Atlas is Two!

My little boy is 2!! He's always been my chill, content, focused and detailed little guy. Sooooo very different from Jane. Recently he has been reminding me he is 2! His chill contentedness is being taken over by his busy, curious and tantrum filled 2 year oldness. He is still very much a independent player and LOVES toys. He likes to organize and can learn very quickly because he has the patience and focus needed to do so. He is very receptive to my help which also helps him learn. Unlike Jane he doesn't like anything too exciting and is very timid about new things. It's very common for them to have complete opposite reactions to the same thing. For example, he got a robot toy for his birthday that moves on it's own and he was super scared of it and Jane thought it was so cool! He loves the toy when it's not moving, but wants nothing to do with it if it is. Even though they are very different Atlas loves his sister and Jane loves her brother! They play together all the time without fighting. Of course I still have to go break up fights from time to time, but they always want to be together. When one of them gets a time out the other one is still trying to go play with them. It makes me so happy to see them enjoy each other.

It's a car!

He is ALL boy! He wants all the trucks, cars, trains, planes and robots. He will find any tiny car that might be on one page in a book when I never even realized there was one in the book before. Mr. Details. He can identify a bunch of shapes correctly. He'll even count in order up to 5 most of the time. He knows way more words than Jane did at this age. He's very good at communicating what he wants with words. He says at least 5 word sentences. He just focuses so well and he's not worried about doing something perfectly the first time. He can be sort of a klutz sometimes. When he moves around he doesn't always take into consideration what he might run into or knock down. In addition to being clumsy he's very tough and hard headed. He'll cry for a minute when he gets hurt and then he acts like nothing ever happened. I think his toughness contributes to his clumsiness because he doesn't remember, "Oh yeah, that hurt last time I did that!" ;) For those reasons he still makes me really nervous on playgrounds.

Look at those baby rolls!

Weight

Birth: 8lbs 7oz

1 Year Old: 22 lbs

2 Years Old: 27 lbs

He LOVES the trampoline!

He gradually began to lose his baby rolls once he started walking. He is still pretty thick! He's stayed pretty close to the middle of the percentiles though. I think it's because he isn't super tall so his weight has less space in which to be distributed. ;) He's definitely heavier and thicker than Jane ever was. But that's because he'll actually take a moment to sit still sometimes, unlike his sister.

One of the first times standing on his own for a few minutes!

Height

Birth: 21 1/2"

1 Year Old: 29"

2 Years Old: 33"

He actually looks tall in this picture!

He was born tall, but then leveled out pretty quickly. Now he's actually short for his age. I think it's because he has short legs and a long torso. Sam is the same way. I think one of these days his legs will shoot up and he'll be taller than average. It's really hard for me to imagine him not being like 6' because Sam is over 6', so I've always expected a tall boy. Time will tell!

Look at all those teeth!

Atlas finally got his first tooth at 13 months old! Despite being extra late with his first tooth, by his 2nd birthday he has caught all the way up! He has 16 teeth. The only baby teeth left to come in are his 2nd set of molars. 

Firsts

On his birthday I like to go back through the pictures of past year and find some of the firsts throughout the year. After the first birthday the "firsts" are not very traditional, like crawling or first food or what have you. But they are still fun! This year it's anything from walking to his first time to visit Schlitterbhan. It's so fun to watch him grow!

Sitting in a tree - 13 months

Tooth! - 13 months

Walking - 14 months

Dressing up - 15 months

Falling asleep eating - 15 months

Picking flowers for mom - 16 months

Spaghetti face! - 17 months

Haircut - 18 months

Black eye - 18 months

Schlitterbahn - 19 months

Painting - 20 months

Camp Tejas - 21 months

SNOW! - 21 months

Play set - 22 months

Booster seat - 23 months

Toddler bed - 23 months

Being 2! - 24 months

Favorites

He had to lie down to drive his car. ;)

Atlas loves to play outside! He really likes to run in circles on the drive way and drive/push his cars around. He loves to explore and he doesn't care if I'm close by or not. I love that independent spirit, but it makes me nervous sometimes! Especially at the park when he starts running to the ditch to see the turtles on his own. He loves mud and puddles, really anything involving water. That hasn't changed since he was born!

His hair!

He loves to eat! I don't know why, but he has to touch his hair when he eats! Almost every time his hair ends up looking something like this. He used to eat just about everything, but over the past year he has become more picky. His absolute favorite food for a long time was mac & cheese. He must have burnt himself out on it because he will take or leave it depending on the day now. His top favorite right now is french fries! Other favorites include: oranges, strawberries, grapes, apples, yogurt, sausage, hot dogs/little smokies, popsicles, cookies and fruit snacks. He likes to dip almost anything in ketchup and ranch dressing.

Monster truck!!

He has many, many favorite toys and they change a lot. His most favorite toys are any vehicle related toy that is new or isn't his. ;) A few toys that have stayed favorites for a while are any of the Thomas trains he got for Christmas, his Lighting McQueen car, and Hot Wheels monster truck. He always wants to hold like 5 cars in his arms at once! I have to give him a bag sometimes so he can carry them all around at the same time.

Watching a show with their favorite friends.

There is a theme to Atlas's favorite things. It doesn't change with his favorite shows and movies. Anything with vehicles and robots. Some of his favorites are Storybots Super Songs, Mater's tall tales, Bubble Guppies episodes about vehicles, Super Wings and Paw Patrol. He loves to go pick out a movie from our blu-ray stack. Wreck It Ralph is the overwhelming favorite at this moment, but before that it was Cars. Other favorites are Big Hero 6, Wall-E, Lego Movie and Lego Batman. The picture above is Atlas and Jane watching a show together with their favorite stuffed animals. Atlas loves his teddy now!

Jane "reading" to Atlas

He has always loved books and will happily read independently every day. Sometimes it's hard for me to get him to sit down with me and let me read for him and finish a book. He wants to go at his own pace "reading" books. He changes favorites all the time, but some of his favorite books over the past year have been Lift and Look Construction Sites, Find the Duck, Planes Fly, Richard Scary's Things That Go, Busy Town Word Book, Usborne's Lift the Flap First Words Book, See Inside How Things Work.

Trampoline and a train! Doesn't get much better for this kid.

Atlas's favorite activities are actually the same as Jane's! Jumping on the trampoline and swimming in Marmee and Pappaw's pool. He is very fond of splash pads too. Being turned upside down and flipped around and dropped on the couch by Pappaw is a pretty big favorite. He really likes to play in my car and act like he's driving.

Splash Pad!!

Swimming is the best!

For a long time Atlas really loved shoes! He never wanted to take them off. Just over the last couple of months he's finally decided that it's more fun to go barefoot at home. ;) Did I mention he loves the park? He loves to swing, climb and slide, but most of all he just likes having an open outside space to explore. He is normally pretty good about leaving when we need to, but one day he was very upset to leave the trucks one of our park friends had brought. Even so he calms down quickly. He's pretty even tempered for the most part and we can usually predict how he will react to things. He whines like any 2 year old, but when he is told to calm down he responds "Okay..." sniffles a little more and relaxes. One of his biggest tantrums so far was when the kindle wouldn't do what he wanted and then I took it away because he was whining. He loves the kindle and my iPod touch, but I don't let him play much because he gets frustrated with it so easily. He is such a sweet boy though. He is very popular with the little girls at the park. It's not an uncommon site for me to look up and see one of the little girls is carrying him around. ;) If we are eating out anywhere it seems that at least one person has to touch his head and tell me how cute he is. I love watching him grow and learn about the world around him.

Park + trucks that are new to him(aren't his) = Bliss. He did not want to leave!

Happy 2nd Birthday Atlas! We are so glad you're our boy!


1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.