And then he was two.

My boy still won’t acknowledge that he’s two years old, but there are lots of other things that we can talk about with Carson turning two.

Like how much he wants to talk. It’s so much fun and so very exasperating all at the same time.

But before I get into all that, here’s a little “what’s going on” with my baby boy.

• When I pick him up at school in the afternoon, I get HUGE grins and hugs and chatter about his day. He always wants to carry his little report card paper out to the car (where it gets crumpled up into a ball and rolls under a seat in the car). He also has to say bye to all of his friends. One of his infant room teachers, Miss Makeda (his first ever girlfriend), STILL gets a hug and a kiss every single day as we leave. It is so sweet to see him go right up to his friends and wave in their faces while he says “BBBBYYYYYEEEEEE”. He is starting to use their names – which is also adorable. I think he’s one of the youngest (or least verbal) in his class so most of the other kids in his room have been saying “Carson” and “Carson’s mom” for a long time, but now he’s able to tell me their names.
• Also leaving school – he MUST carry Mallory’s lunch box out of the building. He sometimes sticks his whole arm through the handle (instead of just holding the handle with his hand) and he prances his way out to the car. Mallory’s “thing” of wanting to jump off the retaining wall before we get in the car was passed along to Carson so every day (weather permitting) we have to go through that exercise.
• He LOVES cars and footballs. Every day will find him either running from one end of the family room, to the other, with a football cocked over his shoulder like he’s being flushed out of the pocket, and he whips the ball on the run. Or he’s pushing one of his big trucks down the hallway – back & forth, back & forth.
• Speaking of football – the other day we were watching the Michigan football show – Carson was FREAKING OUT when they were showing the dudes playing football – yelling UT-ALLL!!! But HEAVEN FORBID they cut to Coach Hoke talking to the host because Carson would look at me and say “ant ut-all?!” (want football). Luckily, just then they’d show more of practice and he’d be happy…until they started showing part of the interview again and he’d get grumpy again.
• Bedtime means reading a book or three and he still tells you when he’s done reading by pointing at his bed. He’ll pull his paci to give me a big kiss, and then he’ll slam his head to my shoulder to give me a hug and then he’s ready for his crib. Rick keeps asking when we are going to move Carson to a big kid bed (Mallory was in a toddler bed before she turned two because we wanted her to not feel displaced when the baby came six months later, but since Carson doesn’t have to give up his bed for a baby, and he isn’t near being interested in climbing out of his crib (knock on wood), I’m perfectly happy to keep him contained in his crib for as long as possible.
• He still goes down very well (when he’s not sick) for naptime & bedtime. The only time we hear from him at bedtime – I usually find that either his sippy cup of water is empty, or he’s lost his paci while he drank his sippy cup of water and he needs help.

So – back to his talking.

He is trying SO VERY HARD to communicate with us. He is repeating EVERYTHING now. He & Mallory were out playing with the bubble machine yesterday and Mallory would say “WOW!! HOLY COW!” at all the bubbles, and Carson would respond “bu-bull! Oh COW!”. And then Mal would tell me: “MOM! DID YOU JUST HEAR THAT? CARSON JUST SAID HOLY COW!!!”

I’m amazed that he can tell us some colors now (“re” = red, “geen” = green, “boo” = blue, and then orange and yellow are not identifiable on their own but he says something that sounds a little like orange or yellow). His new animal sound is “sssssss” for what a “nake” says. For some reason “mo” = milk now (??). And “gill eeeeeze” (grilled cheese) is one of his favorite things to eat. He says “ank ooooo” (thank you) and “peas” (please) – such nice manners.

As mentioned in a previous post, he loves to yell at the dog. He knows that when Cooper goes out, he has to go potty so if Carson sees Coop at the door, he’ll go over and start yelling “GO! GO! GO! GO!”. And he has a word for Cooper because he’ll say something that sounds like Cooper and then point at Cooper.

OH – and he can say “gam-PA!” (grandpa) which I think makes my dad’s heart happy.

OH again! Daycare reported yesterday that he sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I don’t think he knows it for real, but if I sing a little of it, he’ll fill in some key words (like “dar” for star).

Regarding food: you’d think that a kid who came into this world at 10.5 pounds would love to eat. But he doesn’t. He has his favorites (pizza, mac & cheese, gill eeeeze, hot-gogs), and he LOVES corn, peas, and carrots (can you tell we do vegetable medley steamer bags?) but other things are really hit or miss. Some days he LOVES steak and chicken, but most days he could care less (and then he just eats tons of veggies for dinner). He also loves “nanas” (bananas) and would eat them all day every day if we let him.

He has a wonderful and funny sense of humor and is so much fun. I hope he always loves his mama as much as he does right now. I live for his hugs and kisses.

We have his two year checkup this week so I’ll be sure to post his updated stats!