Two Years

Dear Carter,

Today you are two years old.

Woah.

I had to take a moment after I wrote that to let it sink in. I should also apologize that this letter probably won’t be my finest. Life with a newborn and a toddler takes a toll on your brain cells, among other things.

You have turned from our precious baby into an amazing little boy this year. You are incredibly active and always on the go. You run just as much as you walk. You love to kick balls and throw, and let me tell you, you’ve got a wicked arm already.  You can kick on the run and might already be more coordinated than I am. Your mind moves as fast if not faster than you do. You love to dunk your basketball and request one more dunk most nights.

You are all boy. You LOVE trucks, especially fire trucks, buses, and trash trucks. You play with your trash truck, keep an eye out for our trash man, you even know that Wednesday is trash day. You also love trash cans. In fact, you point them out all the time in public. People probably think you’re a little odd when you excitedly announce the presence of another trash can. You also love spatulas. I don’t know why, but I even bought you your own spatula. Your favorite show is Sam the Cooking Guy and you love to help cook. You also make pretend soup all the time. It’s your favorite bath time activity. You add all the ingredients (“Need some chicken! And some rice! And some olives!”) and mix it all up and have us sample your masterpiece. You warn us about the temperature (“it’s hot! Need to blow on it!”) and proclaim your pleasure with a hearty exclamation of “mmm good.” You’ve recently discovered how to open the microwave and tell us frequently that you’re “makin’ pizza” which apparently means pulling out the metal circle thing under the tray and running around the house with it. You love music and dancing, aka shaking your booty, along with most noise and chaos. You love school and all of your friends there. You’re the first one to learn everyone’s name and tell us about the new kids. You experience new things there and have really grown a lot there. You love to do crafts and delight in showing them off.  You and Stella are buddies now. She tolerates your throwing things on her head because, although occasionally it’s a sippy cup or fork, usually it’s a piece of your dinner. Did I mention we’re working on not throwing food? Among many other things. You spend a lot of time in time outs and having chats about all the things we don’t do, such as climbing tables, playing with the stereo, blowing raspberries, demanding whatever you want, etc. I’m hoping those lessons sink in very, very soon.

Our life feels like mass chaos right now, and you fit right in. It’s quite busy around here, mostly because of you. I honestly can’t keep up with you sometimes. Last week, you were chasing the dog and you ended up going in circles around each other, you trying to catch her tail while she tried to lick you in the face. That pretty much sums it up.

Obviously the first year of your life was full of just that, firsts. First outings, first Christmas, first everything. This year was full of some of the same events, but they were totally different experiences. We watched you come alive at the zoo. The funny thing is you were most excited about the trash cans and the bus tours circling the park, but at least you had fun. You fully embraced Halloween and loved Trick or Treating. Your first Christmas was so special, but your second Christmas was full of joy as we watched you begin to understand and experience it. However, you did have pneumonia and ear infections (which we found out a few days later) which put a damper on the holiday. That’s also why we have about 2 pictures of you smiling and dozens of you looking upset. We battled a lot of sickness this year. You’re an excessively tough kid but this winter was brutal on all of us. We spent a lot of time at the doctor’s office. I’m pretty sure the staff at the urgent care was beginning to recognize us. Hopefully that means that by the time you start kindergarten you’ll be immune to everything.

You are talking so much. Your verbal skills are off the charts. You tell us all about your day, your likes and dislikes, what you saw on the way to school, even events that occurred months ago. Several months ago we were at church and some boys playing basketball hit a dumpster with the ball. You still tell us how “the basketball hit the trash can!” Sometimes you recreate the scene by throwing your ball at your toy box. You have an incredible memory. Sometimes too good. If we ever tell you something is going to happen, we might as well ink a contract. If we say you can have a specific snack after nap or tell you we’re going somewhere in the morning, that’s usually the first request out of your mouth the second you wake up. I am constantly amazed at the things that come out of your mouth. We tried to keep a list of the words you could say, but we lost track a long time ago. You are also the funniest two year old I have ever encountered. You understand comedy and nuance and make up silly jokes and stories. At some point you realized we were laughing at something you said and you ran with it from there.

You are a great sleeper. Thank you so much for that. After so much battling in the early months of your life, you’re making up for it now. You sleep from 7pm to 6ish, sometimes 6:30 and you need a solid nap in the afternoon. You love your schedule and if we miss the nap window by even 15 minutes, it’s trouble. You will sit in your crib for hours yelling, laughing, singing, anything but sleeping. Speaking of your crib, a few mere days before your sister was born, you learned to climb out. Your dad and I were out in the living room while you were supposed to be falling asleep and all of the sudden we heard a very loud thud on your door. Occasionally you will chuck a toy at the door, but this was different and I knew right away you’d escaped. I rushed in to make sure you were okay. Not only were you okay, you were DELIGHTED. You squealed with joy as you sprinted around your room, beyond thrilled with yourself. In the next few days, you’ll be getting a new bed. I wanted to minimize the changes we threw at you at once, so for now we’re watching you vigilantly on the baby monitor.

You are a wildly independent, strong willed little being. You are definitely a handful, perhaps two, right now. Some days you wear us out and we just about collapse by the time you go to bed. Your school has written on a few daily reports that you had too many timeouts to count. This challenges us as your parents (especially once you hit the “Terrible Twos” around 18 months) but we try to embrace that side of you.  Most of your mischief is driven by curiosity and your independence. I pray that you harness that side of your personality and become a confident, independent person, someone who won’t be swayed by something you don’t completely believe.

A few weeks ago, you became a big brother. When we first found out I was pregnant (you were in your dad’s arms when I told him, so it was a bit of a family moment), your exact words were “uh oh!” You had a sense that the baby was a girl from the beginning and always said it was a baby sister. I worried how a sibling would affect you, how you would react to less one-on-one time, having to share your parents. I’m happy to say it’s been a very natural transition and you seem to be handling it just fine. It has given me so much joy to see you in your new role of big brother.  Avery already watches you and listens to your voice. She’s probably thinking “oh, that’s the crazy noise I heard all the time.” As I mentioned, you are wild and energetic and loud, but when you hold Avery, it’s almost like a transformation occurs. You whisper to her, gently hold her hands, and rub her head so sweetly. I’m still not leaving you alone with her or moving out of arm’s length, but it’s actually quite amazing to see a different side of you.  

We love you so much Carter. You bring a deeper joy and love to our lives that we never knew possible. We laugh more than we ever could without you. I can’t wait to experience another year of life with you and see you continue to grow. Happy birthday my sweet boy.

Love,

Mama