2 Years and 3 1/2 months: Two Much Two Little!

I love two. Definitely my favorite stage. But why am I surprised, I love to talk and now Madeus loves to talk almost just as much. He is non stop.

My favorite phrases: He holds up his pointers finger and says "I be wight back." When he retrieves something it is "I gaught it." When he counts he says "2, 4, 4, 2, 2, 4." When he wants to have more of something, he says "One More." or "Couple More" over and over. Madeus and his friends are all working on their hitting and pushing. When he tells stories of being hit he says, "No no no (insert name) (shaking finger), no hit me (hand dramatically on chest)." If you say "I love you." he says, "I love me." (He has the healthy Gardner ego). Everyday, it is new words, phrases, sentences. It is really entertaining for us as well. It is truly amazing watch the development. He is also repeating everything you say even when you are not talking to him -time to watch what we say.

Cars have completely replaced balls, which seems like a smart move for a long winter. He mostly lines them up on shelves, tables, and window sills. He brings a bag of matchbox cars everywhere he goes, builds car transporters to pile them on, and often brings them to bed as well. He loves books about cars and trucks and watches them from our window every morning.

He loves routines, patterns, and rituals. Before bed each night, we do a group hug. Recently, for some reason I started singing "Stand By Me" while we hug. Now we all do it each night, he sings a weird version of it and giggles the whole time. It is pure joy and always puts Mike and I in a good mood.

He is extremely active and physically. We need to get into a gym class soon. He jumps from every surface, flips off of the arms of chairs, rolls off couches, jumps from steps, beds, and yes, tables. He is very quick and has great coordination but takes too many risks if you ask me. He always has a face of pure mischief and pleasure when he is about to try a new stunt. Luckily, he seems to embrace yoga. He loves downward dog and like to take deep breaths which comes in handy because he doesn't have a lot of patience.

His favorite foods are grapefruits and bagels. He is eating well after the last picky stage. He is out of a highchair now and he will often sit with us at the table although he gets up a lot. If we eat together he will try most of the foods we have although meat is still not something he favors.

He has discovered movies and has an obsessive way about his watching habits. He seems to like live action better than most cartoons.We watch only three things at the moment. Free Willy, Pippi Longstocking the movie, and Dora The Explorer. Over and over and over. Dora is a new development and he lives and breathes her. He actually said "I love Dora" after watching it twice. He had not yet said "I love you Mama".

We are expecting a new baby which he seems to really comprehend. I was really sick during the first bit and he showed a lot of concern, one time even closing the toilet lid on my head:) He interacts with my belly a lot. He likes the idea that the baby kicks and sometimes tries to kick the baby back. He gives the baby his favorite stuffed animal "Ruff, Ruff" when the baby is tired. And often, he tries to get the baby to come out, either physically or by talking to it. A few weeks ago, he grabbed his cars and rolled them on to my belly. He said, "Baby! Come Out! Cars!" - as if that would be as enticing to everyone as it is to him. We are working on him using the pacifier less. On a good day he says "I no need boppy (pacifier), baby need boppy (pacifier)." He consistently tell us it is a baby girl so we shall see if he is psychic as well.

I will end with the latest story that points to the constant discovery of a two year old. We had a big snow storm a few days ago and some of the sidewalks had not yet been shoveled. Madeus and I were tramping through it but it was well over his boots. He stopped and said to me "Momma, I scared." I said, "Madeus, your genes are from Colorado. We are not scared of this stuff. Follow the big footprints." When we reached a cleared sidewalk he exclaimed, "I did it!"

Heart.