Age before beauty

Guess what! Your daddy and I have been married for six years as of today! Happy anniversary to us!

You are the best gift we received, ever. We still gaze at you sometimes with nothing to say, just happy to look at you. You are so beautiful. And you're ours! It blows my mind sometimes.

You have grown a lot. You are 36 inches tall now and you weigh 28 pounds. People are starting to speculate that you will be a tall young man one day. Could be! (That's something you say... "Tood be!")

Lately you've been saying a lot of funny things. Your newest repetition is "Wanna help me? Wanna help me?" Sometimes you don't even know what you want help with.

I used to count how many words you could string together in a sentence. The highest I counted was eight. But lately you've been saying so many words in a sentence - sometimes even making run-on sentences - that I can't count them anymore. You talk a lot!

Other funny things you say:

"Baby hold baby's hand." When you don't want to hold my hand...you hold your own instead, like a nun in a choir.
"I know that." To everything.
"Ow wight." All right. Your response when you receive instruction you find acceptable.
"Want to drive on the hard road." Daddy let you drive on the gravel roads in the UP last week. You will never forget it. You call the gravel road "hard road" and you often ask if you can drive now, even on city streets.

We had a fantastic time in the UP. You slept in a big bed, walled in by pillows and blankets. You loved that, I think. You slept great and woke up smiling. You went to the lake frequently and threw rocks in the water. The big dog, Rudy, didn't scare you. You liked him a lot. You got a lot of mosquito bites and refused to ride on grandpa's tractor. (WHAT??) You made cookies with grandma and ate so much dough I could hardly believe it. You said "It's soooo good!"

You were very good in the car. I guess you love road trips. You hardly fussed, except when you wanted my iPad. Who can blame you for that?

I've been trying to help you understand that there is another baby in my tummy that you will be meeting in a few months. You don't get it yet. That's ok. You're going to be a fun big brother. We plan to leave you in your room and prep the room next door for new baby. I'll find out what gender the new baby is on Sept. 16. I feel like it's a girl.

Love you, darling!

Hide! Hide!

Uh oh! No one can find Sam again! He must be hiding!

It seems your very favorite thing to do is to hide whenever you hear Mom or Dad approaching. Especially Dad - you hide every time he comes home from work. Behind the couch! Under the pillows! In the closet! I help you think of new hiding places, and sometimes we stump Daddy pretty good! He knows the routine now. He walks through the door, puts his keys away, and comes searching for you. You've finally learned to be very quiet when hiding, but Daddy still tries to trick you by saying "Psst! Psst!" to make you giggle. When he finds you, you are thrilled. You yell "Hide! Hide!" ... as if Daddy might not have known you were hiding on him.

All of us love the hiding.

In other news, it looks like you're going to be a big brother! I am 12 weeks pregnant. I am cautious but excited. This is my sixth pregnancy, and as you know, you are my only baby. But it seems to be going well so far this time. I've been sick! Poor Doodle, you've seen me throwing up quite a few times. You get very concerned. I'm sorry. I'd hide it from you, but it's not really possible. You follow me everywhere, and I never happen to vomit during nap time. I should be getting close to feeling better. I'm also looking forward to being able to eat more foods. You are, too. Dinner has been a rarity around here, since I can hardly stand the smell of food when it's cooking.

Now. We do need to talk about your vocabulary. You know a bazillion words. (I can hardly believe how recently I was trying to list all the words you know... You know so many now, I couldn't even attempt it.) But you heavily rely on a single word: No. Sure, it's an easy word, and you're a temperamental two-year-old, but it's excessive. Daddy and I have been trying to combat your "No!" habit lately. You've said yes upon request a few times, but you seem to grasp the accommodating nature of the word. It doesn't appeal to you.

A typical conversation with you:
Sam: Baby go to sleep. Baby go to sleep.
Mom: OK, Baby go to sleep.
Sam: No baby go to sleep!

More adorable Sam-isms:

"Uh-huh need Momma now." (Uh-huh is your typical affirmative.)

Also: "Nake in a hole? Nake in a hole?" (Is there a snake in the hole?) "Tood be!" (Could be!)

What a darling. :)

Love you, sweetheart.

No hold baby now, Mom.

This was your second five-word sentence, uttered just moments ago. Certainly a bittersweet one. I was explaining to you how when you were little, I held you all the time. You slept on me, I carried you, and I just held you. Almost nonstop. Now that you are 2 years old and bossy, I hardly get to hold you before you start hollering for Dada to come save you. It's true. So I was telling you this, and trying to snuggle with you, when you said "No hold baby now, Mom."

Thanks, dear.

Your first four-word sentence

"No see baby now!"

:)

You were hiding your face from me. You think you can't be seen if you can't see. And then you look at me and say "See baby now!" It's very fun.

I say bun-bun, you say mon-mon

Sweetie,

Since it is bunny season, we are often on the lookout for our long-eared friends. When I say "I see a bun-bun!", You say "Mon-mon?" Of course I think it's adorable.

The snarkier image

Contrary to what you must think, I do not enjoy being pinched, poked, pounded, groped, bit, slapped or shoved. I know, right? Moms these days.

You are so active and much too busy to take effort not to hurt me. So you do cause me minor injury every day. Today you put one of your tractor toys on my exposed calf and then flopped down on it. Some of my skin is now missing. Awesome.

You're 2. What did I expect?

But you're also sweet. You kissed my tractor-bitten leg this morning. Thanks, love.

XOXOXO

But seriously, if I could end one thing, it would be the groping. STOP. IT.

XOXOXO

My child

You possess great power over me. Let me explain.

You can completely shut down my brain function through the simple act of crying. When my baby cries, I can't read. I can't see straight. I can't process basic thoughts. I can't answer questions.

For example: When we were visiting Ken and Kari in Reno, we went to a sandwich shop. As we were ordering, you began wailing in my arms. Your voice pierced through my ear drum and emptied my brain of cognitive ability. I think the restaurant lady was asking if I needed a drink with my sandwich. I couldn't answer. I couldn't do a thing except hold you and panic. You were fine and I knew it, but my brain wouldn't permit me to form a response to the lady. Your Uncle Ken ordered me a drink. I didn't need it - I had a bottle of water from home in my purse. But I could not think well enough to say so.

Also, you sat on my lap this week as I tried to process an overnight shipment to Key West. It was my first overnight shipment ever, and I had to get it done in about 20 minutes to make it out in time. You were tired, or sad, or both. You cried, and in my stress, I asked you to stop crying. You cried harder. I asked you to stop crying again. You cried harder. At this point, you achieved total meltdown of Mommy's brain, and I pulled your sobbing body onto my lap. I couldn't think again until you fell asleep there. We didn't get the shipment out the way I intended, but Plan B worked fine and all was well.

Darling, I need you to use your powers for good and not evil. I hope you know that it's because I am so focused on your health and happiness that one wail from you reduces me to rubble. So please be kind. Try to learn to just fall asleep if you're tired, or close your eyes if you see something that scares you. That will help me look less like a spazzed out idiot in public.

On a sad note, we tried to nurse a baby bunny that a neighbor found rolling around in the dirt. I fed it, let it sleep on a heating pad in a little box, and carried it around in my bra for a couple days. You learned to expect it to be there. You called it "baby mon-mon" because I told you it was a bun-bun. You still pat my chest sometimes and ask if baby mon-mon is there, though I told you it fell asleep forever and Daddy put it outside. Your memory is amazing, and you are ever hopeful that mommy has the mon-mon in her bra. I wish I did, too.

After the bunny died, Grandpa Tractor came to visit for a couple days. You liked him pretty well. He played with you and teased you a lot. You started calling him "Papa" - short for Grandpa, I think. He loves you. He put shutters on our house and built my peas a fence to climb up. He is still learning to understand that you are a sensitive little guy. His sense of humor is generally not very sensitive.

Lastly, today is Mother's Day. It is my third Mother's Day of actual motherhood (cat parenting does not count, I've come to see). I'm still in awe of you, my child, and adore you. You're growing up a little every day. You learn a new word in a snap. Uncle Jake (not really your uncle, but we all like him) taught you what a wine cork is two nights ago, and you got it right away. I was changing your diaper the other day and happened to mention that I was cleaning your poo hole. You caught on immediately, and now like to talk about your poo hole. (Mommy suffers a bit of remorse about that.) And today I taught you how to rub your hands together when washing them, and it's pretty much the cutest thing on earth.

You are taking a nap now. I wish I was snuggling you and smothering you with kisses. Thank you for all that you give me every day. XOXOXO