Your child at two-and-a-half
Two and a half is a distinctive age for one reason - it can be the age of negativism. While this sounds deeply unattractive, it is usually over by three and arguably its more unpleasant for your bewildered child than it is for you.
How he behaves: Negatively. He may have shown signs of resistance and stroppiness before the age of two, but at two and a half, he develops an attitude with a vengeance. He likes to follow his rituals and do things his way and is furious if you interrupt him. Sometimes he doesn't know what he wants to do but knows it isn't anything you've got on offer, even, incredibly, the park or an ice cream. It's hard to make him happy although funnily enough there is a sense of humour lurking - due to emerge closer to three.
You can feel that you are in a permanent state of war with your little two and a half year old, while he is trying to decide how to live his life (somewhat prematurely as it turns out) you are trying to fathom out just what on earth his problem is.
The trick is to be completely saintly yourself. Poor love, he doesn't like making himself or you unhappy. He's not really a manipulative, selfish little beast. Set aside enough time for him to try to dress himself, feed himself and bath himself without urging him to get a move on. My dad always told me that if I got into a confrontation with my children - I'd already lost the battle. Pick your fights, otherwise you'll be scrapping all day.
Now is the time for bedtime rituals before bed, he may like to have a teddy in bed, to have his light on or nursery rhyme tape playing. But this is also the time when he decides he'd rather be downstairs thank you very much, although when he's down there he'll be sobbing with tiredness and making everyone else unhappy. Restlessness at night is common and may be due to him being anxious about saying good night to you and you leaving him. This is partly to do with his growing realisation that he is a separate person, which you can imagine is a pretty heavy concept to get to grips with.
He will help to put things away because he's keen to behave like an adult (not realising that adults hate putting things away and would rather pay for someone else to do it).
How he thinks: He can understand a bit more about cause and effect, so begins to understand that if he grabs that knife he may cut his fingers off. He is keen to name things and compare them, being able to say, not always correctly but with a sense of injustice that Johnny has a bigger biscuit than he does.
He can understand simple time concepts, like "we will go the park after we've had lunch" but still make a fuss because he'd prefer it the other way round.
What he likes to play: He can complete one of those great wooden puzzles of 3 or 4 pieces (the only ones I can do) and sorts objects by shape and colour. He can understand the difference between make believe and reality and will play make believe games with his toys and animals.
His physical achievements: He can make a tower of 8 bricks (although not always under pressure) and when he draws he will now make horizontal and vertical lines. He can jump and hop.
He may ask to go to the toilet and be dry during the day although this is variable.
How he speaks: He can join together bits of sentences, using a subject, verb and object. He will refer to himself as "I" and know his full name, even if you've given him a ludicrous one that other children will laugh at.