Friday, November 06, 2009

faces of two

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Two-year olds are still so little. Two is not very old, and even though my two-year old
seems so big to me, the reality of his littleness makes me happy. I love that I still have so,
so many years left of him home with me. Here are some recent happenings with our little boy,
along with some pictures I took of him making faces the other morning when the light coming in
through my kitchen window was so lovely I couldn't ignore it.

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One day last week I was cleaning out his ears. G was not loving it, so I stopped to explain
what I was doing. I said, "We have to clean out our ears because stuff gets in them. Do you
know what is in your ear?" After a moment of reflection he declared, "A wac." I was
stumped for a second, and then quickly burst into a fit of laughter when I realized what
he meant. A "wac" clearly is the singular form of "wacs." Otherwise known as "wax." Get it?
He's obviously heard me say I was cleaning out "some wax" before, and I think it is just
about the funniest thing ever that he would realize a "wac" was the right way to make "wax"
singular. The way kids just learn and pick up on stuff absolutely amazes me.

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G has a really endearing habit of turning words into sweet, diminutive versions of themselves.
He has always called my mom "NeNe" (like "neigh neigh"), and has now started referring to her as
"NeNe-tootski," just because it's funny and playful, I presume. He also used to add "-o"
to the ends of many words (as in, "drink-o" or "Mommy-o"), and now he has changed to
"-io." Getting him out of bed to the phrase, "I just woke up-io!" is one of my favorite things.
I also love getting him "some food-io" and looking forward to when "Daddy-o" comes
"home-io." Tonight we are going to the movie theater to watch a "show-io" with our
"popcorn-io." Love this little talker.

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Potty "training" came and went, but I hesitate to even call it "training," because it really
just kind of happened. He started wearing underwear and I took him potty every hour or so,
and that was it. In the first week or so we had a couple of accidents, but he mostly used the
toilet every time. Since then, we haven't looked back. As soon as he started wearing
underwear all day he also started waking up with a totally dry diaper. So we started wearing
underwear at night too, and have had only one accident in almost a month. Anyway, of
course there will still be occasional accidents I'm sure, but it is nice to be at this point. So
the other night I put G to bed, and about 20 minutes later I heard him calling for me. I
went in his room and he asked me to get him his "tiny black pillow." I couldn't find it (he
said he threw it), so I turned on the light. Out of the corner of my eye I just happened to notice
that the pajama bottoms and underwear I had put him to bed in were now on the floor off
to the side of his bed. I had to go look at him just to make sure I wasn't crazy, and yep,
sure enough, there he was laying in his bed completely naked from the waist down. If I
wouldn't have turned on his light to look for his pillow I probably wouldn't have noticed
and he would've slept in the nude. But I can't really blame him-- sometimes (especially
when I am pregnant and waistbands drive me crazy) I would like to sleep naked, too. This
whole getting naked by himself stuff is uncharted territory for us though (he never once
even tried to take off his diaper), so hopefully this doesn't become a habit that ever leaves
the privacy of our home. I can just see him stripping down in nursery.

Speaking of sleeping (sort of), can I just say how nice it is to have a baby that enjoys getting
his sleep? He seems to know that sleep is a good thing, and even though he will sometimes
protest starting in on bed/nap time, once he's asleep, he wants to sleep. If he wakes up
from his nap early and still tired I go in his room and ask him if he wants to get out or if he 
wants to lay down and go back to sleep while I sing him a song. He always wants to go back 
to sleep.

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Now that I've made him sound practically perfect, let me share with you the roughest 90 minutes
we've ever had. It happened this week (Wednesday, to be specific), in between the hours of 4:30 
and 6:00 PM. We were at the grocery store. G was sort of restless, but I needed a few more
things, so I handed him a bottle of chicken bullion to look at. Very entertaining, I know, and
apparently he thought so too. Within a minute he threw it across the store and the bottle
shattered into a million tiny pieces and bullion cubes were everywhere. I was a little shocked,
but quickly got him out of the cart and made him pick up the bullion cubes with me. Then
he had to go put back his fruit leather that he had picked out as a treat. A little traumatic, 
but we got through it. We had been home no more than 4 minutes when he took a new bag
of tortilla chips out of the pantry and started stepping on them, smashing them to tiny bits.
A little time-out, and a stern-talking-to later, he was back in the living room while I was
cooking dinner. Within seriously like 2-3 minutes I went in to check on him and he had totally
broken one of my pumpkin decorations. Bless the fact that at this point his daddy walked in
the door. More stern-talking-tos, disappointed looks and sadness, and then into the bath.
Dad's job (thank heavens) because I was cooking dinner. Pretty soon I hear, "Oh no! That's
not what we do..." etc. coming from the bathroom, only to find out Baby G had decided
to throw his clothes into the filled tub. On the way out of the tub he threw his towel in.
Seriously. This all happened in the span of an hour and a half. Bedtime couldn't come soon
enough. I've been exceedingly grateful that the two days since Wednesday have been relatively
easy and free of any chaos of that kind, but I'm also realizing that there will likely be more
days like Wednesday ahead. He's two. That's part of his charm at this age, I guess, and if
living through days like Wednesday means I get days like today where he grabs my face in
his hands, kisses my lips, and proclaims, "You're my best friend, Mommy-o!" then I will take
them.


13 comments:

Katrina said...

gorgeous pics!!!

Jenny said...

Okay, I seriously started laughing when you were talking about his rough 90 minutes. You are SO in for more he is so cute. You should survive just fine! Mason is just getting started:(.

Katie said...

he is so cute!

Danica Osborn said...

he is such a sweet boy and so dang bright! the diaperless bedtime came naturally to us too--how did we get so lucky? you're always hearing about these five year old wetting the bed?! just gonna count my blessings on that one. :)

and that 90 minutes of terror was rough, and we've all been there, but i think you may dodge the bullet on a lot of those hardships. when they're such good communicators, i swear it reduces the tantrums and terrible-twos to virtually nothing. i'd say the fact that his trouble was only 90 minutes, whereas other moms gets get that daily, you're in good shape! you're a good mommy!

(and amen to the sleeping nakers b/c of the whole waistband thing...uuugh!)

Sara said...

Hey!! He really a hansome little guy! His eyes really are striking!! You are such a good mom! Gotta love those Terrible Two's! Beware... I think the "Three's" are WORSE!! ;)!

Lemme said...

he is the most gorgeous baby ever!!! love the wac!!

Teacher Mama said...

You're one of my favorites too Lizzie - O.

Mama Janet said...

Oho, cute as a button. I love his clever antics and comments. What beautiful pics.

mandy said...

Glad to know George is sill human. I was starting to think my little girl was an absolute terror compared to George and his easiness. He still sounds like he's a very good boy, as is Mya. But man, those rough times are ROUGH and they always seem to come in spurts!

Jess and Derek said...

Those stories are the best! So funny! Love the little golfer costume too! Good to see you the other day.

Anonymous said...
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the mama monster said...

uh oh looks like you might need to block comments...baby g is so super cute and all boy. just wait my dear the 90 minutes will soon be almost every day acts!

Jessica said...

Way to go on potty training! Margo was so easy too. She was just ready and it was so easy.

Your bad day made me smile. Sorry. I think I know first hand how that goes, except Addie is seriously like that everyday. I am not kidding. It has been going on since she was about 16 months and she is 25 months now. She has until february to get her act together though, or I will go crazy!