Andy: 2 Years Old

Where has the time gone? We can't believe our darling boy is already two.  We spent his actual birthday in California spending time with Grandpa Greg, Grandma Kathy, and Great-Grandma Liz.  He loved every second of the day, especially when they sang happy birthday to him at lunch and brought him an ice cream cookie.  He had a birthday party before we left for California with our friends here in Texas, which deserves its own post.  Anyway, some things about darling Andy at this age, which we are absolutely loving:

• Wow, this boy active!  He has one speed: running.  He literally runs in circles most of the day. He's all-boy, loves jumping and wrestling and such.  It sure keeps me busy, but I love it.  
• He loves to tease.  He loves to play little jokes on me, like hiding behind the stairs when we're supposed to be going inside.  Or running from me (not my favorite).  Or making it impossible to put his pants on.  He gets this mischievous look and giggles.  
• He loves to sing!  He always asks me to sing "a song?"  This is a recent development.  About two months ago he randomly started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," even though I hadn't really sang it to him much?  That became his favorite song and the only one he would sing.  A few weeks ago he suddenly started singing loads of different songs: Old Mcdonald, the ABC song, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, You Are My Sunshine, etc.  He also has two very random favorite songs from the primary songbook: the "Hello" song (and he nods his head whenever he says hello for some reason?) and "Here We Are Together," and he shouts each member of our family's name while pointing to them.  It's all pretty darn adorable.  He's also really good at "Slippery Fish" from his music group.  He always shouts "Oh no!" adorably.  
• He loves to do puzzles.  He's so good at them too!  He easily does puzzles for 3+ years.  He also loves to throw the pieces all over the house when he's done with them, which isn't exactly my favorite thing.  He also loves shapes and is very good at identifying them.  
• He is obsessed with the pool and asks me to go swimming a few times a day.  
• Unfortunately, he's a bit of a bully with a few friends, usually those younger/smaller/more passive than him.  We are working on not throwing things, hitting, etc.  Thankfully he doesn't tend to do it at nursery. Time out doesn't seem to get through to him, so we're still looking for other options.  
• He is incredibly social and friendly.  He loves to be in large groups and definitely makes his presence known.  He says "hi!" and "bye!" to everyone at the grocery store.  He makes friends everywhere we go.  He loves to be the center of attention.  If he feels like people aren't paying enough attention to him, he starts shrieking.  Working on that one too...
• Thankfully, his horrible allergy cough (which lasted a mere 3 months) has passed, and he's back to being a great sleeper.  He sleeps 10-11 hours at night (8-6:30 or so) naps for a good 2.5 or 3 hours during the day (1-3:30 or so).  He talks for a long while in his bed before he falls asleep, reading himself a stack of books before he conks out.  He's very good at his bedtime routine and often tries to climb into his crib himself.  We especially love his sweet bedtime prayers, which are unintelligible other than "amen," but are said in the sweetest, soft prayer voice.  
• "It's fun?!" He says this a lot, though we're not sure he's saying it as a question or a statement? It's pretty cute.  He'll be jumping on the bed and turn to me and say, "It's fun?!" 
• He calls TV, "something."  This comes from me saying, "Do you want to watch something?" It's too cute to correct.  Whenever he wants to watch a show, he comes to me and says, "Something??" Thankfully we can limit TV a little bit better these days than we could when I was sick.  We stick with 30 minutes in the morning while I shower and get ready; he watches whatever happens to be on PBS.  He likes "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" a lot.  
• His speaking has exploded over the past month or so.  He copies the last word of everything we say.  It's so fun to see what new words and phrases he picks up each day.  He's learning is direction words right now (up, down, out, in, etc.) and gets "up" and "out" confused.  It's pretty cute.  His favorite word this week is, "Big!"  He calls everything, "Big!" 
• He's a BIG boy.  He won't get measured and weighed until the end of August, but he's about 32 lbs and is very tall for his age.  
• Still a bad eater.  He's unwilling to even try most foods.  He's obsessed with grapes lately, which he calls cherries despite my continuous corrections.  His other favorite foods: bananas, eggs, milk (new development: never used to drink it), cereal, cheese sticks, apples, occasionally PB & J, yogurt, granola bars, etc.  
• He still has a huge head.  (98% or something?)  This makes putting on his shirts kind of painful for the poor guy, even after I sit and stretch the opening.  He whines until his head finally pushes through, and he weakly whimpers, "Peekaboo."  Cutest thing ever.  
• He is an excellent dirty look giver and has a very convincing pouty face.  
• He's really good about leaving fun places.  He's really sweet about it--he doesn't throw a fit or anything.  He just waves and says, "Buh bye Park!" or "Buy bye Swimming!" 
• When he can't find something (like his shoes or Dada) he walks around saying, "Shoes?! Where are you?!" "Dada?! Where are you?!" 
• He's very polite and says thank you unprompted all the time.  
• He loves to take our hands, say "walk," and lead us places he wants us to go. 
• He loves the park.  He loves slides and loves climbing.  He loves throwing balls too.  
• He loves to point things out and needs me to acknowledge that I know what he's saying.  He loves to point out the mickey mouse on his diapers.  He loves to listen for airplanes and trains and then point them out.  Every time he sees a star he says, "Twinkle, twinkle little star!" really fast.  The funniest thing he points out are trucks.  Literally every time he sees a truck he says, "Big truck!"  And he keeps saying it louder and louder until you agree, "Yes, big truck!" Now, there are lots of trucks in Texas.  This means the entire time we're in the car is pretty much a continuous stream of, "Big truck!...Big truck!...Big truck!" Am I a bad mom if I admit it is getting mildly annoying? :) 
• He's definitely an only child and is given plenty of attention.  Most times it's not good enough to hold one person's hand--he has to hold both of our hands.  I think we may struggle a bit when baby #2 comes along...
• He likes to color.  He has a coloring book and crayons and always asks to get up in his booster seat and color.  However, this usually means he just wants to organize his crayons, taking them in and out of the box.  
• Everyone always comments on what a happy boy Andy is.  It's true!  He's a happy little guy! Especially when he gets his way. ;) He's an absolute joy to have in our home; we're so grateful he's in our family. 

It's pretty hard to get a decent picture of him these days, with all the wiggles and the strange smile he gives on command, but here are some attempts: 

Yes, this counts as one of his "better" pictures. 

On the day of his 2nd Birthday!

Is there anything sweeter than a little one, fresh out of the bath?