you are 99.9% potty trained, the .1% is when you are too busy playing to stop and go and during sleep time.  Speaking of sleep time you still nap wonderfully for approx 3hrs.  Bedtime is still a struggle, due to daylight savings time the sun doesn't start to go down till about 9:30 and in the last week or so you have developed a love for the pool.  So often times after dinner we will go out and before I know it I look at my watch to see it is 8:30 and we have to start bribing you to get out.  So in short there is no real bedtime routine at the moment.

Now, that we have the bike trailer on days that I workout with you, you get to pick whether we ride bike or run. I perfer bike and I think you prefer run.  We run for a shorter period of time than we bike for.
Onto develpment and your accomplishments I'm sure there are more than what is listed but at the moment I can't remember them all:

• ride tricycle
• swim
• hop
• run (you like to either look at your feet or look behind you though)
• gallop
• dress yourself (pants are often times on backwards, and shirts confuse you at times too with all the holes so close to each other)
• put own shoes on, not always on the right feet but you very rarely give up trying.
• stand on one leg

You mister have an attitude at times and get frustrated very quickly when things aren't operating how you would like them too.  When there is something you don't want to do you say your eye hurts.  You are also very shy when out and about but when you are home and in your own environment you are quite the talker.

You have manners you don't always use them but you do have them we just need to work on being more consistent with using them.  You will say "no, thank you, bless you, please, thank you"  And when we are out and about you decide you are capable of walking and the place we are going has a door that requires opening you say "no, momma me" and then after opening (with some assistance) you will say "momma, you first".  It's all quite adorable and sweet all at the sametime. 

And now time for some pictures:

using mommy as a human balance beam

just hanging out and relaxing while on a run

being cute and goofy

uh oh, didn't get his way

patiently waiting for tires to be rotated, wearing favorite hoodie sweatshirt

beating the heat

This past week we experienced some crazy temperatures everyday well over 100.  I'm so thankful we have a pool as that is where we were mutiples times throughout each day.  Although by the end of the week the pool temp was 90 and was no longer refreshing from the heat unless you were acquiring vitamin D for a 1/2hr or so.

Showing off his swimming abilities:

how our 4th of July was spent

Little Fins Swim School refresher week

Little Fins was back in town for a week which meant refresher week for the January Michiana swimmers.

The following videos were taken at the Kroc Center in South Bend:

Well, Ian's attitude towards is still the same he does like to do the work.  But through the tears and repeating "I done" over and over he did everything that Marci asked of him.  And he is a complete fish who at the beginning of summer we had to bribe to get him in pool we now have to bribe to get him out of the pool. 

Little Fins will be back again this coming winter to offer another full 4wk course.  If you are in the Michiana area and thinking you would like your lil one to learn the above skills then I would first "Like" Little Fins on facebook which is where you will 1st find out the dates that Little Fins will be here which means you will have a great opportunity to lock in your time slot.