Leander Roxas // 2 1/2 Year Old Update

Every year, for the kids’ “half-birthdays”, I take them out & do some fun (typically “themed”) portraits of them. With Braelynn being born in January & Leander born in December, I knew that we would never be able to do “fun”, warm & glowy, outdoor “birthday” portraits – so I have simply compromised with “half-birthday” portraits every year. And it’s so much fun!

Here is a little “half-birthday” update on our sweet Leander Roxas:

• Our sweet boy got a haircut last week & wow did it change how he looks! This wasn’t his first haircut, but it was the most “major” cut he’s ever gotten & suddenly he went from being a toddler to being a little BOY. I both absolutely love it & kinda-sorta hate it. How is my sweet boy getting so big & grown up?
• Leander is currently obsessed with one thing: Bluey. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a TV show on Disney+ about a family of Australian Blue Heeler dogs. The show is heavily centered around imaginative play & both Braelynn & Leander love the show – but Leander is obsessed. In fact, he’s holding a small Bluey stuffed animal in some of his photos. He wakes up in the morning & instantly asks: “We watch Bluey on the tee-bee?” and I mean, how can I say no to that? The good news is: unlike most kids shows, Bluey is actually super entertaining & wholesome & fun for us parents to watch too – so, we’re all big fans – Leander is the biggest though.
• Outside of Bluey, Leander is very much stereotypical-all-BOY when it comes to the other things he loves. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains – dinosaurs, animals, bugs – anything that has a motor and/or roars – he’s into it. He loves to run & chase his sister around and he loves to be rough & wrestle with Derrick.
• More & more I’ve been catching him in completely independent play. And what I mean by that is: setting up his trains by himself, driving cars & trucks around, sitting & building towers of blocks, all while talking and/or singing to himself. It’s funny to observe because Braelynn played independently from a much younger age – but she also did not have an older sibling to play with.
• Speaking of which: Leander simply adores Braelynn (whom he affectionally calls “Baa-nun” or every once in a while “sissy”). He follows her everywhere and copies everything she does. It’s a good thing when Braelynn is being good and a very bad thing when she’s being bad.
• In traditional “second child” form, Leander has “decorated” my couches, carpet, & walls with markers. This prompts the (hilarious) statement: “Your sister never did this!” Right, Braelynn never really drew on anything – because she wasn’t allowed to have markers unsupervised when she was 2-years-old. But the fun thing about being a second child is: even though you aren’t allowed to have markers, big sister is and quietly snatching some of her markers while she isn’t looking is definitely a fun “game”.
• We’ve been working on colors (he knows “purple” & “green” & sometimes “yellow” but everything else tends to get mixed up), shapes, and counting. It’s so cute to hear him count – when prompted, he can count all the way to 10, but independently, he tends to start in the middle somewhere & count a string of 3 or 4 numbers before stopping (I’ll walk by & hear him saying “2, 3, 4” or “6, 7, 8” and that’s it). It’s cute & he’s definitely learning, but I can already tell that he learns in a very different way than Braelynn does.
• Speaking of learning: no, we haven’t attempted potty training yet. When he turned 2, we knew that he was definitely not ready. Back at the beginning of summer though, he started showing some signs that he was getting closer! However, with all the traveling we do in the summer months, I’m in no rush to potty train him. I just remember how we started potty training Braelynn & she was doing really good, but then we started traveling a lot a month later & everything ended up recessing back & potty training turned into a 6-month long ordeal. Which, in hindsight, we should have simply waited until we were home more to train her – which is why we’re waiting until fall/early winter to potty train Leander.
• He asks to go ride “coasties” almost every single day (can you tell he’s Derrick’s child or what?) In his short little life, he has traveled extensively & been to 17 different states & I don’t even know how many amusement parks. Starting this summer, he finally hit 36″ tall & can now ride just about every ride in parks’ kiddieland areas (and yes, this includes several kiddie roller coasters). He might have hated his first roller coaster rides last summer, but this summer he is all for it. We go to Kennywood 1-2 times a week & he just loves it there.
• And yes, he still has his blankie (which he still calls his “gankie”). He still (attempts to) carry it everywhere & sleeps with it at night. He still sucks his middle & ring fingers on his left hand to comfort himself & it’s just my favorite to see him all snuggled up on the couch, with his blankie, sucking his fingers – it brings him back down to being a little boy instead of the little man he’s quickly becoming.

This year, I wanted to keep Leander’s photos simple. I knew he wouldn’t sit still & look pretty like his sister, so I just decided to keep it easy. After a few portraits of him by himself, I dumped out all the Toy Story toys we have & let him play. Bluey might be his #1 right now, but Woody & Buzz have a much more solidified place in my little boy’s heart – so I wanted to capture that.

If you’d like to compare & contrast this summer’s photos with the summers of the past, you can go back & check out Leander’s 18-Month Update here!