Well, Doppie (or dabbie - we're not sure how to spell it), you are officially two years old. It is hard to believe two years have gone by. The days remain long, and the years go by fast. You are not our baby anymore, and we can hardly call you a toddler, as you don't toddle. You run and look more and more like a regular old boy every day. You hardly even call yourself 'Baby' anymore. It used to be if we said, "say Camden". You would say, "Baby". Now you say, "doppie". When we say, "Say Cam", you say, "Cam". When we say, "Say den", you say, "den". When we say, "Say Camden", you say, "doppie". What is that and where did that come from?
You are turning into your own unique little person and are developing some very distinct likes and dislikes and have ways about you that are strictly, 'Camden'. You entered the 'two's' a couple months ago and have given me some whopper tantrums. They are usually short-lived, but you've had a couple where you worked yourself into such a frenzy, you couldn't stop. I think they stem from your new desire and ability to make decisions - usually you do quite well, and it is productive for us all to let you make the decision, but sometimes the wires are frayed and you don't know what to do with yourself. "I want Bingo, no Jack Johnson, no Bingo, no Jack Johnson, ahhhhhhh!!!!" And then it progresses to upstairs, downstairs, outside, inside, nothing can make you happy. Even though I have times where I am not convinced the tempter tantrum will end, they always do and you eventually collapse in my arms and we carry on with our day.
But like I said, those are not the norm. You have mini-fits every day, but they are largely manageable and easily redirected. In some ways you are becoming more independent and will play on your own for up to 30 minutes if you are in the right mood and have found the right toy. You have an impressive collection of toys thanks to granmom and her garage sale shopping. Your favorites at the moment are your massive collection of hot wheels, your box of mini animals and your train track. You will always come back to the cars because they work well with any new toy you get. A new dump truck? "Put cars in there!". A book resting on a pillow? "Car goes down!".
The real life cars and trucks are pretty top notch as well. You have a play structure at daycare that faces 18th street (a busy street), and you spend a large chunk of your outdoor time standing on the top of it and watching the "cars and trucks and buses" go by. Every outing in "Mama's gray car" or Daddy's "big truck", is sure to be exciting because there are "so many cars and trucks". This is not something we have pushed on you because you are a boy, it has always been something that has fascinated you. One of your first words was "guck".
As you can see from all my quotation marks, you are talking a LOT. We are amazed every day by what you say. Every single day, we say to each other, "I cannot believe his language". You know the whole alphabet (while you won't recite it on command, we've caught you doing it on the monitor as you are putting yourself to sleep, or in the morning as you are still groggy) and have been able to recognize all the letters for some time now, you can almost count to 20 (you skip 14 and 15), and you form complete sentences and use verbs (present participles - I had to look that up - to be precise) appropriately. "I am running." "I want to go read a book." "Play with daddy for a while". You still struggle with pronouns. When you want to be carried, you say to me, "Mama carry you?". Because I say to you, "Do you want me to carry you?". That is a particularly confusing thing to teach because even I end up all mixed up. You'll just have to figure that one out over time and on your own.
About a month ago, you started the make believe thing. You talk a lot to your animals, "Good night pig. Goodnight bear. Are you OK pig?". And you tuck all your animals into bed or make a new bed for them where they can be "warm and cozy" on the couch, yarding them one by one out of your crib. We caught you once reading your truck book to Pig - picking him up and making him look at every page, and asking him, "What's that pig?". And you have started talking to other kids a little bit. Mostly Bea of course. You bring her a piece of food from her plastic fridge, and ask her, "Bea, what's this?" And she tells you, and you say, "That's right!" with your little sideways nod. Way too cute.
You still love books. And you have an incredible memory (or else you are reading). We can read a new book to you, not even five times, and you are practically reciting the whole thing back to us as we turn the pages. There is one book in particular called, "I'm Sorry", in which you 'read' every page perfectly. Of course you are not looking at the words, which clearly means it is just memorization, but it shocks us everytime nonetheless. Quite a little brain you have in there my boy. Now I am slightly biased, and you may get a more subdued opinion from a neutral party, but still, I think you are a genius.
You are still eating well. I'm still waiting for the phase to hit where you become disinterested in food, but given your genes, I don't think that is too likely. 'Orange cheese' may have surpassed crackers as your favorite. You discovered ketchup and how wonderful it is to dip things in it - especially meat. Pasta, cottage cheese, waffles, yogurt and cereal all remain at the top of your list, with broccoli and avocados being the most nutritious things you eat. We haven't gone to your two year appointment yet, but I will not be surprised if you come close to 35 pounds. Luckily we are able to provide you with wholesome and healthy foods - whole wheats and most of your fruit and veggies are organic. So you may eat a lot, but it is usually good stuff. You have discovered cookies and ice cream, and while we haven't made a habit of it, we give in once in a while.
We've also given in to the TV. You're not watching a lot, but your first DVD that you fell in love with was "Goodnight Moon". You watched it just about every night until we had to return it to the library. Then Granmom bought you a series of Classical Baby DVD's. The only one you will watch is Baby Art, and you watch it now just about every night after bath. It is harmless and has some lovely music and pictures to it, so it sucks us all in. You also still have a love for watching our own home pictures and videos on the computer. It is often my saving grace for getting meals prepared when you are being needy.
You know how to load and unload CD's and DVD's from the DVD player. You can turn it on, open it, load your choice and turn on the TV if necessary. You don't abuse this, you just do it when you want to listen to your music. For a while you would only listen to the 'Bingo' CD which we thought might send us to the nut house, but we have since talked you into some Jack Johnson and last week you reintroduced "Patty Whack" (I'm pretty sure that is not the right spelling). Often you will start your music, then start pulling books out and sit quietly for a while reading and listening. Enough to warm a mother's heart.
You remain a timid boy when with anyone else. You have your mama's shyness with new activities or places and always take a while to warm up and are leery of new people. I suppose this is good (as you are unlikely to go quietly with a stranger), but it is hard on my back, "I want mama, I want mama, I want mama!" (escalating in pitch and volume). Thank goodness you have eased off on the hitting and pushing of other children. Only if they really get in your face, and you're not in the mood, do you give a little shove.
Your physical abilities are expanding as well. You have not been the most aggressive climber, but you're getting more daring. You love to jump and are really enjoying the tumbling class we are doing. You can jump off surprisingly high things and often will not let me help you. We have a bed set up in the back bedroom for jumping, and that has been a hit with you and all the friends that come over. You can do a real, full blown somersault. And you and Daddy spend at least one night a week at the pool, and you LOVE it. You jump in over and over and submerge your head willingly.
Sleeping is going fine. You often still wake up between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM. We had a stretch where you were waking up at 1:00 AM and would not put yourself back to sleep and were even having trouble putting yourself to sleep at the initial bedtime (this has always been the easiest - we put you in your crib, say goodnight, and you are out). So we started sleeping on a pad in your room until you put yourself back to sleep. This became a crutch that we had to break, and now we are just back to early morning wake ups where you invariably end up snuggling with me and hopefully we all get back to sleep for a while.
Potty training? Not so much. You will occasionally sit on your potty chair with all your clothes on and make a straining noise, but that's about it. You sort of tell us when you are pooping, but don't really want us to know because that means we have to go change your diaper. Although you will NOT ride in the car with poopy pants. That is when you do tell us. And today you were trying to nap, and we thought you were asleep, when you called out, "Mama! You downstairs? What doing? Change my diaper!". And sure enough, you had poop in your pants. So, some small signs that you might be potty trained someday, but I fear we are a ways off.
Man, what else? You are just an amazing little boy and we are constantly in awe of all that you do and are. You are a world of dichotomies. You are fiercely independent, but you can't let mama leave your side. You laugh at the drop of the hat, but can fall apart in a matter of seconds. You are physical and 'all boy', but will never turn me down for a snuggle or a hug. You want to go this way. No, No NO, you want to go that way. You are TWO. And I have to remind myself of that every day when my nerves and patience are rattled. Because you are a perfect two, my boy, in every way, and I wouldn't give you up for the world. Happy Birthday my little man!
