23 Months.....wow!!

First.....today is Drew's one month birthday!! I can't believe it! I will post a few pictures of him later, but I want to finish this post that I started yesterday about Grant.....

It's been a few months since I wrote a list about things Grant has been doing. What a silly little boy he's becoming! And it's obvious that he's almost two.....of course we've been having terrible-two-type behavior since shortly after his first birthday, but now the huge mood swings are even more glaring. One minute, he'll be a perfect, sweet little angel, saying cute things and trying his best to be charming! The next, he'll get angry over something (usually very unimportant), and he'll start screaming and throwing himself all over the place! He really likes to bang his head on the floor now.....and that makes him cry even more!

But it really has been a good time.....and at least he hasn't gotten any worse since Drew was born! I am always just in awe at certain things he'll say....he'll say words and name objects that I've never taught to him! And he repeats almost everything we say. He's getting to the point where he knows he's being cute. He'll say something that makes us laugh, and it encourages him to do it more!

Some things that define Grant these days:

- He has become possessive over his stuff. When he's holding his trains or pretty much anything else, he'll say "my choo-choo," or "my milk," etc. He even holds the object up against his tummy as if someone is trying to take it away from him (when we're not!). He's even started using "my" with things that don't make sense. For example, yesterday he said "my wash hands," and today he said "my night-night" (he pretends he's going night-night by laying on the couch or bed and covering himself up).

- He LOVES to wash his hands now. We used to keep his stool in the downstairs bathroom, and he'll decide he wants to wash his hands at random times. He'll open the door and turn on the water......then he tries to make a huge mess! The whole time he's in there, he says "wash hands" over and over. But this led to one too many messes, so now his stool has been removed!

- He has learned to say "bless you" and loves saying it when people sneeze.

- I try to ask him questions about school when he gets home. I can tell that he's thinking, but he rarely answers my questions with real answers (except saying yes or no). But he learned his teacher Lisa's name, and now he'll say "Lisa" all the time! Once I asked him what he ate for lunch, and he said "Lisa." Again, he figured out that this made us laugh.....so now he'll just randomly say "Lisa" and he laughs because he thinks he's so funny!

- He demands to use a fork when he eats. And he doesn't even like his little boy fork....he wants to use ours. He's pretty good at it too!

- He does something we call his "funny walk." He'll squat as if he's about to sit, then he'll take small steps while he's still squatting! Now he will do his funny walk on demand when we ask him to do it!

- He will smile and say "cheese" (sometimes) when I take his picture.

- His taste of books is changing. Now he prefers books with lots of detail in the pictures. He never used to like Goodnight Moon much, but he loves it now because there are a lot of small objects he can find and point out. Hopefully this means he'll be open to reading library books again. He'd gotten to the point where he only liked certain books and would squirm and fuss when I tried to read something he wasn't familiar with.

- When he's about to get a spanking, he starts calling out towards anybody in the room who he thinks might save him! He'll call "mommy" to me when Dean's about to spank him, and yesterday said "Nana, Nana!" when I grabbed him to give him a spanking. It makes it more gut-wrenching to spank him when he sounds like he's about to be tortured!

- He calls me "mommy" more and more now, instead of "mama." But he will say goodnight and goodbye to me pretty easily now.....it's a little sad! It's much harder for him when Daddy leaves than when I do.

- Speaking of Daddy, he's REALLY attached to Dean now. When Dean leaves for work, Grant has a hard time and throws a fit on the floor. It's so sad!

- A few days ago when I put him down for his nap, he laid down before I left the room, looked at me and waved, and said "night-night." He didn't cry at all or throw his pacifier. Amazing! Then last night, I put him to bed (which is rare now), and he copied me when I said I love you, night-night, and see you tomorrow!

What a big boy!!!