Where did my two-year-old go?

Dear Jack,

Today you had your first-ever dentist appointment.  They call it a "happy visit" because, in their words, they do whatever they can in your mouth while you're "happy" (but once you are unhappy I guess they give up trying?).  I sent Ellie to the Amanda's house to play and was fully prepared to be in and out of the dentist appointment in ten minutes since I knew full well there was NO WAY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH you were going to let anyone inside your mouth with loud, buzzing, pokey things no matter what kind of bribes I offered you.  Lately brushing teeth at home has been a battle; when we took Ellie in to have her chipped tooth looked at you were very, very uninterested (i.e. totally freaked out) when the dentist asked if he could look at your teeth...so I was fairly sure how today would go.

But I was very wrong.  Instead of freaking out, when they called your name you quickly cleaned up all the toys in the play area and cheerfully followed the hygienist to the back, climbed right up into that lounge-like seat with enthusiasm, looking at everything, and happily accepted your "bib" as she placed it around your neck with an "ooooh!"  You were a little uncertain when they tilted the seat back, but eventually leaned right back with a big loud "Ahhh" and let the lady do all kinds of things...counting teeth, cleaning teeth with the "tickle brush" and flushing your mouth with water (you loved this and kept asking for more "wah-er.")  For goodness sake-- she even flossed your teeth!!!  I could not believe it. 

While waiting for the doctor to come and have a look you suddenly announced "Potty!" and so we even managed a successful potty trip, which we have not been able to accomplish since the aforementioned Public Library automatic flush incident...only the "soccer ball potty" on our home toilet has been acceptable to you this past week.

We walked out of the dentist's office hand in hand, you carrying your little bag of treasures and new teeth-cleaning wonders and me simply wondering, "Who are you?"

You have changed so much in the past few months.  You seem to be understanding more complex things and communicating more complete thoughts to us; I love our little conversations.  You have been so very proud of yourself with the potty accomplishments, and still, three weeks into it, loudly announce, "Mommy, I DID it!"  What a big boy.

It has been interesting to watch your play as it has developed in the past few months.  You are suddenly doing a lot of role playing; I hear you having conversations between your Little People characters and even your trains sometimes.  You assign them roles, too, like Mommy and Daddy and Jack and Ellie.  You have them hurt each other and then say sorry and give kisses.  And they are often overheard saying things like, "Oh honey!" or "No! No!  Spanking!" You create avalanches on your Percy train and send Thomas in to look for him.  You make up your own Blue's Clues games, finding "clues" all over our house and pretending to write them in your Handy-Dandy notebook; you even sing the songs and pretend to get mail from Mailbox, as well as sitting in the Thinking Chair.  Daddy and I have fun trying to solve your "Blue's Clues" as your clues are usually an odd assortment like Daddy's shoe, the piano, and the clock...

Your language continues to develop; I'll be interested to talk with your pediatrician tomorrow at your three-year-old check up and see where he thinks you are for your age, according to the averages.  You seem to be articulating things so well these days; today while watching Go, Diego, Go you repeated "pygmy marmoset" and "condor" perfectly.  So strange to hear those words coming out of your mouth! 

You do still have a few words that I think you are just stuck on, like you still call pasta "pizza" and your bat is "dat" and basketball is "gabbaball" (you can say "basketball" when we ask you to, but you always revert to "gabbaball" when you are asking to go outside and play).  Despite all our best efforts to correct you, you still call Ben "Den" or "Denny."  The other day during lunch poor Benny tried to get you to say "Ben" over and over again; he'd say, "Jack, say, 'B-b-b-b BEN'" and you would say "B-b-b-b-Den."  We'd all laugh and Ben would try you again...after awhile there was a little lull, then you said, "Denny, say 'Jack.'"  SO FUNNY.

I love that you call my chapstick "chipstack," and that when you are super frustrated with Ellie you say to her firmly, "No, no KATE!"  When you are trying to get our attention with a "psst!" you instead say "peets!"  Sometimes when Ellie gets hurt I hear you say to her, "Oh sweet hot!"  You repeat me a lot these days; recently I heard you "reading" a book to her and at the end you turned to her and said, "Do again?  Okay" because her books are so short that I usually read them to her twice.

A few weeks ago when we arrived at church you warmed our hearts pointing and exclaiming, "Jesus!  Right there!"  Then the next week you said, "Der's a church!  COOKIES!" (Because there is often a bake sale or refreshments after church...I think you are under the impression that we always get cookies at church.)  Then another week you said, "Der's a church!  Daddy, you fine it!"

That's probably one of my favorite of your phrases right now.  Anytime you find something you've been looking for, whether it's your beloved blue blankie or one of your "guys" (Puppy, Baby Bear, and Dr. Bear) or a missing train piece, you say happily to the item in the sweetest voice, "Blankie I fine you!"  Makes me smile every time. 

You call waffles "waffle cakes."  Alligators are "lakes" (because every time you've seen an alligator on Dora they are crossing a lake), but interestingly enough, you call just about any body of water a "duck."  We'll be out driving and you yell, "Ducks!" and we all look frantically for the ducks...and then one day we finally caught on.  The remote is now called "mote" as opposed to "munch."  You say "bir-day" for birthday and "chri-mis" for Christmas.

You are terrified of baths these days, especially when you and Ellie take them together; she scarred you by pulling the shower button out during a recent bath and you got sprinkled with icy cold water, you poor thing!  Now you will only take baths alone.

Recently Daddy and I were marveling at the difference between you and your sister; when we take you to the library you sit and look at books and do puzzles quite contentedly and quietly (and well, I might add!).  You hardly pay any attention to anyone around you, Mr. Independent.  Ellie, on the other hand, cannot get enough of the people around her, and will walk right up to people and bend down to look into their face and get their attention.  She loves to interact with other children; she's horrible at puzzles and just likes to take the pieces out and bang them together.  She has no patience to try to figure out how they fit into the right places; she smashes them on the puzzle board a few times and then gives up and moves on. 

While you are different in many ways, you certainly love and enjoy each other.  She just discovered a love of hugging, and the two of you think it is so funny to hug each other tightly and then fall over, again and again.  Especially at bedtime.  When Daddy is trying to read you books.  There is lots of giggling at bedtime...

I love you, and I am so thankful to be your Mommy.  Happy 3rd birthday, my firstborn baby boy. 

 

Playing with Daddy...although you don't have any idea your controller isn't plugged in. 

 

You love to play piano these days; you usually also request some music to be put in front of you to "play."  The other day I was practicing for church and you said, "Oh, good, Mommy!"

I never thought I'd be arguing with my son about his wardrobe; thought it'd only be my daughter fighting to wear her tutu to McDonald's...  On this particular day you dressed yourself in your baseball jersey (over your long-sleeved soccer shirt), pajama pants that are too small for you, and flip-flops you found in the storage drawer for summer...what's a mama to do?

"Pixing" the toy lawn mower with the strange "tool" you found laying on the sidewalk...much to Ellie's chagrin (you ARE slowing her down, after all).

The guilty, "What, Mom?  I'm just fixing it" turn around look.

"I DID it!"