Happy birthday, Perrin!

My little boy turned two years old yesterday. It's hard to believe I'm the mom of a two-year-old! It was fun celebrating with family over the weekend. We took Perrin to the Museum of Discovery on Saturday, and he had SO much fun.

Here he is digging for dinosaurs. It was tough pulling him away from this to see the rest of the museum. I think he would have played in this spot all day if I'd let him.

The museum had plenty of cute props to explore--a barn, a kitchen, a pirate ship, a lighthouse, etc.Perrin kept trying to go in and out the windows instead of using the doors.

 Here's my big boy climbing his first rock wall! (With a little help from Daddy).

Perrin climbed up inside this exhibit so that he could get a closer look at the balls floating on air. It worked out fine until he started throwing the balls out of the exhibit, and I had to go chase them through the museum.

When we got home, we had a party with balloons, food, presents, and Elmo cupcakes! I got this idea from Pinterest, and mine are totally not as cute as the ones I found online. They don't look much like Elmo, either. And I couldn't get the frosting perfectly red, so I had to serve pink Elmos. Not very manly... but Perrin didn't seem to mind.

Sneaky toddler

Earlier today, I was in my bedroom fixing my hair. Perrin was dumping my makeup out on the floor and stealing money from his daddy's change bucket (a pretty typical morning for us). Then he suddenly walked out of my room, shut the door hard behind him, and yelled at me, "Don't open!" My first thought was, "Great... my son, who isn't even two yet, is already trying to boss me around." When really, my first thought should have been, "Wait a second... he always wants me to play with him. What's he planning to do that he wants me to stay in my room for?" Well, I figured it out a couple minutes later. I heard the pitter patter of little feet as he ran into his room then came out again and went into the bathroom. A few seconds later, I heard water running in the sink. My cue to check up on him.

When I opened the bathroom door, he was in the process of washing his pajamas in the sink. Water was everywhere. And he definitely had a guilty look on his face.

He's tried a couple times since then to close me into a room. But when he uses that telltale phrase, "Don't open!" I can be sure he's about to do something mischievous. So, for now, I'm at least enjoying the couple minutes of advanced notice.

Two years down

I know I haven't blogged in a while... it's not that I haven't had anything to write about. It's just that this month has been so busy. In the last couple of weeks, we've gotten new windows, refinanced our home, started working out at the local rec center, and started leading a Thursday night Bible study. (Trey's actually the one leading the Bible study... but I help with preparation. And I make yummy snacks.) It seems like we've had something to do or somewhere to go every night lately.

For some reason, time seems to go by so much faster when you have a lot to do. I feel like my life is on fast-forward right now. Not to mention that Perrin will be two next month. TWO! I can't believe we have a two-year-old. His life must be stuck on fast-forward too. His vocabulary is really exploding, and he's starting to string together words into simple sentences (things like "Where poo-poo go?" when he flushes the potty, or "want this" when he sees, well, anything.) He's not a baby anymore. But that fact still seems to take me by surprise every day.

I miss having a tiny, snuggly, cooing baby. But I love having a noisy, adventurous, mud-covered little boy. The toddler stage can be a lot of fun. It can be difficult too--like when he stands up on his chair at the dinner table and Trey tells him to sit down, so he sits down on the table. Or when my mom hands him his toothbrush but forgets to put toothpaste on it, so he hurls it across the room and yells, "paste!" He's defiant, willful, stubborn, selfish, disobedient, and prone to the worst temper tantrums I have ever seen. He's also incredibly smart, independent, funny, determined, and affectionate. Not to mention super cute. :)

I can't slow down time, but I can try to let go of the things that make me want to pull my hair out and just appreciate this awesome stage he's in. Yes, toddlers can be difficult to handle. But they can be so much fun too. These years are going by fast, and I'll never get to enjoy this stage with Perrin again. So I'm making it a goal to press the pause button now and then. I'll leave the dishes undone, the computer turned off, and promise myself to exercise "later." Then I'll give Perrin my undivided attention and simply live in the moment with him. I think he's waking up from his nap now, so it's time to go practice what I preach!

Adventures in potty training

Perrin has recently taken an interest in the potty. Yay! Up until now, he's enjoyed playing in the toilet, flushing the toilet, and occasionally throwing items in the toilet, but not doing anything, um, productive in it. But for the last couple of weeks, he's really impressed me. I'd say he's using the potty at least 50% of the time now. (Which means we're saving 50% on diapers--woo hoo!)

A couple of hiccups we've run into along the way:
1. When it's time to get down to business, only the grown-up potty will do. He refuses to use his cute soccer ball potty chair that we bought for him. I'm not sure why... it even cheers for him. But alas, the soccer ball goes largely unused... except for when he wants something to sit on while he's watching cartoons. Then he'll drag it into the living room and plop down on it like it's a recliner. Classy.

2. Perrin has been sitting down to pee, which works great. But a few days ago I guess he realized that Daddy gets to stand and pee, and now I cannot get that boy to put his butt on the toilet seat to save my life. He insists on standing. The problem is that he's not tall enough to reach the potty on his own, and his aim isn't that great. My attempts to hold him over the toilet and aim him have resulted mostly in temper tantrums and a big mess to clean. I've wrestled with him over this issue for the last couple of days, and I'm finally throwing in the towel. Trey is at the store as we speak looking for a nice step stool so that Perrin can stand up to pee and I don't have to spray down the entire bathroom with bleach every time afterwards (I hope).

3. Now that Perrin is in the midst of potty training, he's interested in all things potty related. He loves books about potties; he loves playing with potties; he loves talking about pee pee and poo poo. This is a fair warning to you: if you need to use the bathroom and Perrin is in the near vicinity, he WILL want to stand three inches away and watch your every move. He'll also tear a 10-foot wad of toilet paper off the roll for you and flush the toilet for you--whether you're ready or not.

All in all, I can't complain. Potty training is messy business, but we are inching our way closer to the days of no more diapers (does anyone else hear the Hallelujah chorus?)

Christmas update

Now that we've made it through Christmas and are starting to dig our way out from under the presents, wrapping paper, and junk food, I thought it  might be a good idea to update the blog. We had a great Christmas... but we somehow ended up with about three times as many presents for Perrin as we had intended to give him. Sigh. Score another point for the commercialization of Christmas. I just get so excited when I'm shopping for him and can't seem to help myself from buying just one more thing (then another thing, then another thing.) Anyway, at least we didn't go too crazy. It's not like we bought him a car or anything. Oh, wait...

In my defense, just look at that sweet face! How can anyone say no to that?

Christmas with a toddler

This is Perrin's second Christmas season, and I can already tell a big difference from last year. Last Christmas he was ten months old. He was crawling and babbling and starting to eat some table food. This year he's walking, talking, stealing my goodies when I'm not looking, and fully indulging in the many festivities of Christmas.

Last year, he wasn't terribly interested in our Christmas tree. This year, he broke three ornaments the first two days it was up. I did some clever re-arranging and decorated the bottom limbs mostly with cute plushy animals. Now Perrin can't break anything. (He does like to take my beloved giraffe ornament and pop its eyes out of socket, though.)

Last year, he barely understood the concept of opening presents. With some help, he was able to rip the paper off a few on Christmas day. This year, I have to keep a close eye on him because he keeps trying to unwrap presents (and has succeeded once... luckily it was a present for Trey and not for Perrin, so he wasn't incredibly impressed with what he found).

Last year, Perrin didn't do any fun Christmas activities other than being dragged along to a couple parties or to look at lights. This year, I already have two adorable ornaments that he made while at Mother's Day Out and some great pictures and memories of his first cookie-frosting adventure. (We stripped him down to just a diaper and gave him frosting and cookies and told him to "paint." He splotched some frosting on a few of the cookies, then realized the frosting tasted good. I had to take it away from him after he'd shoveled 4 or 5 spoonfuls into his mouth.)

Last year, he didn't understand much about why we celebrate Christmas. This year, he still doesn't. But he sure is having a blast playing with an interactive nativity set that tells the Christmas story through fun poems and miniature gift boxes that he gets to open. I was explaining to him one day that Mary and Joseph were married, so I made them kiss to illustrate the point. Now Perrin makes Mary smooch all over everyone. (According to Perrin, she seems to be particularly fond of the Angel Gabriel. I don't remember reading that part in the Bible. Oh, well... we'll get it right one of these days.) Also, you know you have a toddler in the house when you find baby Jesus in your shoe on a regular basis.

It's crazy how much he's changed and grown up in a year.  ::sigh:: While I look forward to the day when I don't have to worry for the safety of my Christmas ornaments or clean frosting out of his hair, I'm really going to miss these special holiday moments with a curious, spunky not-quite-two-year-old. Christmas loses a little of its appeal once you become an adult, but it becomes kind of magical again when you have a little one in the house.

Ick

Perrin and I take a shower together pretty much every morning. It’s the easiest way for me to keep my eye on him while I’m showering; plus, he loves playing in the water. Yesterday morning, after I had showered, I plugged the drain and ran some warm water so that Perrin could stay in the tub and play while I dried and dressed. After about ten minutes, I asked him to pull the drain to start letting the water out. So he did.

As the water slowly drained, Perrin suddenly stood then squatted down halfway and began grunting. It took me a few seconds to realize what he was doing. By the time I figured it out and rushed to hoist him out of the water and onto his potty, it was too late—a floating #2 was already merrily making its way downstream.

This is the kind of thing that other parents do NOT tell you about when they’re explaining how wonderful and fulfilling it is to be a parent. (For the record, it truly is wonderful and fulfilling to be a parent, but some moments are a little more blessed than others.)

I don’t want to get too graphic here, but let’s just say that I felt like Perrin and I both needed to take a swim in bleach by the time I had captured and disposed of Perrin’s “boat.”

So today’s a new day… and I’m a little scared to let Perrin in the shower with me again.