Two years ago, right now....

... I was enjoying the last few hours of Pitocin-induced labor, about to give birth to the amazing little boy who has so changed our lives...

It seems impossibly long ago, but these two years have also gone impossibly fast. It is strange-- we have been thinking of Jack as "a two year old" for a number of months now, and that sometimes leads me to think that he has not changed too much this year. And, certainly the change of this year pales in comparison with that mind-blowing first year transformation. But--a year ago we had a little baby who was crawling, babbling, saying mama and dada and stick and ball... smiling and giggling and rather pudgy... In the space of the past 365 days, Jack has:

*learned to walk. And run. And jump. He loves to jump, especially off of steps. We love that...
*learned to talk-- first 10 words, then 37, then 50, then we lost count. Today-- 6 word sentences, sometimes. He can say Brontosaurus, and knows what a Brontosaurus is. Tonight, we worked on "Clavicle." He has conversations, and brings up things he remembers from his day. He wheedles and whines and even jokes. He points out diggers and minos and birds and squirrels and numbers with the most wonderful enthusiasm and the cutest, ever-so-slightly nasal, little-boy voice...
*learned to climb stairs, then walk up them, and then walk down them. On his own. He's learned to climb into his own carseat, and learned that he does NOT want any help. "Jackself!!" he will shout.
*learned to shout! He has developed such an opinionated sense of his likes and dislikes. This is good. Most of the time. Many opinions are about food; our boy is a pickier eater now that he was a year ago... but what he does eat, he feeds to himself. He can use a fork and a spoon a regular glass, all very successfully, when he feels like it...
*learned to tell us when he needs a diaper change, and help with being dressed and undressed. We aren't to potty training yet-- but he knows all about toilets and will talk about poop to a great extent. He wasn't able to do that a year ago! He has developed opinions about what he likes to wear and is starting to get attached to certain shirts and, even more so, certain shoes. "Bown shoos, boo crocs...."
*Started to sleep through the night. 1 or 2 times a week! Those of you who know Jack know this is a big deal...
*Kept on nursing! OK, so that's not a change. But I am pretty darn happy and proud to have provided my boy with 2 full years of ideal nutrition and supplementation and snuggles and security. Our late-night/early-morning nursings, fewer and further between now, are the one time this active little boy really sinks into my arms, becoming for a moment my little baby again...
*Learned to climb ladders and go down slides and pedal a tricycle and do puzzles. He can also identify at least half of the alphabet and the numbers 1,2,3,5, and 8. He can count to 20, as long as you don't mind missing 9 and 11 and hearing 15 three or four times....
*Gotten taller and slimmer and lost his baby-soft looks...now he looks like a boy instead. A mischievous, handsome, charming, 2 year old boy.