2 years

My baby is two. My BABY is two. Now that he is technically 2 years and one month I am handling it much better. While I did not get as emotional as last year, there were some tears shed about how big and little he is all at the same time. I decided to create a Top 8 list for my new 2 year old. My 8 favorite things about him right this second.

1. His talking. While I do love/hate all the talking that happens, his language just astounds me. Right now he is huge on talking about playing basketball. Requests to "shoot! shoot" and "I play basketball. Mommy play basketball. Norman shoot!" are constant in the house right now. The best part of my day is when he greets me with a "Hi Mommy" at school, the part I don't really enjoy are the "Mommy play me!" requests. They way he says "please" has changed from "peas" to "prEEse" and "cheese" is so enunciated you think he is teaching someone else how to say it.

2. His singing. I swear it is the sweetest thing in my world right now. He still sings Jesus loves me but has added Row, Row, Row Your Boat - during which it is required for you to rock back and forth. Don't try to stand still and sing, that is highly unacceptable behavior. He sings Wheels on the Bus and when he did the "shh, shh, shh" for the babies I almost fell out of my chair. He nailed the cadence perfectly.

3. His growing independence. I know, I know. I will hate this shortly, but right now watching him playing with his trains or puzzles or reading books on his own makes me smile. He puts on his "working face" which is Alex to the core - tongue sticking out of his mouth and everything - and plays for about 20 minutes on his own. Heaven.

4. His chubby cheeks. The part of my baby that is still a baby are his cheeks and belly. When he lays next to me to read books in the big bed (aka our bed), I love to stare at his precious profile; those round cheeks and double chin. I can't help but kissing him. Which annoys him. And I don't care.

5. His smile. As my mom says Zach smiles with his entire face. His big brown eyes shrink to about 1/3 of their size when he smiles and laughs. Which he does often. Now when he laughs I can see all his teeth (and I give thanks that he has them now, I was really questioning that for a while) and it makes his cheeks even chubbier. See #4.

6. His friendships. Given how social Alex and I are I am so glad that Zach is very similar. He really has some friends and not just because we force them to be together. You can tell when he sees his close buddies Ben, Abby, Sophie and Miles that he loves being with them. He then talks about them for days afterwards. 

7. His dad. I am just going to give a special shout out to Alex because I usually don't. I like to poke fun of Alex for not being able to keep up with Jesus, encouraging excessive ball playing with Zach and whatever else he does that makes me laugh. But he is a wonderful dad and Zachary just adores him. (Plus he is OK with me writing whatever I want on this blog and has only given me grief once about the picture of Zach in bunny ears I posted on Facebook. And we KNOW I have done worse). Anyway, when Zach is mad at me he will cry, "My Daddy, my Daddy" and when that man walks in the door Zach runs full speed ahead shrieking with joy to see him. I can't tell you the joy it brings ME that Alex scoops him up and away they go, away from me, Alex still in his work clothes. That is the 2nd best part of my day.  

8. His happiness. I am guessing this too will change, but I feel so blessed that my baby is generally very happy go lucky. That is not like me. Not. At. All. You know who that is like? Please reference #7 above. The only caveat to that rule is when Zach is hungry. Oh girl, watch yourself he becomes a bear. But keep him fed on his diet of Oldfish and milk and he is smiling, talking and giggling about.