Talking Toddlers are Terrific

Although some of the things that come out of the toddler's mouth are not so terrific (think, "no," "go away," and "mine!"), having a child who can effectively communicate using the English language is pretty grand.  He says the most hilarious things I've ever heard from anyone, his requests for hugs and kisses can't be denied, and he makes  me see things in the world around me that I otherwise would have missed out on.
Example #1: While waiting in line at the post office the other day, Everett was observing things and telling me about them.  Suddenly, he was on his hands and knees with his nose to the ground.  I turned around and saw this, and appropriately thought to myself, "what the heck is he doing down there?"  He then says to me, "ooka mama!  a bug!"  Sure enough.  There was a box elder bug (or as we call them, stink bugs) on the floor.  He stayed there in close proximity to his new friend and once attempted to touch it until I told him that we should probably just go ahead and let the stink bug be.
Example #2: Two days ago, we were playing outside in the beautiful sunshine.  Everett was running around, playing with sticks, and telling me about all sorts of stuff and then said, "moon, mama!  Moon!!!"  I asked, "what?  Where is the moon?" and he pointed up in the sky behind our house.  I went over to where he was standing and looked where he was pointing.  Yep.  There was a half moon right there, clear as could be, in the middle of the afternoon.  I just shook my head and said, "you are absolutely right, son.  That is the moon up there."
Example #3: Today for playgroup, we went out to the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center.  Since I was wearing baby brother and not a coat, big brother went outside with the playgroup leader and the other children.  While I am watching from inside, he goes trotting off down the path away from the other children.  The leader has to run off after him and nab him up, enlisting the "help" of the little girls following behind since Everett is so heavy.  When he came back inside, he asked me, "mama, pet goose?"  I looked back outside to where he was running and there was a big canada goose sitting on the ground.  Well how can I be mad that he went running off away from the group when he just wanted to pet that goose?  I just informed him that, no, we cannot pet the goose because it is a wild animal and we don't pet wild animals.  Or strangers' dogs - another discussion we've been having on a daily basis.
Everett also uses his awesome language skills to show us how much he loves his "baby cow-um."  If any other children come near baby brother, he runs over, puts a protective hand on Cal's head and proclaims, "my baby!"  He uses a high-pitched baby voice to talk to Callum and tells him about his little baby toys.  He also loves to tell me about how Callum "drinks mama milk.  No cow milk.  No almond milk." and every morning has to comment on "mama pump milk Cow-um?".
So even though in the middle of every weekend, Brian will turn to me and say, "he talks. so. much.," I kind of love it.  After all, look who his mom is.  :)

Being 2 = emotions gone wild

You always hear about the terrible two's and the horrid tantrums associated with the toddler age.  Boy are the tantrums true.... But what you don't always hear is that two-year-olds have the tantrums because everything about their emotions is just so extreme.  My little two-year-old monster experiences every emotion to the highest degree possible.  That includes anger and frustration, but it also includes kindness, loving, sadness, pride, and happiness.  He's trying to learn to do everything we do and at the same time, he is learning how to react when we say no or praise him for doing well.  The smiles and giggles that come from his little mouth make life worth living.  The tears that fall when he hurts himself or someone hurts his feelings make you cry too.  The anger and frustration he exudes when tired and upset make your eyes wide with horror.  And the snuggles and hugs he slathers on his yet-to-be-born baby brother melt your heart into a puddle.
Brian is not a morning person.  Once he finally drags himself out of bed, it still takes him a while to really wake up.  Everett, on the other hand, comes bounding out of his bed and room, happy as a clam and starving.  This morning, he was using some old sudoku and crossword sheets on my nightstand to color and showing me the pictures (as I continued to half-snooze and say, "oooh, pretty....very nice....").  Well, he had drawn a whole little sheet of creatures and things and took the paper to show daddy in the bathroom.  Daddy was not paying attention, took the paper from little E man, and threw it away.  You should have heard the heart-wrenching sob, "MAMA!"  I jumped up, thinking he must have drawn blood on something, but no.  Daddy starts apologizing profusely and saying that he didn't realize it was a picture and he got it back out of the trash and it was pretty and thank you!  Everett was fine 30 seconds later, but for about 5 seconds, daddy had completely devastated his entire world by throwing his artwork in the garbage.  Now obviously, if someone took my hard work and threw it in the trash without even looking, I'd be horrified too, but this was just so much sadness, I had to chuckle a little to myself (one the boy was consoled, of course).
Being two must be so hard sometimes.  And for parents, the bad is really really bad, but the good is so amazing.  We'll keep him.

Meekow dark!

What does the title of this post mean?  You go ahead and guess.  I'll let you know at the end.

Ev and I spent our morning at the clinic today for my lovely glucose tolerance test.  Of course, it was fine, as was my hemoglobin (=no iron pills for me!).  Ev had a rough time sitting in the waiting room for so long but we survived with only a couple tantrums.  It's amazing how many we get per day now.  It's just a normal part of life to have your child suddenly throw himself on the floor and spin in circles while crying.  And I roll my eyes, grab him by the arm, and say, "we are not throwing a tantrum right now."  He can throw all the tantrums he wants at home, but they're still not going to get him what he wants.

Anyway.  Everything is still perfectly fine with the little nugget.  BP is good, weight is good (I think I measured an official 18. lbs up now, but I hadn't had any food before the weigh-in, so....).  Heartrate was good and strong.  Belly measured 25cm, which is just right.  Little guy is still moving around like crazy and has some violent rolls and kicks so the dr. is not concerned about baby being breech at the moment.  (Neither am I, but I'm still going to do my stretch every day - what's the harm?)

So back to the post title.  Everett has recently decided that he is afraid of the dark.  Not so much that he has trouble going to sleep at night, but enough that he refuses to go into a room without a light on.  Especially the basement, which really, can you blame him?  Dark basements are kind of creepy.  This evening, we were going down to the basement to add wood to the fire and he realized the light wasn't on and cried "meekow basement!"  Luckily, I know exactly what "meekow" means from our halloween trail walk at a friend's house.  Obviously, it means "spooky."  They sound exactly alike, right?  :)  It's when he says things like this that I just stop and laugh and laugh and he looks at me and smiles.