22 months

What my little boy is doing lately..........

BEING FIERCELY OPINIONATED! When you want your orange juice from the BLUE cup, there will be yelling. And not just for the blue cup - but loud protesting against the red cup. NO RED CUP! NO ELMO CUP! I give you choices, of course, but I also have been making you LIVE with your choice. Because in life, that is what happens. Each day is a series of choices, and you live with them. I do give you do-overs sometimes, because in LIFE there are also a small handful of those, too. But then I feel like I'm being inconsistent in my discipline.... and yeah, parenthood's daily confusions never end do they????

Sticking your hands/fingers in your mouth all the livelong day. We thought for sure it was your 2 year molars popping through, only that could be the cause of your hand-in-mouth state all the time... but we checked, and nada. Maybe they're coming in and we just can't see them yet... either way, SHEESH! I am telling you to get your hands out of your mouth every 10 seconds! Don't you know it's cold and flu season???!

You surpirse me with so many funny things daily. Like today, we went for a long walk around the neighborhood in your wagon, and when we got back home in the driveway, you said THE END! I just died laughing... so perceptive! And today also, you would say 'big brown truck' really amusingly, with your lips sticking out... I got such a huge kick out of it that I asked you to do it all day long. And you always would!

Just this past weekend, we were all 3 in the car and I was griping at your father about God knows what, and I loudly said 'how old are you??' (very sarcastically and mean-spirited!) and what did we hear from the back-seat? 'two!' Yes, my smart boy, yes you are two. (*we've been rounding up!)

Oh yes, and you count. From 1 to 10. It is TOO CUTE. And because I just got you a nice 1 through 20 numbers puzzle, you now can recognize all of them (1 to 20). We'll just pace ourselves with counting that high though! You do love to count things out, steps you take on stairs... objects you see in books...  what a smarty pants. 

You are very very clingy lately.. and I think it has everything to do with my recent trip to California for the weekend. The last time I left you for more than 24 hours, you were too little to truly care that much. This time? Big change! I think it's messed up your sleep a little, too. But that's ok. I try to remind myself that you'll be a 15 year old man-child who wants nothing to do with your old mother soon enough, so all this clinging and begging for my constant attention is put into perspective.

And then sometimes perspective is a lofty goal. Sometimes, I'll be in one of my favorite places ever, Barnes and Noble, a place I don't often get the chance to visit, and you'll be screaming for me to sing the Peacock song. So I do, quietly, because it's slightly humiliating (as this is an entirely made up song), and because it's not to the volume of your liking, you scream more for BIIIIIG Peacock song. Your way of saying 'ma, crank the volume!'. Oh, how I enjoyed that experience!

Your manners, however, are astounding. You say excuse me very very appropriately. Whenever anything is in your way. Just this past week, at the park, a little girl your age was in your path on the playground equipment, so you said 'excuse me kid'.  Of course, it's 'cuse me', because that's all I say around the house.. so the mispronunciation isn't your fault at all! You now say please for most things, and you are learning the immense power of it. Yes, you quickly caught on to how impressed it made me when you said please all nice & sweet, so now you bust out the 'please' card when I am not giving in to whatever you want. For dinner, just tonight, you had 1 square of cheese, and I told you in advance (knowing you'd ask for more), 'here's your cheese, this is all the cheese you're getting'. You ask for more, of course, and after about 30 seconds you look at me sweetly and say 'cheeeese please?' OK FINE! One more piece of cheese!!!! Such a pushover sometimes! Your thank-yous are a work in progress, you sort of mumble and grunt it... but that's ok, we'll take what we can get right now.

You love juice all of a sudden, but knowing that you still lack the impulse control to not squeeze a mess all over the floor, I taught you to hold your box by the upturned side flaps. Genius, if I do say so myself!















And bedtime is when you are sweetest, when you stand up after getting your pj's on and you always give me a goodnight kiss. Lately, I've been saying 'kiss me like you mean it!', and so you take both your hands and grab my cheeks, sometimes squishing my face and then you draw it close to you - to kiss me like you mean it! Those 2 seconds make all the screaming and begging and bartering worthwhile. :)