You at two.
Dear Harrison,
I've been meaning to do a blog post all about my little 2 year old turning 2 and what you're up to at this stage. It seems like every day I watch you do something new or say something funny and I make a mental note to document it on here. And then of course I don't, and before I know it you've moved on to something else new and saying even funnier things. I started this post back at your birthday and now you are 2 1/2; it's amazing how much you've already changed in just the last 6 months. I wish I could have a video camera rolling all the time because I am loving this age and I know no matter how hard I try I won't remember the little things you do that bring smiles to my face and heart every day.
So here is my attempt to capture at least a snippet of your bubbling personality at age 2:
-Your vocabulary really exploded right before Thanksgiving (about 3 weeks before your 2nd birthday). Now you talk in never-ending paragraphs now which still catches me off guard! It just seems like you went from saying a handful of baby words to morphing into this little boy who I now have long, dynamic conversations with all within a few days. You say the funniest things and I wish I was better at writing them down!
-You love to learn. This has been one of my favorite aspects of parenting -- seeing you explore and watching your eyes light up when you've figured out something new or how something works. A few things you've learned so far: You know the alphabet as well as their sounds. You can count to 20 and know all of your numbers. You know all of the colors. You even know your left from right (like left hand, foot, ear, etc. and can follow directions steering your tricycle). You know several songs from memory. You have entire books memorized. You love to match things together and right now one of your favorite games to play is "match families" where you name your friends and their siblings and parents. But my FAVORITE thing to see you learn about is Jesus. I love that after church you tell us what you learned about that morning and it warms my heart to hear you repeat it back to us. You have three bible verses memorized that you learned in school and church: "If you love me you will keep my commandments (John 14:15)", "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5)" and "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". You have inspired me to memorize scripture myself because I always thought it was too hard...but if a 2 year old can do it then I certainly don't have an excuse :)
-We were making really good progress with potty training beginning at around 22 months. You knew how to make yourself go both #1 and #2 and were even beginning to tell me when you needed to go. This may sound weird but I was really enjoying the toilet "bonding" time with you. You would sit on it and read your book and talk to me for 15 or 20 minutes at a time (which is about 15 or 20 times longer than you are usually interested in sitting around talking to me, ha). (again, this part was clearly written 6 months ago because now you want to sit around and talk to me NON STOP, ha) I thought about starting to train you but then you lost interest for a while. I didn't feel like pushing it because I had bigger battles to fight, but as soon as Pee Wee School let out for the summer we started the process. And let me just say that 2 weeks into it I'm not quite enjoying it as much as I did at 22 months. Ha! You are doing great and know what you're doing. You will get there (when YOU want to get there).
Which leads us to the next topic. You are incredibly strong-willed and independent and stubborn! I love this about you but I'm not going to lie...it's also very challenging. Trying to shape your character through boundaries and discipline without feeling like I'm crushing your confidence and spirit is such a difficult balance and I second-guess myself more often than I would like to admit. There are many days where I go to bed discouraged because it feels like all we've done is fight all day and I hate that. But I know that your strong personality will get you far in life, and the meantime I just try to remind myself that they don't call it the Terrible Two's for nothing. Even in your stubbornness you are a sweet, kind, gentle little boy and I wouldn't change one single thing about you.
-You're finally getting to where you enjoy sitting down long enough to read books with me. Your favorites are Little Blue Truck, Love You Forever, Puppies Count, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Reading with you is one of my very favorite things to do each day!
-Your favorite movies are Madagascar ("Mask-car-car") and Toy Story 1, 2, & 3. And if we're home in the mornings you like to watch Super Why and Sesame Street. Thankfully (thankfully!) you seem to be over Barney.
-Some of your favorite foods are yogurt, pizza, veggie pouches, fruit, jammy sammies, and last but not least, apple waffles (you request these every single day). You used to love a lot more food but lately you have become a pretty picky eater. You won't even try half the things we serve for dinner. You are a breakfast-devouring-machine, though. You love eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes, toast, oatmeal, you name it!
A few other little Harrisonisms that I want to remember about you:
-Every time you see an airplane up in the sky you point up, make an airplane noise, and follow it up with a very loud, "plane go BOOM!" and make the gesture of a plane crashing to the ground. I finally figured out that you learned this from Madagascar. It has gotten us some strange looks from others and I'm pretty sure we won't be taking you on any flights any time soon. Ha!
- You do the sweetest little prayer hands before meals and have even started requesting to say the "bessing". You squint your eyes and look so serious and it is precious! That doesn't mean that I haven't caught you sneaking a piece of bacon before it's over though...but you did keep your eyes closed while stealing it which was equally as precious. :) You always say the same prayer: "Dear God, thank you for my food and my commandments, Amen!" At night you change it up A LOT and say, "Dear God, thank you for my nap and my commandments, Amen!" You came up with the "commandments" part all on your own and I have to laugh because while you thank God for them every day you don't really seem to be too excited about authority and are definitely not a rule follower, ha ha!
-You are extremely opinionated about your wardrobe. You will have full blown tantrums if I don't let you wear a certain shirt or pair of shoes. Your favorite shirt to date is your red Beatles shirt. Lately you insist on wearing your "tying shoes" (tennis shoes) but won't keep them tied (grr) or you ask to "wear your barefeet".
-You love to make funny faces. You wait for me to tell you an expression and then you act it out. (scared, funny, happy, sad, excited, surprised, silly, etc) You are also kind of obsessed with monsters and pretending that they are going to get us and therefore demanding that we hide from them.
-You are a great big brother. Sure, sometimes you get a little territorial over toys, but overall you love to play with "your baby" and are really sweet to her. You give her kisses and are protective of her and I hope you grow up to be best friends!
-Every day you are saying something to crack us up. Some of your latest material: "Simmer down, Mommy." (totally heard that from your dad) And, "You are a hot mess!" And in a moment where your father was not feeling great and was also upset with you for misbehaving -- he was telling me that his head was pounding and he was mad enough to literally hear his heart beating, you chimed in from the backseat just as serious as can be with, "Daddy, your heart says bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump!" You make it really hard to stay mad at you and I think you definitely know it.
A few pictures of you at 2:
You have truly made the last 2 1/2 years the best years of our lives. You are such an awesome kid and we are excited to see what God has in store for our little man. Love you forever, like you for always!
I've been meaning to do a blog post all about my little 2 year old turning 2 and what you're up to at this stage. It seems like every day I watch you do something new or say something funny and I make a mental note to document it on here. And then of course I don't, and before I know it you've moved on to something else new and saying even funnier things. I started this post back at your birthday and now you are 2 1/2; it's amazing how much you've already changed in just the last 6 months. I wish I could have a video camera rolling all the time because I am loving this age and I know no matter how hard I try I won't remember the little things you do that bring smiles to my face and heart every day.
So here is my attempt to capture at least a snippet of your bubbling personality at age 2:
-Your vocabulary really exploded right before Thanksgiving (about 3 weeks before your 2nd birthday). Now you talk in never-ending paragraphs now which still catches me off guard! It just seems like you went from saying a handful of baby words to morphing into this little boy who I now have long, dynamic conversations with all within a few days. You say the funniest things and I wish I was better at writing them down!
-You love to learn. This has been one of my favorite aspects of parenting -- seeing you explore and watching your eyes light up when you've figured out something new or how something works. A few things you've learned so far: You know the alphabet as well as their sounds. You can count to 20 and know all of your numbers. You know all of the colors. You even know your left from right (like left hand, foot, ear, etc. and can follow directions steering your tricycle). You know several songs from memory. You have entire books memorized. You love to match things together and right now one of your favorite games to play is "match families" where you name your friends and their siblings and parents. But my FAVORITE thing to see you learn about is Jesus. I love that after church you tell us what you learned about that morning and it warms my heart to hear you repeat it back to us. You have three bible verses memorized that you learned in school and church: "If you love me you will keep my commandments (John 14:15)", "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5)" and "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". You have inspired me to memorize scripture myself because I always thought it was too hard...but if a 2 year old can do it then I certainly don't have an excuse :)
-We were making really good progress with potty training beginning at around 22 months. You knew how to make yourself go both #1 and #2 and were even beginning to tell me when you needed to go. This may sound weird but I was really enjoying the toilet "bonding" time with you. You would sit on it and read your book and talk to me for 15 or 20 minutes at a time (which is about 15 or 20 times longer than you are usually interested in sitting around talking to me, ha). (again, this part was clearly written 6 months ago because now you want to sit around and talk to me NON STOP, ha) I thought about starting to train you but then you lost interest for a while. I didn't feel like pushing it because I had bigger battles to fight, but as soon as Pee Wee School let out for the summer we started the process. And let me just say that 2 weeks into it I'm not quite enjoying it as much as I did at 22 months. Ha! You are doing great and know what you're doing. You will get there (when YOU want to get there).
Which leads us to the next topic. You are incredibly strong-willed and independent and stubborn! I love this about you but I'm not going to lie...it's also very challenging. Trying to shape your character through boundaries and discipline without feeling like I'm crushing your confidence and spirit is such a difficult balance and I second-guess myself more often than I would like to admit. There are many days where I go to bed discouraged because it feels like all we've done is fight all day and I hate that. But I know that your strong personality will get you far in life, and the meantime I just try to remind myself that they don't call it the Terrible Two's for nothing. Even in your stubbornness you are a sweet, kind, gentle little boy and I wouldn't change one single thing about you.
-You're finally getting to where you enjoy sitting down long enough to read books with me. Your favorites are Little Blue Truck, Love You Forever, Puppies Count, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Reading with you is one of my very favorite things to do each day!
-Your favorite movies are Madagascar ("Mask-car-car") and Toy Story 1, 2, & 3. And if we're home in the mornings you like to watch Super Why and Sesame Street. Thankfully (thankfully!) you seem to be over Barney.
-Some of your favorite foods are yogurt, pizza, veggie pouches, fruit, jammy sammies, and last but not least, apple waffles (you request these every single day). You used to love a lot more food but lately you have become a pretty picky eater. You won't even try half the things we serve for dinner. You are a breakfast-devouring-machine, though. You love eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes, toast, oatmeal, you name it!
A few other little Harrisonisms that I want to remember about you:
-Every time you see an airplane up in the sky you point up, make an airplane noise, and follow it up with a very loud, "plane go BOOM!" and make the gesture of a plane crashing to the ground. I finally figured out that you learned this from Madagascar. It has gotten us some strange looks from others and I'm pretty sure we won't be taking you on any flights any time soon. Ha!
- You do the sweetest little prayer hands before meals and have even started requesting to say the "bessing". You squint your eyes and look so serious and it is precious! That doesn't mean that I haven't caught you sneaking a piece of bacon before it's over though...but you did keep your eyes closed while stealing it which was equally as precious. :) You always say the same prayer: "Dear God, thank you for my food and my commandments, Amen!" At night you change it up A LOT and say, "Dear God, thank you for my nap and my commandments, Amen!" You came up with the "commandments" part all on your own and I have to laugh because while you thank God for them every day you don't really seem to be too excited about authority and are definitely not a rule follower, ha ha!
-You are extremely opinionated about your wardrobe. You will have full blown tantrums if I don't let you wear a certain shirt or pair of shoes. Your favorite shirt to date is your red Beatles shirt. Lately you insist on wearing your "tying shoes" (tennis shoes) but won't keep them tied (grr) or you ask to "wear your barefeet".
-You love to make funny faces. You wait for me to tell you an expression and then you act it out. (scared, funny, happy, sad, excited, surprised, silly, etc) You are also kind of obsessed with monsters and pretending that they are going to get us and therefore demanding that we hide from them.
-You are a great big brother. Sure, sometimes you get a little territorial over toys, but overall you love to play with "your baby" and are really sweet to her. You give her kisses and are protective of her and I hope you grow up to be best friends!
-Every day you are saying something to crack us up. Some of your latest material: "Simmer down, Mommy." (totally heard that from your dad) And, "You are a hot mess!" And in a moment where your father was not feeling great and was also upset with you for misbehaving -- he was telling me that his head was pounding and he was mad enough to literally hear his heart beating, you chimed in from the backseat just as serious as can be with, "Daddy, your heart says bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump!" You make it really hard to stay mad at you and I think you definitely know it.
A few pictures of you at 2:
You have truly made the last 2 1/2 years the best years of our lives. You are such an awesome kid and we are excited to see what God has in store for our little man. Love you forever, like you for always!
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