Parenthood.24

25 and a half months

Ah, so this is two. Chester wants to do it himself, even if that means walking back down the steps so he can go up them again alone. He pushes the boundaries (and his mother and teachers at school). And he can dissolve into tears at the drop of a hat for something as simple as walking down the wrong aisle at church (he'd like to go down the center aisle, thankyouverymuch, and he'd like to hold his hands in the position of prayer--he alternately is convinced he's an altar boy, a priest, and Jesus, and he isn't quite sure how to tell those things apart). I guess it's time to stop writing about the kid on the blog? I want this to be a celebration of his new developments, but those new developments right now don't seem worth celebrating. (And from everything I've heard three and four are harder and it gets better at 5, so I'm trying not to complain too much!)

26 months

Poor kid thought voting was boating and was disappointed.

I don't think I've written about it here, but for months and months and maybe nearly a year, Chester has been in tune with my mood, such that if he senses that I'm frustrated or angry or sad, he says in a flirty, sweet voice, "Hi Mama! Hi Mama!" As he's gotten older, he'll add, "You happy?" and now he adds, "You love me?"

Almost 27 months

Advent with a two-year-old is so much fun. We have advent candles and an advent calendar with a new little window to open each day. And we're reading books about Christmas and setting up our tree and many nativities (including one for him--he used baby Jesus to knock over the other figures).

He's perfectly smart--I think about as smart as most adults. It's hard for me to imagine him getting any smarter. He understands just about everything we tell him and recounts it to us a dozen times. 

We visited friends of ours in Ohio and he loved playing with the kids. We haven't observed him playing with other kids much, so it was great to see him sharing (sharing their toys with them--the easiest sort of sharing) and being social. We also tried to use it as motivation to potty train (one of the other kids is older), but so far, nothing. 

He also loved being with my family for Thanksgiving. He came home talking about guns and pretending to shoot them. (I guess my father showed him one, about which I was not consulted.) And saying "Hu hu Hike," while holding a football. And reminding me that Miss Amber (from school) and Nana are both "cookers." And he claims that he has a monster in his belly. Not sure where that came from--Stearns??

27.5 months

I think he must be recognizing that others have their own internal processes, because all the time when we read books now, he says, "What's he saying?" "What's she saying?"

He spent most of the time at a new park today trying to get into a giant fish's mouth--he was pretending to be Jonah. 

We're obsessed with Good King Wenceslas this advent--and he's starting to learn the words. (Update--he knows at least 75%.) Charlie Brown's Christmas is another staple this Christmas. We also read The Night Before Christmas lots of times--and he got to meet Santa/St. Nicholas. I think he's a believer. Not that that's important, but it is fun to teach him the many different parts of Christmas. He got a horse for Christmas and decided it was a donkey and rode it around, telling us he was going to Bethlehem. He loved the performance of the Christmas story by children at the vigil mass and suggested quite adamantly that he would like to join the kids on stage.  

He's also beginning to straight up ignore us when we tell him to stop or come or any other simple command. No idea what to do about this--and it's infuriating!

Christmas travels were not our best--it took him a week to recover from jet lag. Just in time to head home and deal with the reverse.