Terrible Twos

We are smack dab in the middle of the terrible twos with Jack.  Oh. My. Gosh. As sweet and cute as he is, he can be so downright awful!

 He sneaks out of time out, loves to "clip down" on our chart (or just moves his clip up instead of down... haha!), cries for 1 second when spanked, and is always telling us "no".  

There are so many times that I have a hard time not laughing at him, though, because he is sooooo ornery.  I could tell him not to step on Daddy's guitar, so he'll stick his toe on it. Or please don't throw your food on the floor, so he slyly scoots a grape off the table.

Boy is he fun, though.  I've said it before, but I could seriously sit and watch him all day.  He has these funny little mannerisms.  He is awesome at playing by himself.  He will disappear in his room and when I go to check on him, he is engrossed in his car and trucks or animals.  Even in a big group of kids, he will often go off by himself and get all wrapped up in playing.

We are still working on the language development.  We make him say a lot more than we used to.  For awhile there he was getting away with "eh" and pointing.  Now, we make him say what he wants.  He says thank you (which sounds more like "teenk eeee") unprompted and has started saying "Welcome" when someone thanks him.

Randomly in the car, he started singing "Inky, inky, inky, inky" "Uppa, uppa , uppa, by".  I realized he was trying to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".  So sweet.  He also was singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", which I only knew from his motions.  It sounded like "Bidey, Bidey, up... Owwwwwwwt!" (washed the spider out, complete with hand motions)

Poor guy, he gets so frustrated when he can't communicate what he wants.  I am sooooo ready (I think) for the language explosion.  We keep saying he's on the verge because he says more and more every day.

Don't let that fool you that he's this quiet little guy that plays nicely by himself.  He is LOUD and crazy!! Nowadays, if something doesn't go his way, he screams.  Not crying and screaming.  High pitched screaming.  It doesn't matter if we are outside, in the car, in an echo-y bathroom at Target... he screams.

He is VERY particular!! He likes things done HIS way.  I grabbed his bag out of the little cubby at the Y the other day.  He saw me with his bag and got mad saying "Meeeee, meeee".  So, he took his bag, walked all the way across the room, set it in the cubby, and then picked it up again.  He had to do it himself.  He likes to cut his own food, unwrap his own snack (seriously, don't even THINK about opening his granola bar the wrong way!), and get out of his car seat by himself. 

He's got some crazy dance moves.  It's hilarious! And, he plays a pretty mean air guitar.

He LOVES to throw things.  Usually things that require a lot of clean up like a whole snack cup of Goldfish.  And when he throws something, he will sometimes say, "Prise!" (surprise).  haha!

Oh, and dumping.  Dumping is another one of his favorite things to do.  He dumps out big jugs of change, bags of crackers, cups of water, and drawers of toys. 

He is ALL boy.  He colors pictures and then rolls them up to make a sword.  He loves cars, trucks, army guys, and all of his animals and Little People.  If there is a puddle of water, he finds it.  He investigates dead worms.  He carries around a tool box like it's a rite of passage.  He hammers the banister, uses pliers on the doorknobs, and saws the walls.  He is often sticky and he would rather lick his snot than have his nose wiped. 

He makes us all laugh ALL the time.  He can make his sister belly laugh.  As much as they can frustrate the heck out of each other, they are such little buddies.  He is always running through here yelling, "Keeet!"

He is such a fun, crazy two year old.  We WILL make it through... and then come the even worse THREES! :)

I'll leave you with his "cheesy" grin. I love this kid so much!