Monday Marvels: I have a two-year-old!

1) We were driving by a McDonald's yesterday and out of the blue Evan said very excitedly "the letter M!"  Lol...thank you Golden Arches for providing my son a giant yellow letter M to point out! :)  That may be your only redeeming quality. haha.

2) Speaking of Evan paying attention to things out the car window while driving...we were going to a playdate this past weekend at an indoor playground that was located right next to the place where he got his first hair cut.  We were still on the interstate, just almost to the exit, when he said "haircut!"  I was amazed!  He'd only been there once (and he was still rear-facing in his car seat before), but he recognized where he was and remembered it!  And then of course came his memory of the thing I had hoped to avoid that day...the choo choo train ride.  Not that it's a big deal or major expense (a $2 ride and parent rides free isn't bad), but I can't really fit comfortably (perhaps even at all!) into that little train to ride with him at this stage of the pregnancy, and John wasn't with me that day.  Anyway, he said "choo choo train" right after I acknowledged his good memory that we were near where he got his haircut, and I had to tell him "sorry, not today".  It wasn't running when we arrived, but it ran along the sidewalk right in front of us as we were leaving.  Luckily Evan did well and didn't throw a tantrum about not being able to ride on it.  Whew!  One tantrum avoided...(refer to #5).

3) Speaking of the playdate...Evan had a lot of fun meeting Nora (another two-year-old that is the daughter of a friend of mine from grad school) and playing in the indoor playground.  The two of them got to bounce in the bouncy castle all by themselves (they way we preferred it so as not to have big kids trampling them!) and of course Evan loved it!  He loves to bounce!  He sure worked up a sweat bouncing in that thing (he seems to get sweaty so easily by the way...).  I thought for sure he'd be so tired that afternoon he'd nap really well, but unfortunately that was not the case. Perhaps because we were still out and about when his nap should have started, so that he was nearly asleep as John pulled into the driveway that day with him.  This is the third day in the last week, though, that he has not taken his afternoon nap.  Is this also something that goes with the territory now that he's two?

4) Evan has taken lately to randomly shrieking while we're out shopping or in public, although usually it occurs when he's not happy that I took something away from him (i.e. a new item we're going to buy that he wanted to hold, yet he's now started to just throw out of the cart, over and over).  I'm just trying to get used to it as well as trying to ignore him when he does it, but I feel like if anything tells people I have two-year-old now...it's gotta be that.

5) Along with the shrieking, which is in and of itself a form of his tantrums, he is definitely much more emotional now.  How timely that the BabyCenter advise this week for two-year-olds had a lot to do with their emotions!  He can do an all out genuine cry just for being sad or upset now, with lots of tears too, as opposed to just whining and "fake crying" in the past.  He also gets really upset the moment you tell him something he doesn't want to hear, such that he usually pulls himself to the ground when he knows I'm trying to take his hand or pick him up to go somewhere with him that he doesn't want to go (to go inside when we're outside, to leave the park when we're at the park, to go to the bathroom for a diaper change when we're out and about, etc).  I find myself letting him just lay on the ground (as long as it's in a safe place) until he calms down a bit more, instead of trying to fight him in those cases.  He tried to do this on a walk recently and he got upset in the middle of the road.  John was with me and luckily was able to get him up and move him along.

6) Evan loves to count, and can do so on his own pretty much to twenty.  I overhear him doing it a lot lately, at random times it seems to me.  He usually skips 5, and a few of the teens, but he does a pretty good job otherwise!

7) I think, in general, Evan has a fascination with numbers, as I've caught him in his crib (thanks to the video monitor) pushing one of Scout's paws over and over until it gets to the hiccups part.  I'll hear "Can you...Can you...Can you..." as he pushes quickly and repeatedly past all of Scout's "Can you think of something green?" type questions until he gets to the hiccups one where Scout says "I've got the hiccups. Evan can you count to 5 with me and see if they go away?"  Then Scout counts to 5, with hiccups in between, until they are magically gone by the time he gets to 5.

8) We took Evan to the local County Fair this past weekend.  He saw most of the livestock animals that were being shown for 4-H, was given a free balloon (which he loved) from the local Republican party table (which I did not love), and we had a small sampling of naughty fair foods, like kettle corn, some gourmet fudge, and fry bread with powdered sugar.  The latter was our replacement for getting a funnel cake (my all time favorite fair food to get since I was a kid!), given the line for the one vendor with funnel cakes was SO long! :(  We were not about to wait in that with Evan, who was already cranky from lack of napping that day, so we opted for the fry bread which was just about the same thing, just in one big circular piece as opposed to the web of fried dough threads.  Evan loved it all!

9) Evan amazes me in how he says things that I didn't even know he would know (either know how to say and/or know what it was that he was saying).  Example #1: I picked Evan up from daycare, helped him climb into the backseat of the car and asked him to get into his car seat.  However, he decided to climb over his car seat and sit on the regular backseat of the car opposite me.  As he sat there he said "seat belt" and tried to put on the regular seat belt.  And then when I went to get him from the other side, I realized the door had been locked.  When I unlocked it and got him out he said "I locked it door".  Yes, he sure did.  When on earth did he learn this vocabulary!?  Example #2: John was leaving for work and Evan and I were at the door to say good bye.  As John took his stuff to the car Evan yelled out "honey honey I want a kiss!".  Have I possibly said that before? lol.

10) On a pregnancy-related note, it's getting harder and harder for me to pick Evan up.  Yet, when I'm alone with him I have no choice sometimes.  Either way, I got my lesson the other day to only do what is necessary and to do it carefully.  You see, I think I pulled a lower tummy muscle when I was trying to keep him sitting in his time out.  He kept moving, so I'd bend over (not the best lifting position) and put him back.  In the end, I was on the couch for the next few hours in pain, and while baby was moving, I was worried she wasn't moving as much (recall, she's been a major kicker and mover!).  So I went in for a non-stress test, and sure enough, everything's fine. All it took was for me to call the doctor and go in for that test for her to wake right up and move around like crazy/normal!  It was certainly nice to know she was fine though.  Speaking of her, we'll get another ultrasound later today at our next regularly scheduled prenatal appointment to verify again that Evan's getting a baby sister.  I can't wait!