Almost 2!

Today I told John Paul it was his birthday soon.  To get this across, I told him we'd say "Happy Birthday" to him.  Of course, this meant I had to sing it over and over again.  To various different things - Mario, Luigi (Noygi), Mario-kart, garlic, Dinosaur, the letter J, Buzz, Alien, Baby Cee-yah, Mom, Dad, John Paw, John Paw Kart, Baby Cee-yah cwash, and all his trains.  I get annoyed at how often he wants me to sing the same song over and over again, but I really need to remind myself of a few things:

1.  As annoying behaviors go, that's *really* not bad - it could be SO much worse.

2.  It's actually flattering that he wants to hear me sing so much.

3.  I get to experience his learning process while he watches me sing new songs - the rapt attention with which he stares at me the first few times, the slow head bobbing and feet stomping the next few times, the mouthing along with the words the next few times (still staring at me), and the soft singing to himself and with me when he "gets" it (also the very LOUD and stunted singing to himself when he should be napping).

Plus I learned another lesson about this the hard way - he wanted me to sing "This Old Man" for the 147 millionth time, so I found it on YouTube and had him watch it there.  1.5 minutes of The Wiggles.  He had never seen them before. 

Why.  Did.  I.  Introduce.  The Wiggles.

Oh dear.  If you have never seen The Wiggles before, PLEASE take a minute to watch a quick video on YouTube.  Then you will understand why this band of 40something men are the bane of a stay at home mom's existence.

He has been begging for it almost nonstop every time he sees the computer.  I'm using it as a reward right now, which is working pretty well, as long as I have an IMMEDIATE distraction so that we don't have to watch it 20 times in a row.  This morning he picked up all his legos and put them away, completely unprompted.  He kept looking at me with a big smile, as if waiting for me commend his behavior (which I did - I was SO happy and proud of what an independent boy he is!).  When he was all done he put his hand on my knee and said, "This ole man he pwayed one?" 

Now THAT is fine with me.  A song as a reward, unprompted cooperative behavior, taking pleasure in simple praise.  And he was so glad to hear me say that I was happy and proud of him that he continued this super-cooperative behavior at the bookstore, seeking out and cleaning up messes that other kids had made (it will be nice when he can do it in steps - pick up ONE stuffed dragon at a time, rather then EVERY stuffed dragon.  an armful of stuffed dragons is pretty funny when he's staggering around, though). 

I just can't believe how BIG he seems!  We got to the bookstore and he ran to his favorite counter yelling, "Ampersand!"  Then we went to the children's section and he found another that we'd never noticed.  "Nuther ampersand!"  Two weeks ago those were "Twebbow cwefs" and now this ridiculous kid can do what most adults can't, tell the difference between a treble clef and an ampersand. 

He does this puzzle every time we go to the bookstore and he's SO patient with it, even though it's a little advanced for him to be able to do completely independently.

And he finds books and reads them to HIMSELF in their entirety.  Granted, they're always simple books that only have numbers or single words associated with pictures, but it's just amazing to see.

I got out of the habit of calling him a baby a while ago, but he still seemed like one to me for quite a while.  Now he's such a big boy!  Good thing we have a little baby to replace this one...

Who, by the way, is in the midst of a passionate love affair with mirrors.  There's a baby in the mirror and she is GREAT.

She absolutely LOVES to be held in front of the mirror so she can whack this other baby repeatedly.  And, of course, try to suck the baby's face.  Thank goodness that's not a reaction that all those overly-touchy strangers have when they see babies in public...

She spent quite a while just rolling in front of the mirror while I put away laundry.  There's not a whole lot of room from the dresser to the hamper, and the dresser is *just* the right height for her to roll under and get stuck...  These mirror doors are gonna be awesome when she starts pulling up (and will get super-grubby, too!).