It's hard to believe but our little guy is just two months shy from turning the big TWO!
He gets more fun every day.
Here are some answers to your FAQ about Temu.
What does Temu like to do?
In short, everything. He is a very active boy who likes to be on-the-go, adventuring, and exploring. He's a willing participant in just about everything, which makes him fun to take new places. He loves playing with his cars, trucks, space ship, and train track. He also loves his animal friends (stuffed or toy) - it's not unusual to see Temu feeding them or reading them stories. He loves to go on hikes and trips to the park; he's an agile boy and runs...fast. He still (thankfully) loves to be read to and does have favorite books. He's currently a big fan of ocean animals - the "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" series are very popular in our house. He's shown more interest in coloring/drawing and play-dough; all fun things to do on our recently rainy days.
What does he say?
A lot. He repeats (or attempts to repeat) just about anything when asked but also "talks" to us non-stop about what he sees and what he's doing and where he's been. Some of the time we have no idea what he's saying, but most of the time we do. He has a lot of words - I had started a list of words he knows by date, but that's gone by the wayside. He's also starting to link 2 and 3 words together - "please mama," "more star cookies," "airplane uppy sky." It's very fun to see even more of his personalty come out in his language. Listening to him "read" a book to himself is particularly cute; as is the language that comes out when playing with his cars and trucks.
What does he eat?
All in all, he's a good eater and continues to have an interesting palate. Having said that, if Temu is not hungry, he will not eat. End of story. He likes food with flavor - no bland food for this kid. He loves cereal for breakfast and does a fair job eating it himself with a spoon. He also likes hot dogs and popcorn (two of daddy's favorites), broccoli and spinach nuggets, beans and rice with salsa (he will eat salsa by the spoonful) and cheese, pasta, peanut butter sammies, hummus and crackers (or "hummy and cookies" in Temu-nese), is still a big fan of tzatziki sauce, and will eat pretty much anything we are eating. Last week he ate curried lentils; go figure. He's always been a "fruit snob," only eating the most expensive fruit in the market. This winter/spring, however, he went on "fruit strike"and wouldn't eat any fruit, no matter how expensive. We still managed to get fiber and vitamins in him with other foods. Last week, though, the fruit strike ended with major strawberry and banana (this is the shocker because he's never liked bananas) consumption. We'll see what next week brings.
Does he still swim?
Why yes he does! He still loves the water and is a great swimmer. He started swimming independently, with just a "bubble" (technical term for a small flotation device) on his back, back in November and continues to do so now. He has a mean back float and stroke and is his swim teacher's delight. We're now working on weaning him off the bubble.
Still a good sleeper?
Thankfully, yes! He still takes a mid-day nap (works best when he falls asleep in the car after a busy morning - and yes, he transfers just fine from car to bed contrary to what most people and books will tell you) and sleeps about 12 hours at night. Spend a full day with Temu and you'll understand why he sleeps so well!
Other miscellaneous Temu facts
1. We still do music class once/week, which is great! The teachers are great, the music is good (the parents genuinely like it, too), and you get to play all sorts of cool instruments. We will continue it in the fall. Temu loves to listen to music and can sing parts of favorite songs. His favorite instrument is any type of drum; he got to play the timpani at church on Easter to his immense delight.
2. This fall, Temu will go to preschool 3 mornings/ week. He loves playing with other kids - gives lots of hugs and kisses and plays a good game of catch and chase- we think he's more than ready for it and will really like it. Wish mama luck saying good-bye on the first day.
3. Yes, we have seen glimpses of behavior resembling "the terrible twos," but it never seems to last long.
4. Temu's favorite color is blue and his favorite shape is an oval, perhaps because it looks like a football.
Other pressing questions?! Send me an email and we'll do our best to answer them!
