It seems hard to believe that two years ago today I met Grey for the first time. It’s tempting to get all sniffly over how time flies and to talk about how I miss that sweet little bundle. But the truth of the matter is that I like the big boy I have right now and wouldn’t trade him in — even for a younger version of himself.
We’re getting to the age where it’s harder to do these sorts of updates. Grey has hit pretty much all his big milestones. He has been walking for over half his life. His first word is a distant memory. He can get in and out of his car seat and his high chair by himself. He can color. So now we get in to the finer variations. For example, Grey has started playing make-believe. His favorite objects for make-believe are some plastic dinosaurs. I often hear, on our drive in to work, how the dinosaurs are sad and they’re crying. They give each other hugs which makes them feel better. They also seem to have an unfortunate tendency to get into accidents (a tendency shared by his cars). Grey’s language is moving to the “can be understood by strangers” and “can string together whole sentences” phase.
Grey has also started his life as a navigator. He has very strong opinions about where we should drive the car. “Dat way!” Unfortunately this leads to inevitable conflict when we are going to, say, daycare or church and he wants to go somewhere else. Grey has known his alphabet for quite a few months now. But we’re starting to get to a point where he can really use the letters. We’ve taught him how to spell his name by rote (G-R-E-Y GREY!). But I hadn’t realized how much he was picking up about other information on letters. I was watching him play with some of his alphabet toys the other day and listening to him, “B, ‘buh’, bu’erfly (butterfly)”. He did this for about half the letters. (Vowels are more challenging since they make more sounds.) Grey is currently sitting at the other computer playing a game. He’s watching me type and trying to do the same thing. Very cute!!!
I took him in to get his hair cut the other day at one of those hair places that specializes in kids. He sat very nicely for the lady to cut his hair. At the he was offered a lollypop as a prize. His eyes got wide as saucers and he said, with perfect inflection, “Ooooooh, niiiiiice!” He LOVES music and will ask us to turn it on for him so he can dance.
There are some other transitions occurring in the switch from “very large baby” to “very small boy”. We’ve started potty training, sort of half-heartedly I must admit. Grey uses the potty successfully about every other day. He’s pretty good about sitting on it before bed or after his nap, but he isn’t really interested in interrupting his play in order to use it. I’m not willing to push the issue at this point either. I think he’ll need to have some more motivation before this becomes successful. But he understands what the purpose of a potty seat is, what we want him to do, and that we get very excited when he does it correctly. The other thing is a bed. Grey looks so big in his crib it is almost ludicrous. He’s never climbed out of the crib, but that has a lot more to do with his desire, I think, than with ability. He’s really really good about going to bed on time, so there isn’t a lot of time in his day when he’s in his crib and doesn’t want to be. Anyway, we’ve gotten him a “big boy bed” and I may move his crib mattress to the floor today to start the transition. It’s amazing to watch your child go from someone who can’t turn themselves over to someone who can be trusted in their room without your supervision.
Grey has retained his genial demeanor, tempered with a good dose of stubbornness. He definitely has his own preferences. He loves tv, especially Elmo and Spongebob, to my chagrin. He is unusually interested in computers. We have to either completely keep him out of the computer room or let him play on one of the computers. He is pretty impossible to manage in a room where computers are being used if he’s not allowed to use one. His dexterity with a mouse is astonishing. He loves dinosaurs and cars — dinosaurs especially. He’s enamoured of celestial objects and talks all the time about the moon, the sun and the stars. (We have some glitter in our ceiling and he always talks about the stars.) He loves playing at the park and running around. He loves dancing. He’s finally gotten ok with finger-painting, and enjoys coloring for brief periods. He adores eating fresh-picked raspberries in the back yard. He likes playing in (but not stepping in) his sandbox. He loves songs and will sing along with me. He’s very focused on learning new words and will patiently repeat back an entire book’s worth. He has tremendous focus and will apply himself to one task for even an hour at a time. He loves to roughhouse and jump on the bed. One of his first truly complete unique sentences was when we were going to buy his bed and he said, “I pease jump on bed?” He has no fear of injury or fall and usually has bumps on his head to prove it. He reminds his father and I to be careful when we’re going down the stairs. As I mentioned, he goes to bed beautifully. When we tuck him in and give him Grover and say goodnight, he usually says goodnight back to us and then lies placidly as we close the door and leave. He will always share his food with you, even if he likes it.
He is a wonderful child — a joy an d a delight. I’m very glad to have spent two years with him, and look forward to spending many many more.
My Truant Pen 