2 Years Old

That was Back Seat Boy on 12-5-06 at one month old. This is Back Seat Boy today:

The time that has passed between the two pictures has gone by in a flash. I can not believe that my youngest is already two, but then again, it's hard for me to remember a time when he wasn't here.

How do I describe the little boy he has become? Well, he loves balls and trucks, but also likes to read books about princesses and knows that when we put in a CD he will probably end up dancing with his sister and being her prince. He loves to throw things but will also find any number of cheap plastic beaded necklaces we have around here, put them on, and declare that he is "pittee". He can hit a ball with a bat, but can also spend a lot of time sitting on the floor reading book after book after book.

He makes us laugh all day with his antics, whether it's pushing his trucks around the house, trying to tell knock-knock jokes that make no sense, tackling us or begging us to "tacko" him, wrestling with his sister, or making sure we pray before every meal by frantically repeating "Jesus, Jesus" over and over again until we all sit down and fold our hands. Maybe he's going to be a pastor, who knows? Another thing that Driver and I find funny--the fact that the things he gets mad at most often (besides his sister) are physics and gravity. I'm sorry mommy and daddy don't give you much sympathy for that, little man, but someday when we tell you some of the stories I hope you'll laugh with us.

He is scared of parts of the movie "Monsters, Inc." and also a recent episode of Curious George. It had to do with dark caves and shadows. He was sitting on my lap while watching it and suddenly tried to crawl up onto my shoulders while burying his head into my chest at the same time.

He's starting to put more and more words together now, still no complete sentences but lots and lots of phrases. Right now his favorite is "Scawy Monsto" for "Scary Monster", seeing as how it was just Halloween and we saw our share at the costume store. The kids begged to go again just to see all the scary monsters, so I took them the day of Halloween. For all of BSB's brave talk about the 'scawy monstos' he was not about to touch any of them. When we went trick-or-treating that night there was one house that had a guy dressed up in a mask, etc walking around in the yard. BSB did not want to leave that yard. The whole rest of the night we would go to another house and he would be looking around for another 'scawy monsto'.

Hey-remember when he didn't walk? Yea, that was really great. Well, now that he does that he also runs and is pretty close to jumping for real, too. He hates riding in carts at the store, insisting on walking instead. The only time I get him to ride for any length of time in a cart is by a)constantly plying him with cookies or b)puting him and Back Seat Girl together in one of those double car carts at the grocery store.

His relationship with his sister is really blossoming. They had to go to another daycare recently just for a day where they were split up, and BSB spent the better part of the morning crying and sad that he was not with BSG. The other night after dinner BSB gave BSG his last M&M, if you can believe that. I can tell you right now that I can not think of any scenario where I would give my brother my last M&M.

If there is one thing I want for him it's to always be this happy. He is honestly the happiest little guy in the whole world. I'm not saying he doesn't throw a temper tantrum now and then (yesterday he laid down in the middle of all of his toys when I wouldn't give him a candy corn), or that he never disobeys me and is the perfect child (we often say he has a head made of wood because holy cow, that kid is stubborn), but he spends most of his time happily playing, running around the house, running errands with me and charming the pants off anyone who dares make eye contact with him, and otherwise just being a general joy to be around. I'm so happy to get to share his childhood with him and I hope that he can keep his sunny attitude as he gets older and realizes that the worst thing in the world to ever happen to him will not be the fact that I told him to walk this way when he wants to go "Dat Way!". (Picture him with wrinkled brow, feet planted firmly on the floor, finger pointed defiantly in the opposite direction from where I am walking.)

Happy Second Birthday, O-Mac! I love you so much and look forward to every day I get to spend with you.

Love,

Momma