The Best Two Years

Music is "You and Me" by Francis England off the album Family Tree

JW, a year ago you were not stable on two feet, you communicated with smiles or tears, "ba ba" and "da da," gurgles and screams.  You found joy in crinkling paper, toilet papering the entire house and eating dirt.  You found comfort in your binki and were cool with a bottle.  We decorated the house for Christmas with little worry about you bringing down the tree or breaking mama's glass ornaments.  You had little interest in climbing stairs or going down slides on the playground.

A year later you can run, jump, kick and tumble.  You have a healthy vocabulary, almost always say "please" and generously give out "hugs."  You ask for your {my} iPad and you can maneuver the applications as if Steve Jobs was your father.  You like to draw pictures and paint.  You know the real purpose of toilet paper and even think you need to help out sometimes.  As first time parents with little experience we expected the worst when it came time to give up the binki and the bottle.  There was very little torture or trickery involved on our part.  We slowly stopped giving them to you and you carried on with life with little fuss.  The glass Christmas ornaments have been packed away because mama anticipated you would not be able to control your urge to touch every ornament on the Christmas tree.  Mama was right.  No matter how many times you have been told, "We look with our eyes, not with our hands," to which you always agree, I have found you on several occasions rearranging every bulb within reach.  You can identify Santa, and you know he says, "HO HO HO," but I'm certain you have no idea what Santa is really capable of doing.  You finally figured out how to go up and down the stairs without falling (and causing me heart failure every time) and you will go up and down the slide on the playground a million times all by yourself.   

One of the moms from the preschool asked me recently how I felt about having a two year old.  My initial response was basically eh, so what?  But the more I've thought about the last two years, how much we've grown, how smart you are, what a sweet boy you can be (knock on wood) I look forward to what the next year will bring and can barely fathom the possibilities.  Happy birthday, little buddy.