I’m a little late writing this, but before May ends I wanted to share (for my own sake and anyone else’s) how Mirai and Taishi are doing as two year olds! I haven’t done an update since they were...

I’m a little late writing this, but before May ends I wanted to share (for my own sake and anyone else’s) how Mirai and Taishi are doing as two year olds! I haven’t done an update since they were 1 year old so a lot will have changed since then!

In the last year, I’ve seen huge changes in both of them. Their personalities are coming out and the language boom as definitely begun. They started going to international preschool around 18 months old and now stay every day from 9AM-4PM. I also work at the school and Asahi goes as well so it’s quite fun to see each other throughout the day!

Personality wise, Mirai tends to be more reserved and takes longer to warm up to people. However, she doesn’t put up with any flack from her brothers and definitely holds her own at home with them. She has strong opinions too! Taishi is a bit different. He is the most relaxed of all three of them and tends to put up with more from his siblings without getting upset or retaliating. Although recently I see his will getting stronger and he gets more upset when someone takes his toy, where as before he would just go choose something else. He is also very caring and will often come and say, “daijoubu?” if someone falls down or is crying. He is a total love bug and usually a biggg hug can fix most things with him!

Here’s our typical daily schedule:
6:30AM – wake up and eat breakfast/get ready for school
8:00AM – leave for school
8:45AM – 4:00PM – At school
4:30PM – Back home and I cook dinner while they play
5:30PM – Dinner (then they play while I clean up)
7:00PM – Bath
8:00PM – Bedtime

Developments

Two years old is an important time for language acquisition and usually around that time you will see your child burst into speech. They start wanting to know the names of all the plants, animals, things in your home…basically anything that could have a name! And they will want you to repeat it over and over so they can learn it too. Mirai and Taishi are definitely in that phase now and are speaking a lot, especially Taishi. I would say he has quite a few more words than Mirai at this point but Mirai is speaking more every day. It’s interesting how she started walking a couple of months before him but now his speech is more advanced than her. They really are all different and incredible in their own ways! Right now some of Taishi’s favorite words and sayings are, “hikoki nai ne (there are no airplanes, huh?”, the names of animals such as: elephant, tiger, lion, horse, dog, cat, etc, colors, “Taishi’s turn”, “Mimi no/ Ashi no”, “wash hands”, “baby crying?”, and so many more. He is moving from single words to sentences very fast! He also has a slight lisp which comes out when he says, “yes” and it sounds like, “yesh”. So cute but we will have to work on it over time. Mirai says similar things but with a bit less pronunciation. Her clearest word by far is, “shinkansen” and “sorry”. It’s very cute to listen to them both talk to each other now and to Asahi!

Working at school

Mirai is quite advanced in her ability to move. She enjoys going down big slides and walks on balance beams with ease. She is brave on the stairs too (and gives me quite a few heart attacks with how fast she goes). She is into big movement more still than fine motor activities but she has started to enjoy more play with small objects such as cars, puzzles, and building materials. She also loves her koala stuffed animal and carries it around in our baby stroller quite often. Asahi never was much into stuffed animals so it’s interesting to see her connection to it. Taishi is more cautious with big movements and doesn’t quite like going down big slides (he needs a lot of encouragement and support) and likes to hold hands going down the stairs. He is very good at puzzles and enjoys building with magnetiles, blocks, duplo, and playing with Plarail tracks and trains.

This may be a random observation but I notice Mirai much more interested in what she wears than Taishi (or Asahi) are. She loves to pick her outfits and has particular items she prefers. She also loves to put on and off her shoes and wear slippers in the house. I never felt like I particularly encouraged that in her but I wonder if she sees me getting dressed and is more attuned to that part of life. I am curious how it will develop over time!

Cutest OOTD ever

Not to be outdone by his sister

Eating

Both Mirai and Taishi are still good eaters and they always get compliments at school because they actually eat their food! We have lunch provided at school and even though it is sometimes unknown food to them, they still eat a good amount every day (even more than some students in my kinder class!) It makes me proud and really shows me that baby led weaning really does work for reducing pickiness and exposing children to more types of foods and textures. At home, we all eat the same meal, especially now except in the rare case what I am making is super spicy. But even so I always use portions of the food they can eat so we have almost the same meal. For example, if I am making a spicy green thai curry that they can’t eat, I usually serve the jasmine rice with salmon and various veggies instead of the curry. I also allow them to serve themselves if possible at home so they can choose how much to eat. They have always been pretty good eaters though so maybe I just got lucky!

If I had to make an observation about what they eat I would say that Taishi tends to eat more meat and protein than Mirai and Mirai tends to eat more carbs such as rice and pasta. There really isn’t anything they consistently don’t eat although Taishi sometimes doesn’t like long noodles because he has a hard time eating them ha! They like fruits and vegetables but there are definitely some days when they don’t eat as many as I would like (mostly veggies). However, then the next day they will eat a ton so I think it balances out.

They never say no to pasta that’s for sure

Sleeping

Taishi has been sleeping through the night for forever now and is an excellent sleeper. For him to wake up in the night he has to be super sick and uncomfortable. He does still use a pacifier but only for nighttime sleep and I am going to take it away after we get back from the US this summer. I am too scared to take it away before that long international flight! He is a great napper as well and still will sleep 2-3 hours at home on a weekend (school naps are 90 mins).

Recently, Mirai started sleeping through the night too! I decided to finally night wean her about a month ago and it has been life changing. Currently, she nurses just before sleeping and then before she falls asleep, I move away to another part of the bed and she falls asleep on her own (but I do stay their until she is asleep). It took a couple of days for her to stop crying for milk in the night but I comforted her and she got used to it very quickly and without many tears. She still is a light sleeper and does wake up in the night and cries but I can usually rub her back and she goes back to sleep quickly now.

Breastfeeding

I am still breastfeeding Mirai! Making her officially my longest nursling. I nursed Asahi until he was just over 2 years old as well but I was pregnant then and my milk dried up (and it was super uncomfortable). Now I nurse Mirai in the shower at night and then right before sleeping in the bed which is very doable for me. I think it is about 10 minutes total per day. Taishi self-weaned at 15 months so it has just been Mirai and I for the last while! I don’t have plans of stopping at this point but I think I wouldn’t mind if she kept going or she decided to stop. It’s such a small part of my day and it makes it easier to wash her hair when she is nursing in the shower

We almost never have a chance for a picture anymore because it’s usually in the shower or in a dark room before bed so I was happy to get this one while nursing her in the morning (she had been sick with a cold and needed the comfort). You never know when it’s your last photo!

I think that is about it! I will probably do a 3 year update as well since these are nice to look back on. Thanks for reading

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