Almost Two... December 23, 2007

It's hard to believe that in one week from today my little one will be two years old.  Oh how life has changed!  It is so busy now and full of all the noises he can make.  I've never been so challenged in my work or so fulfilled.  He changes so fast and every change surprises and delights me.  I'm so proud of all he is learning and discovering.  Here are a few examples.

He learned how to do somersaults all on his own one night before bed, and now you can ask him to do one and he will.  I ought to have some gymnastics playtime like that every day to help entertain him and get out some of his energy!  He is always so proud of himself and excited when we point out the new things he is learning.

One of my favorite parts of almost every day, and one of the many pay checks I get, is when he gets a little owie on his finger or something and he will hold it up for me to kiss to make it better.  That's just one of those classic mommy moments.  I don't even remember teaching him that a kiss would help it feel better, and the fact that he does it on his own with out any prompting is the sweetest part of it.

One of my new favorite expressions of his is, "Swing-ga!"  I don't know where he learned to be so cute.  While playing by himself he will periodically pick up a blanket, a toy, or something and swing it through the air while saying in two syllables, "Swing-ga!".

The other day we were Christmas shopping in the mall.  I was pushing him in his stroller and had stopped to look at some clearance racks.  There was a top rack, which I was busy looking at, and a bottom one which he was apparently inspecting because I heard his little voice say, "pretty..." and looked down to see what he was looking at.  His definition of "pretty" is a blue fleece pajama shirt with basketballs on it.  I love to hear his spontaneous thoughts and opinions.

A few days ago Noah and I spent the afternoon dressed up in our winter clothes delivering plates of fudge to our neighbors.  It must've been a good day for treat delivering because another family we are friends with was out doing the same thing.  We kept running into them as we delivered treats to a lot of the same houses and I commented to the Mom that it felt like reverse trick or treating.  That phrase caught Noah's attention and he stopped and thought about it.  Then he said "tricshtrea" all squished together in one word, and we kept walking.  We got to one house and I asked him if he wanted to go ring the doorbell.  As he looked up at the house he got all afraid and told me he was "scared".  (Which is also one of his new words and he tells me he scared of something almost every day.  Sometimes he's pretending to be scared when it comes to a certain part in a movie or book, and other times, like the other day when he woke up from his nap in the middle of a hail/snow storm with thunder and lightening, he really is scared.  I love that he is learning to tell me his feelings.)  Anyway, he showed me how well developed his memory is when he told me he was scared of that house because when we went trick or treating there clear back on Halloween an older boy answered the door wearing a costume that frightened him.  I couldn't believe he was remembering that!

The most amazing thing that he's just started doing in the past few days is the typical two-year-old questioning of "why"?  Wow!  That proves he is two.  He's doing it more and more and I've been getting the biggest kick out of it because it gives me such insight into his mind.  Today I was changing his diaper and he was playing with a Christmas Tree ornament that had a metal jingle bell on it.  He started sucking on it and I told him he needed to take it out of his mouth.  "Why?"  "Because it's metal and the dentist told me your not supposed to put metal things in your mouth."  "Why?"  "Because it can hurt your teeth."  "Why?"  "Because he's the dentist and he said so."  "Why?"  "Because he's in charge of taking care of your teeth."