My baby is not a baby anymore

My little man is two years old today. Part of me wonders where the time has gone; how could these last two years have flown by so quickly? But a bigger part of me thinks, how can Milo only be two? He's been part of my life forever, hasn't he?

I'm so lucky to have this guy. He's amazing, so sweet, so funny, so cute. Let me tell you what he's been up to lately.

He has started quoting lines from the books we read, when we're not actually reading them. "Ohhh, call captain," he says (which translates to "'Hello,' calls the captain." from 10 Little Rubber Ducks.) "One Fish (pause) Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss!" he says. "Stuck in mud!" refers to the dump truck from Little Blue Truck. "Stan back, everybody," he quotes from a fire engine pop-up book. And he knows immediately when I start quoting a book. "What's this?" I say to him as I hold up a strawberry. "Sawberry," he replies. "Is it a red, ripe strawberry?" I ask him, and he begins to smile slyly, like he knows he's in on the secret. "Better watch out," I say, "or the big, hungry bear will get it!" (From The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear)

Milo also has been singing more songs lately. He adores "Wheels on the Bus" and the Hot dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He's into "Itsy Bitsy Spider," always starting with the line "wash sider out."

Milo is getting really good with his letters and numbers. He can almost spell his name, though he typically leaves off M and starts with I-L-O. He "writes" the letters as he spells them, though they're really just marks on the paper. He can recognize nearly all the letters, but doesn't know them in order. He can count to ten and beyond (we've heard him go as high as thirteen, I think), but often gets the numbers in the wrong order. He is convinced he has eleven fingers, so thank you, Dr. Seuss, for that.

He has finally figured out most of his colors. Occasionally he still calls red things orange, and sometimes gets in a funk where everything is black. But mostly you can ask him what color something is and he gets it right, or, even more awesome, he just names things with a color descriptor. Like, "Thassa my yellow screwdriver." or "Essa blue hammer."

He's pretty good with pronouns, except when it comes to "you" and "me" when referring to Milo. We point at a picture of him and say "That's you!" and he points at the picture and says, "That's you!" And there's just no good way to correct him to say no, "that's me" because that is like telling him the picture is not of Milo but of Mommy. Sometimes he also says "my" when he means "I," like "My brush my teef!" or "My eat it!" Frankly, it's adorable.

Milo loves to do things by himself, but he gives up pretty easily on some tasks. Taking his socks off or pulling his pants up and down, for instance. We encourage him to try, and he does, but very quickly cries "Help me!" and gets frustrated. He can pull his shirt off over his head and he's getting better at brushing his own teeth. All in good time, I suppose.

Milo can be very polite and very impolite. "Hi, Oliff, how are you?" he asks. Then at dinner: "My need more water!" he demands. He fairly readily gives hugs and kisses, though he's quick to tell you no if he's not in the mood. When he burps, he says "Buuurrrp!" Charming, no?

Milo adores bathtime and would stay in the tub all night if we let him. Andrew taught him how to blow bubbles in the water, so Milo is always sticking his face in the water and blowing bubbles. Makes me kind of nervous, but I guess it's a good thing for him not to be afraid of getting his face wet. Milo does not like getting lotioned up after a bath, and his only motivation for holding still for lotion is that he will get a paci when it's all over.

Yes, Milo still loves his paci. He only gets it at bedtime, naptime, and diaper changes. Now that Olive is here and has her own set of pacis, Milo is extra tempted. But so far he's been great about giving Olive her paci and not sticking it in his own mouth. I've only seen him do that a couple times.

Other skills: he is learning to drink from a cup, has pretty much mastered the straw, is learning to walk on a balance beam, is getting faster at running and better at climbing stairs, is excellent at identifying animals and animal sounds and learns new words after only hearing them once or twice, and he has excellent dance moves.

Words can't describe my love for this child. Truly, he has my heart forever.