Tanner at 2.5 years old!

Tanner has changed so much in the last six months and I am grateful for that. He was a fun two year old but I couldn't wait for his language skills to speed up. Now, he can tell us what he's thinking and it's fun to see what he cares about and likes.

Here are some fun things about Tanner at 2.5 years old:

- He LOVES his dinosaur rainboots and wears them almost every day. Some Sundays are a fight as we say no to rainboots at church. He really loves anything dinosaurs but the rainboots are his favorite.

- Enjoys coloring with Ashton. This is one reason I'm happy Ashton is the oldest as a girl. He picks up on a lot of arts and crafts stuff. He has not quite mastered the rule of not coloring on the floors/walls/doors/etc. But we're working on it. He really likes drawing circles.

Drawing circles for his cousin.

- He can count 1-10 and plays hide and seek. He says a handful of letters and can identify a few like O, S, I, and R, I think. He knows the colors almost all the time. And he knows the typical shapes. His favorite shape is a star. His favorite color is green.

- Loves to sleep! This kid can sleep 12 hours a night and still take a 2-3 hour nap. Except with the move, he now wakes up around 6:30/7am but takes a little longer nap. We'll see if he changes back to his normal or if this becomes his new normal. I anticipate him to reset his clock after his surgery later this week.

- Definitely has developed his gross motor skills like climbing, jumping with both feet, kicking a ball, etc. He continues to climb out of his crib but does it gracefully. Once we recover from surgery this week, I think we will transition him to a regular bed.

- Loves to sing "Follow the Prophet" and "When I am Baptized"

- He enjoys watching Daniel Tiger and has learned to count to 4 when he's upset (it's from an episode of Daniel Tiger). He is better at identifying how he feels and working to calm down. He does well when I ask him to go to his room to calm down.

- His most common question is "What's that noise?" He'll ask that a lot if he hears any small noise.

Here is his typical schedule. I found myself looking back at Ashton's schedule for Tanner so I'm sure I'll do the same for Gemma.

7:30-8:30am Wake up. He takes a little while to wake up. Ashton is often up and going by then but Tanner prefers a slower wake up process.
8-9 Eat breakfast and watch one show. He loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches for breakfast.
9-12 Morning activities
12-1 Lunch and watch one show. His favorite lunch is hot dogs. This kid can eat a lot! He also loves yogurt and apples.
1-4 Naptime! He typically naps 2-3 hours. He goes down quietly and quickly falls asleep. He is still in his crib so that helps.
4-6 Wake up, snack, wait for Daddy to come home
Evening: Family outings/activities. He enjoys heading to the park and playing in the splash pad.
7:45 Bath-time, scriptures, and songs. He LOVES the story of Nephi building a boat. That is his request every night. He's starting to say prayers for us as well, which is cute.
8-8:30 In bed. He falls asleep fairly quickly and is happy to lay down.

Tanner teaches me a different way to look at life. He is all about living life to the fullest. He does everything with such energy and love. He reminds me daily to slow down and smile at the little things. I often find myself feeling less stressed as I play with him and enjoy being around his innocence and outlook on life. While he is high-energy and a two-year-old, I am grateful for his example in our family. He brings smiles to everyone and enjoys doing so.