Milestones: Almost 3!

Somehow, our first little baby has become a "bigger boy" as he claims.  He's quickly leaving behind toddler-hood and entering pre-school age.  While he did revert to a few babyish traits when Eli was born, he has mostly put on his big brother hat and progressed greatly.  Here are a few milestones:

Talking:  Theo is now quite the little chatter box.  He will and does have a conversation with anyone he meets.  He still has trouble with the typical letters "L, S, and Th" but otherwise he is doing great.  The progression of language this year has been amazing, and I thought these clips were interesting in showing it:

Just Before Age 2:  Pretty much just saying simple words.  (and using baby signs)

A couple months past 2:  Starting to repeat any word you ask.

At Two and a Half:  Babbling away during play time

At about 2 and three-quarters:  His (im)famous Happy Birthday rendition

At almost 3:  ABCs and full sentences

Potty Training:  Just when I had about given up on potty training before he was three, Theo decided he was ready.  Since last April, there have been a few occasions when Theodore went to the bathroom on a toilet, but they were few and far between.  Over the last few months there were times when I would try to train him by forcing him to sit on his potty for a while (normally while watching Sesame Street or Word World) and he would always use it, but it was always at my request.  A couple weeks ago, something switched in him where he decided to use it on his own.  I'm not sure if it was a special praise he received or just because he knew he could get some sort of reward after, but he has been fully trained for the last couple weeks with very few accidents.  We love to do the "potty dance" and celebrate every time.  He has even learned to stand up now, has no problem going #2, and can take all his clothes off my himself.  He will even ask for privacy now, which is a huge change!  We just have to help him get re-dressed and force him to wash his hands.  I do think the "Thomas the Tank" underwear helped, and what they say about waiting until your kid is ready.

Pre-Literacy Skills:  The big milestone that actually prompted this post, was that Theodore wrote his name recently!  Obviously, not his actual name, but he was writing on the whiteboard and came over and told me that it said "Theo."  It was the first time he's ever "written" a word, and it was very exciting.
On the pre-k checklist he has almost already hit all the pre-reading skills.  I'm hoping he continues to have his love for books, because I know it just makes school so much easier if you don't have to be forced to read, but enjoy it.  Since this he has signed several cards, and sometimes he gets close to writing letters, but it is still mostly scribbles.

As fast as I could get, yet he'd already erased some of it.

It's still crazy how quickly he will memorize stories.  Reading with him is more fun now since he can help read, and even read (recite) some entire books on his own.  We checked this book out at the library 2 days before this video was taken.  This is the first paragraph in the book... it's crazy that he can pretty much keep reciting phrases like this the whole book through.  After only two days.  His recitations are underlined:

It was a beautiful summer day on the Island of Sodor.  The fields were full of flowers, and the birds sang sweetly in the trees.  Thomas felt very happy as he quietly filled up with water.  Suddenly there was a whoosh and a clickity-clack as a silver blur roared past him. 

The day after this, I decided to start slipping in different words while reading, and out of about 12 "mistakes" I made, Theodore corrected 10 of them.  "No mama, not fast-slow."  It was pretty cute and amazing at the same time.

 I realized that from 1-2 it is all about getting mobile, but from 2-3 it is all about developing language.  I'm sure 3-4 is going to be pretty exciting.