There has also recently been some strong opinions about wardrobe. Any shirt with a superhero on it is approved and everything else is horribly awful and an insult to his delicate personhood. Unfortunately we only own two superhero t-shirts and neither are acceptable church apparel. Thankfully for me - I work on Sundays so it wasn't my job to wrestle him into an outfit that was not representative of anything DC or Marvel, but my husband was happy to give me a play by play when he saw me later.
Today we had a play date at a friends house who has a son the same age. They also have an older son so they have a lot of "boy toys" to entertain two toddlers. Everything was going wonderfully and both boys seemed to be having a good time. There were occasional upsets when there was mutual interest in the same toy, but for the most part things went very smoothly. Until the "Cars" toys were discovered. Then Ben decided to round them up and carry them around. Now, of course, he has his own "Cars" at home, but not the same ones. In fact, his friend had one that we did not own - "The King" race car. This became a very distressing fact when it was time for us to leave and the toy had to stay. So distressing, in fact, that Ben threw himself on the floor kicking and screaming. "No leave! No leave!" Needless to say, probably not endearing himself to our host and making a return trip less likely in the future. The whole way home he cried and screamed about wanting the car. When we got home, he looked at his bucket full of cars and said "No, I want The King!" and continued to cry about it until I distracted him with lunch and his nap. When he woke up, the first thing he said was "I want The King!"
Two is a tough age. It's a time for exciting changes. It's the age where we will eventually say "good bye" to diapers and "hello" to potties. It's the age when we will move from the crib to the bed and from the nursery to a big kid room. It's also the age where, due to increasing communication skills, there is very little trouble expressing opinions, thoughts, feelings, needs and, of course, wants. (Understanding why demands aren't satisfied the minute they are made known is a whole other story.) But, because of those same skills, it is becoming easier and easier to see my son developing in to a little person.
He is no longer the chubby baby I carried around on one hip and entertained for (what felt like) hours with games of peek-a-boo and Itsy Bitsy Spider. He is a small person with interests and preferences just like any other. He loves Pixar and most computer-animated cartoons but doesn't care for the "hand drawn" classics. He likes animals. He loves all kinds of cars. He has no interest in dinosaurs or trains. He hates to get messy. He likes to read books. He is very organized and likes to have all of his toys arranged a certain way. He doesn't care for legos. He hates the sound of a dog barking. He tells "jokes" and laughs at them whether you do or not. His jokes really aren't that funny, but he is. The things he says and his sense of timing is hysterical.
I hate the temper tantrums and I hate knowing that the next year is going to be full of as many challenges as it is victories. We will have to learn to share, to calm down, to express ourselves using words, to interact with friends, and to control our impulses. (Really - we will be working on these for a lot longer than a year, but this is the time when the learning begins.) I wish we could fast forward through some of the rougher parts or that kids were just born automatically having some of these skills. Like the way babies instinctively have a sucking reflex. But then I guess we'd miss the good parts too and I would hate to miss the fun.
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