Full of such joy… {at two-and-a-half}

I could make this post a mile long. That’s a mama’s heart talking. Our son is two-and-a-half today. Our days (and nights) have certainly been consumed by the arrival of our second son, but this mama has not forgotten the days when she rocked her first son “back and forth, back and forth”… And in the words of Love You Forever by Robert Munch, I truly do think, “as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be…” (makes me cry every time, and yes, even while I’m writing this!).

So… I need to take time and blog space to remember the past few weeks, as our son grows up right before our eyes. Truly, it goes by too fast… there are so many little things to love about him…

My favorite thing about our son is his happy, joyful spirit. Hubby observed how he is full of such JOY at every detail of life. It’s true. He’ll be as thrilled about bringing me a dead leaf, as receiving a huge present,… or finding a toy car that got tucked away in a bag somewhere for a few weeks, or getting a bubble bath, going to the beach, or driving through tunnels, spotting a taxicab (New York was a thrill!).

Every little thing in life amazes him. And I pray it will always be so.

He’s a sweet little boy. He wants the world to be happy. He tells baby brother, “Don’t cry!” and one day when E. was crying he called out, “Mommy, E. is crying – come help him, he’s little!” He takes pride in helping his baby brother stop crying by putting a binky in his mouth. 

He still wants to hold my hand (my heart still goes pitter patter when he asks to hold hands, because I know that will be gone all too soon – he already pulls away at times when he wants to “do it myself”).

There are things he doesn’t like. Thunder and lightening. Specks in his food (takes after me!), and even the toilet flushing if he’s not expecting it. The small dog across the street (but not his aunt’s much larger dogs).

He’s creative. One day I gave him sliced apples. He took bites out of each one – each slice a bit more eaten than the last. Then he arranged them in a line by size, and called them moons. It looked for all the world like a display of the moon cycling through her quarters! Not that he has any idea, but still…

And he’s active! He loves running around all over! One day, I was exhausted and emotional from new motherhood, and he could tell I was sad. He said, “Wanna run around in circles? Want to? THAT will be fun? Wanna run in circles with me, Mommy?” It was so endearing that he thought perhaps a good run around would help me feel better. (It did, in its own way!).

His favorite place to play, besides outdoors and gardening with his daddy, is the basement! “Wanna see the basement?” he asks anybody who visits. He loves the soft mat for workouts, and room to run around, driving his cars all over! His favorite toys are still cars and trucks, although he’s much more into building blocks and Legos than ever before.

He makes us laugh. Whether with his antics, like spinning until he’s dizzy… climbing into the extra stroller seat to be next to his baby brother… or his statements, repeating things he’s heard us say, or just blurting out phrases from nowhere (he always tells us he learned it from Sunday School when we ask!). He likes to say, “What’s THAT all about?” I love his inflections in the oddest places!

He’s assertive now. Telling us, “I can’t like that” when he doesn’t want to eat or do something. Announcing (but with a slight question) “That’s my favorite?” about various toys, CDs, and foods (also, he’s been deciding what baby brother’s favorite things are too!). And independent – he spent several nights at Nonna’s house when the baby was born, and my dad sent me this photo of him eating a whole slice of pizza by himself (I usually cut it up for him!).

He knows all his letters, numbers almost to twenty, and colors. I love how he notices details – like how clouds have pink edges at sunset. His powers of observation put this writing mama to shame. And I love how he makes me notice the world more intricately through his eyes. He’s going to be a good writer someday. Books – he loves books, and we’ve discovered books on CD from the library! We listen to a great tractor one before naptime each day! He enjoys sitting in his reading chair, flipping through the pages or pausing on one page and just listening to the story.

So many many ways and reasons to love this little boy… my mind and heart are filled with stories about his little life and there isn’t time or space to put them all down… I’ll just try to keep up!