D

D will be two years old in one month.  He is making the transition from baby to toddler so nicely.  I've been through this transition a few times now and I love it so much more now that I understand what is going on.  You know, the whole discovering his independence/temper tantrum thing (there's a good temper tantrum in public story below). 

D has become easier to communicate with.  Instead of saying, "da!" to everything, he'll say "yes" or "no" or string two words together.  For example, the other day E pushed him (or something) and he came over to me and said, "A-wa urt!"  Little tattletale!  He'll also say, "'ants 'et!" when his pants are wet.  And, "Nigh-nigh (place family member name here)," at bedtime. One of my favorites is, "icky 'ands" when his hands need washing.

He is busy.  He likes to work (I wrote about that here) and his favorite toys are...puzzles!  I haven't had a kid love puzzles this much at this age yet.  We have a little play yard area where we keep 3 to 4 puzzles and all the kids will take turns climbing in and doing puzzles.  It is the one activity he will do quietly during school.

He threw this handful of dirt at F!

D is transitioning into his own bed.  He has slept with M and I (mostly) since the day he was born.  He has had a little toddler bed in our room for some time now, but it was mainly used to hold clean laundry that needed folding.  When our co-sleeping went from snuggling to cage snuggling (which is a step up from F's extreme snuggling), he had to go.  I couldn't take that much contact all night long.  Neither one of us slept well.  As soon as I set my stubborn streak to work and made him sleep in his own bed, we both slept better.  Plus, my belly is getting bigger and I don't like being kicked all night.  The big change came when he understood that each person in our family has their own bed...and he does too!  Now at night I say, "Mama's bed?" and he says, "NO!"  I say, "D's bed?" and he says, "Uh-uh. E's!"  He loves E. 

He fell asleep in E's bed the day we had our public temper tantrum

The other day, we had some errands to run.  We started at Target in the pouring rain.  He shouted, "WALK!" when I tried to carry him through the parking lot.  So I put him down.  I'm too pregnant to carry him all the time and it was a good time to practice holding hands and staying with our group.  When he got to the store, I tried to put him in the cart.  "NO! WALK!" he shouted.  Fine, we'll do some more practicing.  (And while we were negotiating hand-holding, an older lady walked by counting "1-2-3-4-5!" after glancing at me "Six! Wow!" She looked at me, shook her head, and kept walking.  I hate people like that. But I just smiled sweetly, looking straight into her eyes telegraphing, "You can count! Good girl!")  D was so proud to be walking like everyone else.  If he could swagger, he would have been struttin' his stuff.  There was never a cuter almost two-year-old in overalls and purple boots at that moment.

The next stop was Costco for dinner.  D continued to behave nicely and hold hands (after capering around the women's bathroom making faces at himself in the mirror).  All of my kids were behaving really really well.  Costco was nearly empty, we just got there, the line was short, and we were buying pizza.  Why wouldn't they be behaving?  We sat at our table and had a nice, quiet dinner with the occasional spill and root beer refill.  When we were nearing the end of our meal, a gentleman came up to us and told me, "You have five kids.  Your hands are full.  But your kids are the best behaved kids I have ever seen.  Ever.  My wife and I have been sitting over there watching you and whatever you are doing to raise these kids, keep doing it.  I seriously never see kids this nice in public.  I even saw you beckon one with one finger and they came straight to you.  That is something."  I thanked him and thanked my kids after he left because my praise is their praise.  And that is the end of the story....

...because we packed up our leftover pizza and we walked over to the booth where cloth diapers were being displayed.  This is when being a "big kid" brought D to his knees and caused his brain to blow up in his head.  And when he went, the rest followed.  I only stopped by that booth because I was curious about how good the cloth diapers were.  I'm not their typical cloth diaper recruitee.  I know my diapers.  None of their sales pitches worked on me.  As I stood there grilling the lady on diaper details (after I told her that I usually sew my own for next to nothing), D climbed under her table.  And back out.  And back under.  So I asked my older boys to just take him for a walk on the adjoining aisle.  I keep talking.  I see IJ and S run as fast as they can with D holding their hands between them.  They stop, D keeps going, falls, and bonks his head on the floor.  I sternly remind them what they are supposed to be doing and give them the you-are-acting-like-total-idiots look.  Then F and E want to go "walk" too.  Since the store is practically empty, I say yes.  I still wasn't done with the diaper lady.  You remember how I treated the VitaMix man, right? (and the story of the missing child is awesome too.

They run around in circles around the clothing and I finally catch them all, take their points away, and say, "It's a good thing that nice man from the food court is gone! He would totally take back everything he said about you being the best behaved kids he has ever seen.  Because you are being the WORST BEHAVED KIDS I HAVE EVER SEEN!"  They meekly reform their group and ask if they can take D to see some John Deer ride on toy.  They go and I finish my business with the diaper lady (I did buy one diaper to try out and I already don't like it).  I go over to the John Deer toy and say, "Time to go!"  This is when it gets good.  "No!  No, no, no!" D screams.  He grabs hold of the steering wheel and won't let go.  I have to pull him out by the arm and carry him.  He wiggles loose because I have other things in my hands and he runs back.  I have to extract him again and carry him under my arm until we were far enough away that he couldn't break free and run back again!  He is kicking and screaming and trying to hit me!  I buy the diaper and adjust him to my hip, where he continues to scream and hit me (with both arms) over the head with his jacket!  The kids and I are laughing so hard that people are staring.  Really, there isn't anything funnier than an almost two-year-old boy in overalls and purple boots trying to assert his dominance over someone that is bigger than anything else in his world. 

I may have been embarrassed when IJ was a baby, but now it doesn't bother me.  The receipt-checking lady was a little shocked at the kids giggling because she thought they were just encouraging D to act like a naughty boy.  But there is a difference between people laughing because you are cute and people laughing at you because you are being stupid.  And this was a case of the latter.  D will soon figure out that laughing at him is not a hint to continue what he is doing.  By the time we got to the van, everything was over.  And just for fun....

IJ: Two years old

It's hard to believe that naughty little two year old IJ turned into:

This awesome almost ten-year-old who cooked the last three meals!  No kidding!  Spaghetti last night, oatmeal this morning, and grilled cheese for lunch!