Another year under his belt and he's 2!

Well, another year has passed in our little man's life! What a blessing he's been. Sometimes cantankerous, sometimes extremely independent, but most of the time loving, caring and full of mischief.

On his actual birth day, we made cupcakes. Nathan's extremely independent self kicked in and declared, "I do it!" when it came to icing the cupcakes. And he means it too. Every single bit of icing the cupcake he wanted to do "aw by mysef, Mama!" He was holding the butter knife, dipping it in the icing tub, smearing it on the cupcake (which essentially de-topped the cupcake), holding it up for review, "Look Mama! I did it!" and eating the cupcake with bits of paper after refusing to have someone help him pull the paper off.
He is an extremely independent little fella. He enjoys playing with his sister, but after he's had enough bossing, he plays very well on his own.Don't you ice cupcakes in your underwear while collecting icing in your bee-bo? And speaking of underwear, little man here is already showing signs of being a male chauvinist. Try explaining that to the pediatrician during a 2-year well visit. As long as it's just me around, everything is kosher. But as soon as Dada is within eyesight of returning home from work, Mama becomes obsolete. He all of a sudden won't eat for me anymore and won't do simple tasks I request of him routinely throughout the day. His response is, "NO Mama!" He will even pass on me taking him out of his bed in the morning because he'd rather his Dada get him out. But unfortunately, Dada is at work and he'll usually figure that he's going to have a long day in that crib unless Mama gets him out. Forget about going to the bathroom on the potty, if I ask. But, if Dada asks, we have success.I have calmly explained to Dada (while totally smirking inside and conjuring up what Katherine and I could do) that HE will have to be the one tied down to the house to enforce our 72-hour potty training boot camp. I'm not aware of anytime since kids though, that Dada has been house-bound for a full 72 hours. Usually he gets antsy after about 36 hours and I send him on his way to do a project elsewhere. But we'll see how the potty training thing goes. Nathan's ready. Mama's not prepared for the attitude that might accompany it all.

His heros are all the men in his life. Sometimes when it's difficult to get him to go to sleep at night, we'll mention who all is asleep like, Papa, CowPapa, Mr. J., Uncle R, cousin J, the lawn mower and Dada's tractor. He gets quiet while imagining all of them asleep, then makes snoring sounds to imitate what they're all doing. So far, it's worked about 90% of the time.
When this little guy turned 2, he got a big dose of "Big Boy." He is speaking in complete sentences. On the way to the well visit, he declared, "Mama, I onna see da chwuck puhwin' da chwaiwer."

Translation: "Mama, I want to see the truck pulling the trailer."

Pretty good, I thought. The doc seemed to think so also.

He will tell you, "I two yeav old" and hold up his thumb and index finger. Katherine thinks it's funny.
He is still extremely interested in trucks, heavy machinery, tractors, lawn mowers, tires, nuts, bolts, screwdrivers, hammers, banging objects, loud noises and engines.

His ear infections have slowed down enough to where his occasional bad attitude can mostly be blamed on being ornery. He loves Cars the movie and will declare "To infinity and beyond" when he sees Buzz Lightyear. He has a fantastic sense of humor and comedic timing, already! He still blows kisses to older ladies in restaurants and waves to the men. When the right tune comes on, he bobs his head up and down, then adds in the fancy feet moves.

I knew it would happen, so I don't know why I feel like I'm writing something unexpected, but he has stolen my heart. He loves to give really big hugs around my neck, give slobbery, movie-star kisses, talk to the baby in my tummy then blow slobbery zerberts on it and says, "I wuv woo, Mama."

That's it. I'm done. Gone forever. Lost in my children's beauty and charms. Thank goodness they act up every now and then because it sure would be easy to turn them into heart-idols.

Happy Birthday Nathan! We love you so much and are so proud of you.

~Dada, Mama and big sister Katherine

A little reminder of last year...