Ronan, our little animal

Hello! Ronan is 2 years, 3 months old right now and more fun than we could have ever imagined. It really does get better and better. We thought life was "perfect" when he was a pudgy 6-month-old, and then when he was a teetering 16-month-old, and then when he was a chattering 22-month-old... but now he is a delightful young boy with an interesting personality and very distinct views of his world. We're still working on the tantrums ("I'd rather play than eat!") and his possessiveness (toys, Mommy), but we can't complain too much. :-) Here's what Ronan Jack is up to.

1. Pretending. Somewhere between 20 and 24 months, Ronan became very interested in pretending to be things -- mostly animals that he saw at the zoo. Now, he regularly adopts various animal personalities when we come home from work. He'll be a cow chewing his cud, a turtle napping ("shhhh"), a tiger running and roaring around the house, a kitten lying on his back wanting his tummy rubbed, a dog barking and jumping. He'll go to great lengths to "be" these animals, correcting us if we refer to him as Ronan or the "wrong" animal. Lately, Ronan has become obsessed with pretending to be a baby. He'll crawl around on the floor and want to get cradled in our arms like a very, very tall, heavy infant. Not sure why this is... Reassurance maybe? He even asks to be fed his "bottle of milk," which is just a regular cup with a straw now.... Then he says, "Nini's funny...." And there is also Dr. Ronan, who wears his "stethoscope" (a cord or a phone charger) around his neck and wants to fix our owies and take our temperatures. Tonight he even gave us shots, for which we thanked him profusely.

2. Construction. So we have a budding Bob the Builder on our hands. Like most little boys his age, he LOVES trucks, tractors, fire engines, diggers, loaders, backhoes, tow trucks, cranes, and pretty much anything else that is very large, yellow or red, and capable of moving vast quantities of earth. We're told that this love will last until he's at least 10 and maybe his entire life. His grandma Kathy checked a book out from the library last week that features a FEMALE tractor named Katy, who saves a whole city from a disastrous snow storm. Ronan is mesmerized by her.

3. I thought this would be a similar genre, but Ronan has helped me see how different it is. Ronan loves trains in a big way, just as much as he loves construction equipment. The sound effects that go with trains are intense and specific. He has the steam engine sound (ch-ch-ch-ch-ch), the very loud whistle (high-pitched HUH-HUHHHHH), the bell, the conductor yelling "All aboard!," and the railway crossing sounds. Ronan will turn almost anything into a train, lately it's the couch and the headboard of our bed. His preferred role is the Conductor (of course), but he also plays the Ticket Man, the Regular Passenger, and the Baby.

4. Music. If he doesn't become a construction worker or a train conductor, we think he'll be a musician or rock star. He plays his guitar intently every day and "jams" to his little boombox. It's adorable! He tries to turn his guitar into a violin by finding sticks to run along the strings. He's also quite good on the xylophone and piano. Next up: a toy horn or trumpet to go along with the sticks that he turns into loud horns.

5. Wiggles and Elmo. We've been pretty good about not showing him much TV. Once in a while, though (usually during a tantrum when he refuses to eat his dinner), we'll watch the Wiggles, which further fuels his desire to jam. And Elmo. What little kid doesn't like that furry red guy? The last time he watched Elmo, he yelled out with gusto, "I LOVE YOU!!!!"

6. Earlier to bed.... We figured that his increasingly common evening meltdowns might have been due to his long, late afternoon naps. So we moved his nap forward, to about 1 pm, and are trying to shorten it from 3+ hours to a nice 2 hours. We're also trying to get him to bed by 8 pm, which means 10-11 hours of sleep at night, plus 2 hours in the day. When he starts school in September, he'll only have 1.5 hours to nap, so I'm hoping that he'll adjust OK. He certainly loves his sleep, just like his Mom.

7. Preschool! Ronan will start school at Stepping Stones Preschool in early September. The school is very close to our house and has a mixture of play-based and teacher-led activities. He'll be in a class of 12 two-year-olds, with two teachers, and I think he'll have time to mingle with the three- and four-year-olds too. He'll go MWF all day and have "free days" at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm a little nervous about his transition, even though I know he'll be just fine. He's been in a little bubble for nearly 2.5 years -- just Mom, Dad, Grandma, Lisa, and a handful of little kids that he sees regularly with Lisa. Once he starts school, his whole world will expand and he'll learn amazing new things and some bad things, I'm sure. I wonder.... Will he know where his lunch box is? Will someone help him open it? Will he learn how to put on and take off his jackets and sweaters? Will he learn to sleep on a cot? Will he feel abandoned by his parents all day? I suppose that last one is not relevant since we've been gone 11 hours a day since he was 3.5 months old!

All in all, we're looking forward to this exciting new chapter in Ronan's life.

Next week: Family vacation in Vancouver/Whistler for 10 days!!!