This is the life.

Man, what a busy day we had today, Elijah and I. And it was great. I so enjoy my little sweetie! This is the best part of my life, spending days like today with him.
So here's how it all went down.

On days when I have to work I wake him up around 7 a.m., and I guess his body has just adjusted to that schedule so that on weekends he wakes up then too. Not so great for a momma who would like to sleep in. But today we got things started on a good note by him sleeping in until 8:30... woohoo!

We spent a while in his room hanging out, singing, and reading books. I love that he's able to ask me for what he wants now. It's so much better than him grunting, gesturing unsuccessfully, getting frustrated, then fussing when I can't understand him. I'm a pretty big fan of verbal communication. :) So when my boy says "Mommy mommy mommy, unna (I wanna) reading books" I tend to drop what I'm doing, plop him on my lap, and go to it. I love when we have time like that. And I thrill at the eagerness I see in him to learn. It is tremendously rewarding to watch progress happening - almost before my eyes.

Afterward the two of us made his breakfast: plumbs, little sausages, and crescent roll-ups (for the recipe click here). He "helped" by sitting on the counter next to me and holding things. He absolutely loves to "help" me cook, clean, hang laundry, or do whatever I'm doing. Such a sweet little helper!

Then we hung a load of laundry out on the line since it was finally a warm sunny day. We used that opportunity to work on obedience... Elijah NOT throwing the clothespins, and not putting rocks in his mouth, and not leaving the yard, and not getting the gas cans out of the shed, and saying "yes momma" when I call his name. These lessons tend to take longer to learn than I would have anticipated, but he's getting it slowly but surely. I don't have to spank him as much as I used to and I can see a difference in his behavior/attitude when I remind him about the right things to do. Discipline - it's not really fun for anyone involved, is it?

Nap time was supposed to have been at 11:00. But did Elijah sleep one wink? No, sir. He did not. In stead he used that hour to converse with his Curious George regarding cement mixers, dump trucks "dumping it out", bulldozers, and reminding himself aloud that he is in fact "almost two". (I heard all this via the monitor.)

Speaking of being almost two... after "nap" time we headed to the mall for his birthday portraits. I was pleasantly surprised that in stead of taking an hour and a half like usual, it only took us 25 minutes to get in and out of there. And the one we chose is pretty cute too.

With all the extra time we decided to meet up with some friends for a picnic lunch at the park. We hadn't been able to see Courtney and her gorgeous (now 7-week-old) Briley since their hospital stay. So it was great to visit and hold that little guy! Gives me baby fever, I tell ya. :) Elijah did surprisingly well with Briley, loving on him, trying to kiss him and touch him gently. There were a few times when he was too rough, but I think that's hard to learn for a two-year-old. He'll get there. We took a few pictures and if I can convince Courtney to e-mail them to me I'll post one or two. (wink, wink Courtney) After the picnic - which Elijah thought was an "awesome" idea - we walked in the park for a while, enjoying the amazing breeze.

And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one afternoon, we decided to head to my grandma's house afterward for a short visit. Zoe, my 4-year-old cousin (yes MY cousin) was there to play too. They rode the tricycle, colored pictures, and splashed in the rain buckets.

Then it was off to my mom's house to play for another hour or so. And by the time we drove home from there Elijah was in the back seat dozing off. He reminded me several times "sleepy. happy. yawning." Which I think means he wants to go to bed. Ha ha.



I have often watched him in the rear view mirror of my car as we drive, enjoying the way he observes the world around him. I don't know what it is about watching him that way that makes me so sentimental. I always find myself considering how I've seen him from that perspective go from his infant seat, so tiny that his head slumped over to the side in it, to his "big boy" car seat. And as the months have passed I've watched those little legs get longer and stretch out so much that they now hang over the edge. You know how when you look through the mirror things in it seem to be blurry, like two images on top of each other? (like in the photo above)
I think it gives the appearance that the image itself might not be real. Like it's a hazy memory. And I imagine that the face I see in the mirror now is fading into the face I will see in its place a year, two years, 10 years from now. I can almost see the passage of time. Thinking of my tiny boy, just "almost two", growing up before my very eyes just makes a momma's heart ache a little.

How is it possible that these almost two years have gone so very quickly?