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It's just a little sad to see Alexander exploding with new language skills and watching his pronunciation and grammar get a little better every day. He's already got a running commentary on everything with sentences, paragraphs, concepts, and connections that surprise us at every turn. Before he begins reciting Shakespeare, we thought we'd jot down a few of our favorite words he says lest they slip away entirely.

-Fakes 'n Zeenies- Raisin Bran, which just this week he now calls Fakes 'n Raisins
-noonie- nudy / naked as in "noonie ZahZah!!!!" before every bath
-Zahzah- That's what he calls himself, though he can say 'Alexander' if asked.
-Deedee- His name for his little friend David, that just switched to the real thing the other week.
-BupBumm-BupBumm- Dinosaur (that's the sound the one at Toys R Us makes when it walks)
-Googie / DigDig - Diggers, All yellow construction vehicles (except dump trucks)
-Weeyooo Weeyoo- Fire engine and Ambulances that are going "to hep sowwon" (the sound it
makes)
-Upsomedom- UpsideDown
-Kankoo- Thank you
-Totee- He finally 'lost' this one about a month ago; now he does say Tatou correctly
-Mama so kind!- If you share something with him- like part of your snack
-gow, gow- That's the garbage disposal 'growling'
-woooooooo- vaccuum cleaner
-sheee- share, as in "Zahzah shee Papa" handing him a half bitten, soggy animal cracker. We're
still working on 'giving others the best'.
-amies- animals
-sahny- "sorry" And if you do something you would apologize to him for (like opening the breakfast fruit when he wanted to do it) He'll scrunch up his face & eyes and whine a little fuss saying "ooooooh sahny mama!!!" because several times Mama has said, "Ooohhh I'm sorry, Alexander I didn't know you wanted to ..."

Traits:

- drops the 's' at the beginning of a lot of 's' words- stuff becomes "tuff;" Squirt becomes 'quirt' etc...
- puts a 'd' in the middle of words that have two vowel sounds- mail becomes 'madle;' wheel becomes 'widle' etc...
- likes to use 'nope' & 'yep'
-'er' or 'le' at the end of the word is pronounced 'y'- like fingy (finger), wiggy (wiggle), ticky (tickle), etc... (but not little)

Yah, so we could write on and on and on... and maybe we'll add a few as we come across them, but it's been so fun to watch all of these things take off, and all his new additions (really his entire vocabulary) astounds us everyday.

Though initially we'd planned to do a birthday event, we later decided to keep it a quiet day here at home. So we were more than happy to go up and visit Grammy and Grandpapa the following weekend and Alexander was more than thrilled to make the trip up to "Sangeena." We arrived Friday suppertime and though Alex didn't finally settle down until after 10pm, he was up bright and early for his favorite morning cooking with Grammy and Grandpapa. He enjoyed Sabbath School with the kids, potluck with 'all the famee' and about a 50 minute nap in the afternoon in between playtime with some most favorite people, dog chasing (and hiding from), Lego building, and toy train repair lessons from Engineer Grandpapa. But when evening came and friends began to arrive for haystacks and some surprise festivities (we hadn't told Alexander anything about a second second birthday), he was just all a-giddy with the excitement of everything. Grammy had decorated his table spot with Thomas the train splat-mat since our arrival on Friday, and he was already excited to see his train banner and train place setting, but when we peeked in the window from playing outside to see a Thomas the Train cake he could barely contain himself. "Thomas Train Cake!" he exclaimed amidst giggles and smiles. Since birthdays are quite possibly Alexander's most favorite thing in the whole entire world, he knew exactly how everything was supposed to work. He requested his candles and was all aglow when everyone sang "Happy Birthday, Dear Alex." He didn't get his candles right away, and was a little surprised when little Autumn helped him out, but he recovered and delved right into his very brightly colored piece of cake. He was a charmer all evening and just so delighted with all the decor, yummies, and friends. He opened some very fun presents, including some more Thomas wooden train track, jammies & clothes (mommy was a bit more excited than he about those), fun sidewalk chalk, fire engine and train puzzles that make sounds when all the pieces are in, and another very special present. Alex had to sit with his eyes closed (a very hard thing for an excited two year old to do), and when Grandpa wheeled in the little red tricycle and told him to open his eyes, at first he wasn't quite sure where to even look. He was looking all around until Papa stood him up and took him over to it. His eyes got wide and the first thing he had to do was ring the little bell. ...and the rest is history. He and Autumn took turns (a bit reluctantly with the turns on Alexander's part)with Grandpa riding around the basement for a while. Before long the weekend crash began to set in. Alex requested some much needed quiet story time away from the hubbub before it was time for goodbyes and a late-night drive home. It was a heartwarming and special event, and much enjoyed by tyke and parents alike. It was fun to celebrate with extended Saginaw church family whom we don't get to see too often, and visiting "Gammy Gampapa house 'gain" has been the main request all this week. Thank you each one for making this birthday such an outstanding celebration and beloved memory for this little one. Blessings to him, and to each one for this third "extraordinary year" ahead.

Well, We are now officially the proud parents of a two year old! We had a delightful birthday celebration on Wednesday- something a bit quieter at home, but we were so happy to share the day with Nana and have Papa home for his birthday lunch. Starting with wake-up, Mama made a point give Alexander lots of little birthday treats from letting him do the chapstick himself all day (a point of conversation ever since) to dunking graham crackers in milk for snack, to extra birthday boy lyrics to his 'potty song.' But all day he was giddy for his birthday lunch and the Little Panda Cupcakes watching eagerly from their storage carrier / "cage."
David got to come home earlier than expected for lunch, and Alexander had requested Raviolis so that's what was on the menu along with veggies, salad, and chik-nuggets with the table all set with four grown-up place-settings. Nana arrived just in time for our yummy meal with our "little prince of the day."


Birthday time couldn't come too soon, and Alexander picked out his Panda, and soaked up his favorite song sung really just for him on his special day. He blew out his candles just fine, (he's only been practicing for six months) and knew just what to do and how everything worked, and he delved right into his birthday treat. The little Junior Mints surprised him- that was the first time he'd had anything minty. We rounded out the festivities with presents from Mama and Papa (clothes for summer including some sunglasses he's been requesting every time we ride in the car on a sunny day, and his first Wooden Train circuit). He was also giddy as just when we were wrapping up some train time, the doorbell rang and "the package guy" had brought a box from cousins in Minnesota! It was sitting on our front porch- just for him. Play-Doh and Memory- the day just couldn't get any better! (Thanks Uncle David & Aunt Karen!!!).


Papa had to head back to work but Nana, Mama, and Alex headed out for some fun summer-tyke birthday clothes shopping as part of Nana's present along with a little "vet hospital" complete with locking doors/cages, boo-boo cream, "poke," and other doctor gizmos. (Just great for this little tyke recently obsessed with owies, and pokes from his latest doctor's visit) We rounded out the day with "cookie-baking" a.k.a play-doh time, and a light supper with Nana followed by a little walk outside. Soon it was time for stories and worship and kiddo-bed with tuck-in kisses from Papa just-in-time. That night, Alexander was pretty tired after a short afternoon nap and a very busy exciting day. He was snugly and sweet, and asked ever so kindly for extra songs during his tuck-in. At his last request for "pweese one mo song, Mama-" Mama couldn't help but sing a very quiet slightly nostalgic version of "Happy Birthday" to a super-grinning little two-year old under the covers. After kisses and love-you's he said it was okay "Mama go, now." Oh how so very quickly these years have flown by.

We've been rounding out these cold winter days with some last bit winter frolicking in the snow and visiting with friends. A couple of Sundays ago, we headed back to our sledding hill with Buddies Sam and David, and David's cousin Justin for some more snow fun and hot drinks with Nana afterward. Serena headed down to Berrien to visit another mommy-to-be friend, Sarah, while Grandma came down for a little grandson fix. And just last week Holly, Rob and Baby Robby came by for some babytime visiting. It's been a fun wrap up to fight those dragging, winter days 'till spring.

Day 3- Sabbath:
We were debating whether or not to go to church on Sabbath. It's always an off-schedule day for us, and with the 'stress' of the whole process, keeping him alert and enthused, and wanting to avoid either a mess or regression, Serena wasn't planning to take him. But since Alexander hadn't really fallen into a pattern (or a habit- at least any good ones) yet, she thought that she would at least take him to Sabbath School with the kids in Ann Arbor, and come home for a routine lunch/afternoon after that. But much to our amazement, Sabbath morning, something just seemed to 'click' for him. We could tell he was trying to stay dry by doing a little dance, and when we asked him if he needed to go he said yes, trundled off to the potty, and did what he needed to do! Mama reluctantly put him in pull-ups (aka diapers) for the going out, but he stayed dry throughout Sabbath School, had a little leak in the p-up on the way home in the car, but finished the job in the potty as soon as we got home. The rest of the day was one of several potty successes and a few little leaks, but overall very encouraging to all of us after the first couple days.

Continued...
Throughout the week, Alexander has continued to make a lot of progress, much to our relief and encouragement both to himself and all of us. Tuesday, he was more wet than usual spending the day at Nana's house, and being away from his routine. But Nana's little potty seat snaps into the big toilet, and he thought that was pretty cool. Wednesday we dared to venture out to Target in his 'big boy undies' and he was dry throughout the whole trip. He's holding it longer, and making more complete empties with fewer little leaks, meaning less nightly laundry for Mama!

We've tapered down a bit on the rewards for being dry, having found that the all-day munching was creating a very wound-up and whiny boy. Sometimes he even forgets about the rewards for going potty and is happy to have us enthusiastically sing his little potty song (he'll request it if we forget) and call him a hero-- "Who's a hero?" "Zahzah!" comes the reply. "Three cheers for Zahzah!!! Hiphip...Hooray!..." I've also added nuts and stickers to his reward dish, and he only gets M&M's for 'tinkle'-- not for being dry or having a 'good try' . (He has yet to make poopy in the potty, but we're working on one thing at a time and he doesn't like it in his pants for sure, so he tells us right away... we'll see when this clicks in). He's also still very attached to having Curious George join him in this process, but after a very frustrating ordeal on Wednesday morning concerning George and Alexander's very insistant particularities that ended in a monkey plunged into the grown-up toilet (fortunately the water was clean), George has taken a bit of a break from the scene- much to Mama's relief.

Day 8- Thursday, One Week Later:
I'm pleased to announce that as of naptime today, one week later- Alexander has been dry all day (with one poopy change, but not wet!) He's even started to tell us when he needs to go. And though he insisted that he didn't have to go after lunch today, (Mama figured that we'd then end with up wet pants), when he was ready he told us he needed to go, headed to the potty- and did his job just fine. So we'll see how our experiment turns out- weeks, months who knows. But today he did go into this little discourse about his Huggies Overnights (haven't embarked upon overnight training at all yet) and 'big boy pants' and then pulled out the regular diapers saying that they were for babies and he was a big boy. Later, at lunch he gabbed about 'Zahzah growing up- be man like Papa." ...Becuase then he could eat his own yogurt (instead of sharing with mama) and he would be allowed to scrape the sides with the spoon. "Soon enough," said Mama. Soon enough, indeed.