Rhett is a smiley guy and an easy laugh and we adore his playful personality. He’s into everything and loves being outside, following his big brothers, exploring the world, learning new things and pretending he’s 7-years-old.
Rhett is chatty and giggly and a killer combination of sweet and spicy… with more and more of his oh-so-yummy sweetness coming through every day! Rhett put us through the wringer for several months with some intense fussiness and thankfully that phase is falling to the wayside more and more every day. Now that he’s able to communicate his needs a little better, the world is getting easier for Rhett… and all of us!
Rhett is adding new words to his vocabulary every day and he’ll say them on repeat until he gets enthusiastic acknowledgement for his words, (Rhett: “Car… car… CAAAR!” Mom: “Yes, oh wow! A car!” Rhett: “Car.” — finally satisfied.) He loves waving goodbye to everyone and everything and calling out “wee-oo wee-oo” whenever he sees a firetruck. This kid has never met a stranger and is a curious little explorer.
Rhett is adventurous and daring and we’re convinced he thinks he’s the same age as Chase since he confidently attempts anything and everything his big brothers do on a daily basis. He truly has no fear, especially around water, and happily jumps off high docks into the lake, prefers the deep end of the pool and says “NO!” if you try to help him swim in the ocean. (He can do it himself thank you very much.) We’re just grateful he had fully embraced lifejacket life because he keeps us on our toes!
(Rhetty Spaghetti on Halloween!)
Watching Rhett run as fast as his wobbly little toddler legs will carry him brings me so much joy because I see his excitement and determination shining through and touching every aspect of his little life. Rhett immerses himself in anything we’re doing at all times and Ryan and I say something about adding Rhett into our family kicked up the noise and chaos in our house several notches in the best way. Rhett definitely didn’t get the memo that the third child is supposed to be chill and has no qualms about making his place known among his brothers! Our transition from two to three kids was the craziest for us and it’s been one of the biggest joys of my life to watch our baby boy grow into a toddler with a boatload of personality.
I understand why people say they can just “eat their kids up” because Rhett is just so yummy and kissable and seems to genuinely enjoy being smothered in smooches and affection. (Until he doesn’t and then all bets are off and you better put him down so he can take off on his next adventure.)
Little Brother Life
Rhett adores his older brothers with a fierce intensity. He is so observant and determined to keep up with Chase and Ryder and inserts himself into all of their games and play time.
If they’re searching for slugs in the mud, he’s digging right along with them. If they’re doing cannonballs into the pool, he’s trying his hardest to make the biggest splash. If they’re dressing up in costumes, he’s right there trying to figure out how to get a superhero cape around his neck.
Challenges still arise when “Wreck It Rhett” wants to be involved in play that requires him to follow certain rules and structure or be a little gentle but those battles are slowly falling to the wayside as he gets older.
Rhett has been the perfect addition to our family and has increased the chaos and love exponentially. Chase and Ryder adore their little brother and seem to genuinely enjoy teaching him new things. They absolutely light up when he seeks them out for a “huggie” or a hand to hold and love being the ones to get him out of his crib in the morning or after nap.
Sleep
Rhett takes one nap every day and it typically lasts 2-3 hours. He gets angry when we scoop him up for nap time but the minute I lay him down and zip him into his sleep suit, he gets almost giddy and laughs and is so darn adorable and playful. He usually goes right to sleep and sleeps well.
Rhett’s bedtime was all over the place in the summer — often encroaching on 9 p.m. during our time in Florida — but he loooves an early-morning wakeup and is always up before 7 a.m. He was on a kick where he’d wake up by 6 a.m. every day for months and that was all kinds of awful but now he usually makes it to at least 6:30 a.m. Now that the school year is back in swing, we’re back into a better bedtime rhythm and he’s usually in bed by 7:30 p.m.
Rhett still loves having his whole paci posse in his crib for naps and nighttime sleep and will call out for his Wubbanubs (“whoa whoas”) if he’s upset. His love for Wubbanbubs has caused him to have what we affectionately refer to as “paci teeth” in our house — we’re 3 for 3 on 2 year-olds with paci teeth! Haha! (Chase and Ryder’s teeth straightened out when we dropped the paci around 2.5 years old which is our plan with Rhett, too. It’s not something I’m concerned about and just follow our pediatric dentist’s guidelines for paci use with our boys.) “Whoa whoas” still definitely top Rhett’s list of favorite things!
Eating
Rhett is a decent eater and after going through the ringer with Chase (he was very disinterested in food and quite picky), you’ll never hear me take a kid with a good appetite and propensity to try new foods for granted. He majorly checks out what his big brothers are eating and gets mad if he doesn’t get the exact same thing which can be tricky since not all foods Chase and Ryder eat are safe for a 2-year-old. He’s getting a little more skeptical over trying new foods which I know is typical for this age and definitely has a list of favorite foods at this point.
He loves any kind of baby food pouch (as long as it has one fruit included), Bobo’s chocolate chip bites, fruit (especially bananas and clementines), yogurt, cottage cheese, whole wheat pumpkin muffins, waffles, Simple Mills almond flour crackers, cucumbers, bell peppers, peanut butter, chicken nuggets, pancakes and pizza. Oh and he has our family’s giant sweet tooth as well and can eye a pint of ice cream from across the room.
Likes
- His family
- Swimming
- The “Boo Game” when we run around and pop out at each other and say “Boo!”
- Books (he’s always bring us books to read to him even though this looks more like Rhett flipping 8 pages at a time right now and pointing at the pictures he likes — pretty much only pictures of various modes of transportation and animals)
- Animals, especially dogs and dolphins (he loves making their “click click” noise)
- Exploring outside
- Climbing on anything and everything
- MyGym classes
- Riding in his big brother’s PowerWheels Jeep
- Riding his balance bike
- Coloring/Scribbling
Dislikes
- When we scoop him up for nap time
- When he’s not allowed to do something his big brothers are doing
- When we try to make him do something safe when he wants to do something insane
- When we cut something up that he wants to eat whole
- When we take something out of a wrapper that HE wants to take out of the wrapper himself
- Snow day attire
2 Year Old Favorites
The majority of these favorites were big hits with Chase and Ryder as well!
PLAY
- Kitchen Tower Cooking Stand
- Strider Balance Bike (Rhett is the first of our boys to embrace the Balance Bike before 2 years old. He’s obsessed.)
- Trains and our Train Table
- Cars, Monster Trucks
- Car Tower
- Mega Bloks First Builders Blocks
- Balls
- Bounce House
- Basically everything from LOVEVERY
- LeapFrog Laptop
- Barn + Farm Animal Play Set
- Water Table
BOOKS
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See (the slide-and-find version)
- What’s In My Truck?
- Richard Scarry’s Busy Busy Boxed Set of Books
- Go, Dog. Go!
- First 100 Trucks (lift-a-flap)
- Little Excavator
- LOVEVERY board books
- Giraffes Can’t Dance
- Little Blue Truck + Little Blue Truck Leads the Way
- Never Touch a Monster
- Baby Einstein Amazing Animals Play-a-Sound
Additional Rhett/Postpartum Updates
- Rhett’s Birth Story
- One Month with Rhett
- Favorite Baby Items for Baby #3 (That I Didn’t Use for Our First Two Babies)
- The Transition from 2 to 3 Kids: Q&A
- 6 Month Update
- 7 Months Postpartum Update
- 9 Month Update
- One Year Update
- Life with 3 Kids: 1.5 Years In (Part One)
- Life with 3 Kids: 1.5 Years In (Part Two)
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Happy birthday, Rhett! Can’t believe he’s two – it seems like you were just posting about your pregnancy!
Question about the strider bike – you mentioned he was the first of your boys to embrace it before two. When (if ever) did the others embrace it? My almost 3 and almost 5 year old still won’t do more than walk along with it. We just can’t seem to figure out the secret! Maybe our third will be the one to take to it, like yours!
Chase really started to love it around 4 and would pretend it was a dirt bike and FLY down hills on it but that was AFTER he was already on a big-kid bike! Kind of defeated the purpose — haha! Ryder likes it but doesn’t really fly/glide around on it just yet and he just turned four. Rhett LOVESSSS it in a fierce way (it’s truly one of his fav toys) and I think a LOT of this has to do with the fact that he sees his big bros on their bikes and wants to be like them. It’s crazy how some toys are hits/misses depending on the kid!
Happy Birthday Rhett! He is adorable and certainly seems like he keeps you on your toes 🙂 My daughter is turning 3 this weekend, and looking back, I have loved 2 as well. It is definitely challenging sometimes too, but overall so much fun and their minds just learn SO MUCH! It’s fun to watch.
Happy 2nd birthday to Rhett! I love reading your recaps. Your boys will cherish these when they are grown as will you and Ryan. . I wish I would have done this for my now 20 and 18 year olds. I thought I’d never forget certain things and yet I find I have.
I hope Rhett had a fun birthday weekend. Can’t wait to read about your party and what you guys did. You always are so creative Julie.
Happy birthday to Rhett! Your photos of him are SO cute!
Both of my boys had paci teeth. My oldest had his passy past age 3 but his teeth are perfect now thankfully and it doesn’t seem like he will need braces. With my younger son, his teeth were impacted way more and the dentist said I had to take it from him by his third birthday. I remember it took three tries. He had a massive fit at Target one day and my son and I were so embarrassed that we went running to the paci aisle to get one to pop in his mouth LOL. Memories!
What a cutie! He sounds similar to our little guy who turned 2 in early December. We are in that hard stage right now that you described in your sweet and spicy post. But even with our first kid, we’ve found the odd # years harder? Like 1-2 is hard, but we didn’t find 2 to be super challenging since our older son had more language which seems to make a huge difference.
Our older son did not like the strider bike. We didn’t introduce it early enough most likely but we’ll have to try to introduce it to our toddler soon. He was a late walker (17.5 months!) so I was hesitant to introduce it until he was more stable on his feet, but it’s time to give it a shot. I sometimes wonder if our oldest is ever going to learn to ride a bike. We got him a scooter a couple of years ago and he is SUPER into that and doesn’t have any interest in the bike. But hopefully/maybe that will change with time.
Julie, your Rhett is certainly previous. What a charmer!
The expression for a difficult time is that you were put through the “wringer”, as in old washing machines where wet clothes were hand-fed between two rollers to squeeze out water. That was the wringer part of the machine.
oh how interesting!! definitely never knew that!
Would love your tips/ plan for how to remove paci at 2.5. We’re almost there with my daughter. She only uses it at nap and bed time.. not even at daycare.. but i’m scared!
Happy birthday, Rhett! He sounds similar in temperament and personality to my 18-month old. We’re going through that tough phase you mentioned now, with wake up times before 6 and hard opinions in the form of screeching 🙂