The Toddler Age

Two and a half could possibly be the greatest age ever. Although I've felt that way about every age that Tommy has been so far. Right now, he is so full of excitement and wonder and discovery. Everything, and I mean everything, has the possibility of evoking huge emotion within him.

There are some things I don't want to ever forget.

- How excited he gets over seeing bubbles in his pee after he's gone to the bathroom. Maybe that's gross, but his elation and exclaiming, "Look at duh bubbles in the pee-pee! Look at dem all!" is just absolutely hilarious.

- How he wants to camp out under the Christmas tree to lay down or read his books. The most precious thing on earth perhaps.

- How my kisses still make everything feel better.

- How he LOVES the 'ball in the sky.' (A huge water tower near our house that we often drive by. He gets SO excited about it and it is a very disappointing drive if we don't get to see the ball in the sky).

- How he dances to music.

- How he still asks to go to Wyatt's house even though he moved away. I love that he remembers his little friend.

- How he's turned his pop-gun into a "guitar" and loves to have me pretend to play it.

- How he sings Amazing Grace how sweet duh sound.

- How he randomly says at anytime, "I dust love you mama."

- How excited he is when daddy gets home. He runs to the door and leaps into his arms - it makes my heart melt every single time.

- How he's learned to make sound effects. When he plays with his cars and trucks now, he's totally got some kind of grunting sound down when they're driving.

- How he absolutely loves to play in the car and sit in the driver's seat to pretend that he's driving. And how he has a meltdown every time that we're done driving too.

- How he explains things like Thanksgiving. "Dere's turkey and pie and daddy and pie." That about sums it up, don't you think?

- How he loves to give kisses and hugs.

- How he says please and thank you and you're welcome - and how he learned such polite manners, I don't really know.

- How he smells right after his bath.

- How his messy hair looks when he wakes up in the morning.

- How he asks for pancakes or "offles" any morning that I'm home with him.

- How he clomps around in our shoes. And when he wears mine, he calls them "tap shoes."

I'm sure there are more and I could be here all day listing them all I suppose.

Yesterday, I had an usually stressful day at work. I cried all the way home just to release everything I had been holding in all day long. He greeted me with a smile and a hug and asked for my keys so he could use them to drive his Mater truck. He wasn't worried or stressed about a thing in the world.

After Oma left, he started to sing some of the songs we often sing together. And it calmed my heart to hear it.

Funny how kids seems to always put life back into perspective. We were home. We were safe. We were healthy. We had everything we needed. His heart was content enough to sing. I love how in his toddler innocence, he continues to invite me to rest and to play and to remember that the simplest things in life are the things that really matter.