THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

WOW - I can’t believe it was 2 years ago that my little boy was born.

The last 2 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Sammy has grown so quickly from the chubby, cooing, smiling, sleeping all the time baby into a walking, talking, laughing, running, jumping, cuddling boy, who actually still sleeps pretty great (aside from a few off nights)!

I can still vividly recall the late night/early morning birth adventure that brought my sweet boy to this world. Sam’s birth was truly a lesson in trust. Trust in my body. Trust in the universe. Trust in my awesome midwife. Trust in my baby. The knowledge that he was stuck and needed some additional maneuvering to fully enter this world could have and probably should have brought panic into my mind and thoughts, yet I was strangely calm throughout. I somehow just knew that everything would be alright. Moving out of the bathtub, getting on my hands and knees, putting my head down on the cold tile floor and PUSHING and GRUNTING with all my might, and still needing the midwife to grab onto his torso and pull him from my womb. He didn’t seem to want to leave my body, and he still is such a mama’s boy, needing me to hold him, carry him, cuddle him, and lately, wanting to sit on my lap at mealtimes.

We are becoming accustomed to dealing with the fierce independent streak he is showing. He is still a great (and loud) tantrum thrower, lying on the ground, kicking and screaming, throwing things, the usual tantrum stuff. Tantrums that crop up at the mere mention of “no” - he HATES being told that he can’t do or have something. He is such a sensitive little man, as I can usually thwart the tantrum by asking “do you want to cuddle with mommy?” and he will say “yeah, cull mommy” and climb up on my lap, bury his head in my shoulder, and dry his tears and calm down. He has also been fighting sleep at naptime and bedtime a bit lately, maybe because I am limiting nursing, trying to move to just rocking before bed.

In the last month, he has had a true language explosion, he repeats everything, he speaks in 4-5 word sentences, he tries to sing. He loves pointing out things, I think just to prove to me (and himself) that he knows the words. He says things like “mama, excuse me, open please”. He tries to do everything his sister does. He will get a cup out of the lower cabinet where we keep all the kids cups and plates and etc. and he tries to get water out of the dispenser on the front of the fridge. He can’t quite reach the water lever, but he can reach the ice one, so several times a day we have ice cubes melting on the kitchen floor from his attempts. He loves cars, and trains, and trucks, typical boy stuff. When we are driving in the car, he loves to point out every truck we pass - “mama, big truck”. Even when eating watermelon the other day, he took a rectangular chunk of watermelon, took a bite out, and he decided it looked like a train engine - and so he said “choo choo” and pushed his watermelon chunk around on the table.

He tries to count, but it usually sounds like “1, 2, 3, 10!” He tries to sing the ABC’s and it usually sounds like “ABD, FD, H, KOP, Q, S, T, W, Y, Z”. He loves to jump in the pool, and can spend hours saying “1, 2, 3 jump” and jumping into my arms and then kicking over (with my help) to the stairs and climbing up and doing it all over again. He loves playing in the play kitchen, and pretending to make food and eat it or give it to me to eat. He is getting good at doing a few puzzles we have, putting the letters in place where they go on top of the pictures, he knows W goes on the whale, and etc. and he is starting to know his shapes and colors. He still loves to imitate his big sister, and will do or say anything she does or says.

He is such a joy, his laugh can light up a room. He loves to tickle and be tickled. Every night after his bath he runs away, naked and wet and climbs up on my bed and waits to be tickled. He is silly, and smart, and sweet, and stubborn all at the same time. He is my boy, and he is two years old, and I am so lucky.

and today…