23 months

One month shy of two years old.. MERCY!

I know that next month's summary will be a doozy of a post, so I'll keep things light this time around.

Lately, as the picture sums up, you have been sticking your hands and fingers (and sometimes almost your ENTIRE fist) in your mouth. Not sure if this means your two-year molars are about to erupt or what, all I know is that I spend my life saying 'GET your hands OUT of your MOUTH!'.  I think the more I tell you not to, the more you're motivated to do it.. but I can't not say anything..  oy.

Speaking of conundrums, you have officially mastered the art of the Terrible Twos Tantrum. Well, I don't know.. I know it could be worse. You could do lots of crazy bad-behaviour things, and I know we're blessed (for now) that you don't.. but damn, child! You have some anger management issues sometimes. You almost growl sometimes, you get so bent out of shape. And it's always such an exhausting judgment call.. do I address it before it gets overblown and coax you to verbalize your anger? Or do I acknowledge that you're mad and that everyone gets mad sometimes and just let you get it out of your system? Each time I have to mentally calculate what went wrong and the best (or closest to) way to handle it. I'd say that 6 out of 10 times I do things right. Not bad! But you aren't a bad kid. Oh no.. you're sweet as pie, really. You haven't yet developed (or maybe it's just not there) the inclination to destroy things when I turn my back or to be a naughty child. I am betting big money that we won't luck out so much with the next child, whenever that time comes!

You manipulate without really knowing you manipulate. You have heard me say the word 'nicely' about a thousand times.. when you ask us something, if it's high pitched and impatient, I always say 'well, please ask us nicely..' SO, now you just come up to me and ask me something, and if I say no (for whatever reason), you say PLLLEASE.. and if I still say no, you say 'NICELY'!!!  haha.

You are now very obviously proud to walk around counting things. Especially stairs. You absolutely LOVE to go up and down stairs while you count aloud each step. You can count to ten, no problem. And just recently you give your best shot at counting to 20. Sometimes if you take it really slow you can get each number correct, but usually, around 14 or so, you get super excited and go 14.. 15... 18.. 20!!!!!! And the number 20 is always shrieked at the top of your lungs. And I just happened to discover you can say your ABCs.. they're mostly all intelligible, but a lot of time you get really shy about it and mumble them. You only do these skills around people you're most comfortable with, so thank goodness we have these all on video!

Oh yes, and the record snowfall this month. Three days ago, it snowed about 12.5 inches total. Which is a huge record. I myself have never seen so much snow here in Texas. I was hoping you'd be super excited to play in it... but I guess I forgot your go-at-your-own-pace nature..  You were much happier just sitting on your bench, watching US play in it. When we tried to get you to walk in it, you simply stood there, arms outstretched, screaming 'carry me pllllease!!!' I wanted you to play in it so badly, but I had to appreciate your concise way of communicating with us.

You repeat and remember a LOT more than I realize. You love love LOVE numbers, especially the number zero for some weird reason, and when you used to see a number 10, you'd SCREAM 'zeeero!', and I'd acknowledge that yes, it's a zero, but I'd always say 'a one and a zero together, make TEN!' .. so randomly the other day at lunch, you sat there and said 'one and zero make a ten!'..  You verbalize things only I would understand, too. Looking through photo albums (still a fave activity of yours), you point out things I've labeled hundreds of times.. one of which are pics of our trip to Turks & Caicos. You point to them and say 'Tur Cackas!' You see a pic of Mamaw w/a big chicken fried steak in front of her (classic Mamaw), and you'll say MAMAW EATING! Or you'll see a pic of Grandpa and go, 'who's dat?? GRANDPA!' Or a pic of a big balloon and go 'big balloon! whoooa!!'..   the things you say..  love it.

And one thing you just started doing today actually.. you have heard me say this a few times, and now you repeat it word for word, so clearly proud of yourself (because we flip out when you say it). You say 'Mommy and Daddy and Andrew .. make a FAMILY!' Clear as day, and sweet as can be. Yes, even at almost two years old.  LOVE!