Ruger at Two Years

Our little boy is two years old! He is such a perfect addition to our family. I am thankful everyday that the Lord blessed us with a little boy. I'm so very glad to have his sweet albeit destructive force in our family. His personality is so strong and fun right now. Here are some things about him at two years:

1. He LOVES dinosaurs. Most of all his clothes, toys and bedding are dinosaurs. He also really loves trucks and 90% of the time is either playing with dinosaurs or cars.
2. He yells "TRUCK!" most of the time while we are driving around. He gets so excited to see trucks on the road.
3. He drinks all day, every day. I swear he would drink one sippy after another if I'd let him. 
4. His vocabulary is really taking off. He's doesn't really well. He's starting to combine words to make short sentences. While he is doing well, he still struggles to voice what he wants unless it is juice. He has juice down. 
5. He is so loud. He has a booming voice and very loud cry. That combined with him liking to talk and yell and scream and make roaring noises all the time...well he definitely adds to the continuous loud volume in this house.
6. He's learned to open doors. It's a sad day for me.
7. He loves to be outside. He cannot accept anyone being outside without him. 
8. If he is in the front yard, his first instinct is to run into the street. Having full arms or when the girls let him out of the house before me is my worst nightmare. That's often, people. Thankfully, we haven't had any close calls with cars, but I'm constantly terrified.
9. He willingly gives me lots of hugs and kisses. He will crawl into my arms and say, "Hug. Hug. Hug. Hug." over and over as we hug. Melts.my.heart. This is probably my most favorite thing about him right now. Or even thus far. Or even about being a mom currently. Brings tears to my eyes a lot of the time. I don't ever want this to stop.
10. He willingly takes medicine but not eye drops. 
11. He loves to play in the dirt/water/grass/mud whatever. 
12. He likes to have his teeth brushed.
13. We've sleep trained him to put himself to sleep. Every night we put him in his room, say a prayer with him, give him kisses and leave him and close the door. Most of the time, he won't cry longer than a minute. Now that he knows how to open the door, we are struggling a little bit, but not too much. He rarely has a nap anymore, so by the time bed time rolls around, he's exhausted and usually very tired and very ready to go to bed even if he doesn't realize it. Therefore even if he wants to put up a fight, it doesn't last long.
14. He sleeps through the night about once every blue moon. 
15. You can always hear him walking around our house. He's barefoot most of the time and we only have carpet in the rooms...so when he's walking around on the hard floor, you can hear each footstep because he slaps his feet on the floor as he walks. It's another of his little things about him at this age I know I'll miss someday.
16. He loves to look at books. His current favorites are the Golden books we have. Especially the three Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
17. He loves to watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates. If the TV is turned on, he immediately starts yelling for Jake. He also likes Sheriff Callie. He hasn't watch Backyardigans in a long time, but still loves to play with his Pablo figurine whenever it randomly surfaces around the house. 
18. He is really skittish around dogs. If they come too close he will start to cry. However, he loves to see them from afar.
19. He loves to climb onto things...couches, nightstands, end tables...and jump off. 
20. He loves to try on any shoes that are left around the house. 
21. His favorite people are his two grandpas and his daddy. 
22. His favorite place to be is in the garage with daddy playing with all the tools.
23. He is a destructive force like Ella. Those two play quite a bit.
24. He is a hitter. Bad. He hits everyone a lot. 
25. He considers himself an excellent disciplinarian. If the girls are getting in trouble or throwing a fit or being naughty, he will hit them, he will tell them, "Ella! Night night!" and he has even thrown stuff at them. He recently threw something at Ella because she was throwing a fit and it caught her right beside her eye and gave her a nasty black eye. 
26. He can't and won't even try to say Emery or Ruger. Evalynn is baby but he's said Evie a few times. Ella used to be his word for all girls but now it is just for Ella. He pronounces Isabelle as Imbelle. So adorable!
27. He loves to say "bye bye" to people. He says it for a good minute after we drive away. And by "says it" I actually mean "yell it."
28. Within a day or two he learned how to do matching ABC puzzle games on my phone to spell words in the Endless ABCs app. He's a pro. He sounds out the letter A over and over to ask to play it. It's the first game on my phone I've had in his lifetime and it's only been around for two weeks or so. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that I downloaded it yet. 
29. He prefers shorts to pants. He doesn't really like pants because they slip under his feet when he doesn't have shoes on and he hates that.
30. He loves to jump on the trampoline. Especially close to the edges. He's fallen off a lot. Five or more times in the last month or two. I cannot watch him on there because it makes me a nervous wreck. 
31. He loves to climb on top of the dining room table. If he gets away with it, he will reach for my glass chandelier and clang the jars together.
32. He makes hilarious faces. Especially when he is surprised or has found a stick to use as a sword. 
33. He loves to play with balls. He throws everything, but especially balls. 
34. He throws a decent amount of tantrums but they don't last too long.
35. He has no patience. At all.
36. If he wants me to be somewhere or get him something, he will come get me and push me to where he wants me to be so he can point to it.
37. He loves when Isabelle puts him on the small tricycle with her and takes him on a ride. He can get himself around on the tricycle by just using his feet to push himself, but he can't steer it at all. 

This little boy is so fun right now. Yes, he's a two year old, but I think because he's learning to speak so much later than the girls, the fun age of learning how to talk is balancing out the terrible twos. He is so fun to have around. I love having a little boy in our house. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father gave us a little guy to blend in with our four girls. I just wish I could bottle up his personality and this age so much. Man we love him.