2 Years Old

Two years ago today, Justin entered the world and our lives. We celebrated the day by making a cake, and having a quiet evening together as a family opening presents. Uncles Phillip and Russell helped us mark the occasion by coming over for dinner too. It was a fun evening, and gave us a chance to look back over the year, but especially the last month and look at all the changes we've seen in him.

Justin's obsession with tractors and messes is well documented, but he has expanded this obsession to include shovels, gardening implements and tools of all kinds. It's a challenge to find suitable and safe tasks for him every time I need to go work outside. Justin's first and most lasting love has been the long handled garden shovel. I frequently turn to pick it up only to find it hauled halfway across the yard, it's handle, twice his height, swinging wildly behind him as he holds it just above the shovel blade.

It's nearly impossible to coax this peacefully from his grip. He has his own hand trowels, but they are little consolation as nothing captures his imagination like the big shovel. When forced to "work" with the trowels, he is normally found squatting between my feet, leaning over the blade of my shovel, happily digging at the spot that seems to be the focus of my work. It's hard to accomplish anything with him there, but he's darned cute.

We go through a checklist of sorts, every time Justin goes through the garage on the way to the car. He normally spots the mower and weed whacker first, calls them by name, then informs us that they're broken and we need to fix them. The wheelbarrow drives him crazy because he can't pronounce that word yet. The dog kennels are sometimes mentioned, but it's inevitable that he will spot the long handled shovels as we pass behind the car and yell:

"I shubble! Shubble make a mess!" which kicks off a mutually frustrating conversation regarding our differing preference for running my intended errand or digging a new hole in the garden.

He's learning the names of many tools as he helps around the house, but still has issues with others as evidenced by the following conversation:

Justin: Mommy...what's that?
Mommy: It's a wrench.
Justin: No! It's a tool.
(Mommy's a girl. She just doesn't understand "man things" like Justin.)

Our favorite part of this month's developments has been his enunciation. He's beginning to sound very Italian. For instance, he will say, "that'sa my tool" or "that'sa my food".

His memory is good enough to call most tools by name, however colors still mystify him somewhat. When asked to identify the color of a particular object, he generally uses his default answer, his favorite color, green. If you ask him again, he'll usually call it by the correct color, but he looks at you as if to say "Dude, you're old already, and if you don't know what color that is by now, there's not a whole lot I can do for you."

The changes we have seen in him this year have been dramatic. He's now having conversations with us and trying to potty train. He's learning his colors and singing songs. We are always surprised by how quickly the time passes, but are looking forward to the next year, and all the fun surprises it's going to bring.

Happy Birthday Baby Bear!! We love you!