The Busy Toddler Turns Two!!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Look at all those teeth in there!! Keller's first two bottom teeth poked through just the week before his first birthday last year and the rest were very slow to follow...Now he's got his "eye" teeth (if that's what they're called) poking through both on top and bottom. I'll blame that for his seemingly increased stubbornness!! (and whininess??? who taught him that???) But anyway...

So two years old! He's been practicing putting up his two fingers saying "I'm two" but if you catch him off guard and ask how old he is he'll respond "I'm six"---ummm, not quite, little boy! He continues to be quite a character around here, making up songs, changing words to songs, playing the guitar to his favorite Twinkle Twinkle tune and today's song of the day seems to be the alphabet song...I'm totally impressed at how he knows almost all the letters in the song to be able to sing it! I asked Trav the other night what we can do to capitalize on his sponginess, his crazy memory of details and songs and books and whatever you tell him pretty much. Trav said we should get "surgery" books and law books to read to him before bed. That or the "My Baby Can Read" program...but I'm honestly not into the rush to teach your kid to read and I know nothing about that program. And so Trav and I decided that we'll just continue doing what we do:) It was a joking conversation, with a grain of truth to it, but the reality is that we both want Keller to do what he does best, be a kid, in a world of test scores and higher and higher academic standards. His time for all that garbage will come. For now we'll sing Twinkle Twinkle and make up songs about BoBo and trucks that "Backup" and anything else we can possibly think of to sing about.

No, we haven't cut his hair yet...love the little fly-away wings he has and the humidity curls in the back---so he's a little scruffy, but man, it took him long enough to grow his hair, why cut it now??? and still there's only just a little in the front! I do think about cutting it, but then the thought goes away...all in good time! So Mr. Hammy Ham is a constant goof around here:) He loves his toolbox that Neko gave him in the hospital. He is always fixing things from plants to trucks to BoBo to you name it! Screwdrivering, hammering, measuring, sawing...he's a jack-of-all tools! And even today when we went to the firehouse for a tour, there were the big red trucks and real live firemen that were so cool, but even more interesting apparently were the guys up on the ladder fixing the ceiling or whatever the heck they were doing. And Trucks are huge! Not just in size, but in coolness to this little boy. Digger trucks, scooper trucks, cherry-picker "blueberry" trucks, dump trucks, oil trucks!!! Wowwee Wow Wow!! Lucky for us, our neighborhood has been full of them all summer long and the neighbor next door is an oil guy who stops home with his big truck a couple of times a day to walk his doggy...Trucks and Tools are the best right now. Oh, and music, instruments, songs, singin' mans...noisy drums and stand-up bass and violin (Keller holds a couple of those big leggos under his chin and plays the violin with them:) And when I think to myself that we should get him some instruments (or ride on toys, etc.) I then think to myself how much better it is that he "invents" his own toys or puts what he has to new uses. Really though, of all the toys he has, he honestly only uses a handful of them for all kinds of purposes. I like that:)

While Keller spent the summer in the backyard playing with water, he is now into the sandbox that his cousin Samantha passed down to him. A couple bags of sand and a sifter and a bulldozer truck and a shovel or two and he's good to go! This is our afternoon routine lately (when it's not raining!) He gets up from nap, has a snack and either we go walk "Gramma D's dog" Becky, or we go play out back, which we do after walking Becky anyway...I do want to start being a little more "active" with him though as he's generally content to sit in the sandbox or just sort of putz around the yard. We brought the soccer ball outside the other day and have been running around out there a little more. Occasionally the bikes go in the driveway but he doesn't spend too much time on them when outside.

My little pooped out angel after a busy day playing with his cousin Piper and BeeBee. Is it not the cutest thing to watch his little eyes struggle to stay open in the carseat long past his naptime. So sweet to see my busy baby boy fall fast asleep within minutes of driving! Even sweeter that I can now officially transfer him into the crib when we get home!