Two

Holy moly. My little firecracker turned two today. He enjoyed a day of church, Wal*mart with his Gram and Papa and a nice dinner with all the people who love him most.

Marc-Adam,

You're two!! And you love telling people so. You're a big boy now. I catch myself everytime I start to call you "the baby".

You've changed so much and so little in the last year. I looked back at the letter I wrote you one year ago, on your first birthday. Your personality is still much the same, but now you've grown so much that you are able to express it a lot more. Your persistence: One of your favorite phrases is "I deed it!!" which is our cue to back off and let you figure things out for yourself. You are still so affectionate. You don't give the sweet little slobbery kisses anymore, but full on smooches with sound effects and all. One of my favorite things in life is a hug from you. You're pretty chincy with the good hugs, but once in a while, you throw your arms around my neck and squeeeeeze. You're affectionate with your brothers, too. No one goes anywhere or does anything without you getting some hugs and kisses first. We've had to work in a few extra minutes into our nap and bedtime routines to make sure you have time to make your rounds of hugs and kisses and that you get sufficient love before you head to sleep.

You also started talking so well in the last year and in the last few days, I've noticed you trying to put 3 words together. You love asking questions....your favorites are asking where everyone that you love is. We'll be in the car, in the middle of the day, and all of the sudden you start asking, "Where's Daddy? Where's Nonny? Where's Grammy? Where's Poppy? Where's Papa?" It goes on and on. That's cute. But the frustrating part is how you keep saying, "Huh?" every time we answer you. We haven't figured out whether or not you actually can't hear or understand, or if you're just bored and messing with us. Besides just talking, you can clearly understand SO MUCH. I talk to you just like I do your brothers, and the majority of the time, I can tell that you get it. You are a smart cookie!

You still love colors. But now you're a big fan of color books. I was surprised our first day of school a few weeks ago when I was actually able to keep you occuppied with some color books for a while. And I'm really impressed with how well you hold the crayons. It gives me hope that maybe I won't have such a hard time with writing with you.

Lots of firsts this year: You started walking, started talking, had your first time out. Thankfully, so far time-outs seem to be effective in disciplining you, which is a good thing since for a long time I was so slow to discipline you. I think it had to with the fact that you are the third child and you've always been so darned cute while misbehaving. It's hard for me to discipline while I'm laughing at you. But things were clearly getting out of hand when you would blatantly disobey. So I tightened up on you, and it seems to be working. You're a lot more fun to be around when you follow the rules.

You've finally started getting interested in books lately. We don't ever actually finish one before you lose interest, but the fact that you'll go get one, bring it to me and ask to be read to is a big deal. You don't really have any favorites except for a couple touch and feel books. You really like just about anything. You're also the most helpful boy in our house. No one can do anything without you helping. And you don't just offer help, you insist--and sabotage any efforts we might make in doing it by ourselves. You love to help take out the trash, sweep, unload the dishwasher, and cook (but when you help cook, you mostly just empty the contents of the pantry while I cook).

You're still quite the character and love having all the attention on you. You are great in keeping all the grown-ups around you laughing. You are just such a joy to be around!

We love you sweet boy. I can't believe you're not a baby anymore and in a few short months you won't even be "the baby". But you still hold a sweet special place in my heart. And you always will.

Love,
Your mama