My little man is two today!

I did an *evil* thing. I woke him up this morning (not really he was awake just snuggling in his crib not calling for anybody yet) because I had to say SOMETHING to him before I dashed off for work. He was quite happy to see me but I’m sure Daniel would have appreciated a few more minutes of quiet time. Well tough toodles for him my baby is TWO! Poor kid. I’m working, Daniel is working. Kamryn has gymnastics tonight. It will be after 7 before he even gets his presents. Not that he is any the wiser that this day is different from any other day. He will have two parties on the weekend to make up for it. Ugh! 12 kids and their parents and it's going to rain (as it has for the last 8 days straight) - Calgon take me away!

Yesterday was the anniversary of our first meeting him. What a year it has been. We flew in to his hometown last year got settled in our accommodations and then went over to his grandmother’s house to meet our little guy. We took him a stuffed animal – Hodge I think its name is. Kamryn has a “fraternal twin” stuffed animal named Podge (thus my confusion one is Hodge and the other is Podge). Technically it was a gift from Kamryn. We brought his grandmother flowers. The kids played together in the little apartment so well. Kamryn was so excited to meet him. She was almost in tears when we left the airport earlier in the day and didn’t go immediately to his house. It was a lot for a little kid to understand. When we met him I wanted to scoop him up right away but I was afraid of looking too… well too eager. Why that would have been a bad thing I don’t know. Anyway I hung back to let him get used to me but he happily came to me and didn’t show any stranger anxiety at all. He was and still is a very open little guy. He plays strange sometimes but I’m not all that sure that on the rare occasions it occurs it isn’t just an act intended to get attention.

I fed him water out of my water glass, which made hi grandmother freak out because he never got water. We had lasagna for dinner and were so busy chatting that we forgot to eat dessert. It was hard to go home that night.

The year that followed had its ups and downs. I admit that I worried more than once that I couldn’t love this feisty and demanding little guy. That it wouldn’t happen. It was a silly worry. I can’t imagine my life without him. I can’t imagine him without us. He’s just a part of my heart now. Sometimes just looking at him makes me feel all warm inside. I was torturing him yesterday with kisses and he was being all “boy” and telling me "no" and pushing me away whenever I kissed him. Ah my little man is growing up. He’s still a little baby though and this morning wouldn’t let me leave without his kiss and hug.

We got him a Thomas Train set – it’s a construction/mining set or something like that. It will go with the trains and the figure 8 Water Tower set he already has. My Dad built him (and Kamryn) the most wonderful train table and play bench (wasn’t a birthday present but the timing has worked out). We just set it up for them this week. I’m so excited to give him his present. He is completely Thomas obsessed. He will have so much fun with the expanded set. Last night we were playing and I showed him how the trains would fill up with water from the water tower. I made a little water filling noise. He took over and kept calling me over to show me how the water made a “whoosh” sound as it “went into” the trains. He has a great creative little mind and he picks things up so quickly.

Amazing news on the speech front as well. Yesterday, like someone flipped a switch in his head he started talking in pseudo two word sentences. He still sounds like he is talking with a mouth full of marbles but he is FINALLY doing the two word thing and a lot too. I picked him up from my mother’s at 5:30 ish and was only with him until he went to sleep 2 hours later and in that time period the two word sentences were just spilling out of his little mouth. Mom also told me he said, “it’s in the there” when asked where his little car was. She couldn’t get him to say it again though – try as she might. We may have turned a big corner, which is good because we are STILL waiting for him to be seen by a speech pathologists. This is a big relief because I am more and more convinced that my worries last winter were/are more and more justified. He isn’t where he should be at all and he has major difficulty pronouncing simple sounds BUT he’s making progress despite the lack of professional help and that makes me worry a little less. I’m really anxious for him to be screened though and wish I could do it privately but alas I don’t think such a service exists. So we wait. He has is two year check-up tomorrow and I will bring it up with our doctor more for he opinions than any belief that she can speed the process up any.

Okay much work to be done to earn my salary and not much time left in the day. Must go.