Yesterday Matt turned 2 1/2 years old. (If you ask him how old he is, he might say 2 or 2 1/2 years, but he might also say 2 o'clock. And he's been measuring things at 2 1/2, units unknown except to him.)
With a giant cricket puppet at the library after our music & play program
With a grasshopper finger puppet at home
I'll give a quick overview of what Matt is up to these days as a 2 1/2 year old.
Matt still has many of the same interests, although recently he has added bugs into the mix, as you can see above. He spends a good deal of time playing, and he's setting up more elaborate play situations for himself, especially with his vehicles or machines, as he calls them, and some of his stuffed animals (usually only Curious George and/or the Hundred Acre Wood contingent).
Matt continues to be very talkative. His sentences are increasingly complex, although he sometimes speaks in run ons with lots of "ands." He has strung together at least fifteen words in one sentence. One of his favorite sentences are "First I have to..., then I will..." He loves asking, "What you / I / (that boy, the cat, the dump truck, the ground, etc.) doing?" as well as "What is that?", "How can..?", and "What you have to do?" He is pretty much straight on pronouns now. He'll now say, "Carry me," for example.
Matt is refining more and more skills. He can jump pretty high. He is getting more finesse in his fine motor skills. And he has a nice, long attention span.
Matt now wears 4T shirts, which are not as long as they were when I pulled them out a month or two ago. He also wears 3T pants, almost all of which have to be rolled up at the bottom since there's a big jump between 2T and 3T sizes. It's about time to switch out his size 8 shoes for size 9s. We haven't measured his height or weight lately, but we have noticed we can see more and more of Matt's head as he walks past things like the table or couch.