Emitt tribute at 2

So my little boy has turned 2. I am trying to quit calling him my baby because, well, I guess technically Ollie is my baby, but I do call them "the babies" quite often. It seems like 10 years ago we were in california and then in the hospital having him, but he also seems like he should only be Ollie's age. Hmmm. For those wondering about the songs we have on for the month, theya re Emitt's favorites.

Emitt is such a sweet and mischevious little boy! I have really started to wonder why the second (and I am sure the ones following from there) child learns all the things you want them to learn slower, but all the things you don't want them to learn faster. How does that work?

Here are some things about Emitt:

1. He still sleeps terribly! I don't think he has slept through the night once in his entire life. Now that he is in the bunk beds with Tyse, we have to close his door and put a baby lock on the inside to try to keep him in his own room at night. Not that he sleeps with us because he doesn't want to. He just wants us to carry him back to bed. But just last night he appeared in my room at 2 am and the lock was on the handle- we may have to revamp.

2. He lives almost solely on fruit. Doesn't eat much else- which probably explains why he hasn't made 22 lbs. yet. He is negative on the charts in weight and I can't get him to gain weight, no matter how much butter I put on his toast.

3. He is an instigator! He loves to wrestle, tackle, jump and just maul any unfortunate soul around. Unfortunately for Ollie.

4. His favorite word is NO! I am sure you are all surprised that my quiet little observer has a good little 2 year attitude behind it as well. Shocker.

5. He is ALMOST potty trained. I am done buying him diapers and I am ecstatic about it. About half the days we go the entire day in the same pair of undies, and half the time it is a bit of a disaster. I never thought I would ever say "thank goodness for elmo". But thank goodness. He doesn't like to pee on elmo. Thank goodness also to jellybeans, marshmallows, and nakedness. What bribery!

6. He is really starting to try to talk a lot more. He is working on figuring out how his tongue works to make different word sounds and so it looks like he is panting almost every time he speaks. When he says "milk" it sounds a little more than "mel(slurp)k". I vaguely remember when Tyse did this (I think more around 15 months, not 2) and I still think it is hillarious!

7. He LOVES going to target (or any other store where he can climb under the basket and wreak havoc).

8. He LOVES his brothers. Every time Tyse leaves the house he bursts into tears and asks constantly "tyse? Tyse?" until he comes home. He loves holding ollie and walks around singing "Ollie, ollie, ollie" and gets so excited when ollie wakes up from naps.

9. He has developed into a daredevil. One day Kent took him to the pool and finally got him to jump off the side and now he climbs and jumps off everything! He climbs the bunkbeds and stands up there with his arms straight out at his side and says, "Woah! Woah!"while he looks like he is walking a balance beam or something. He also climbs up the bunkbed and then stands backwards at the top and lets go to land on pillows.

10 . He loves music and singing, except he doesn't really say the words, he just blah blah's through it until the token word comes along (ie. blah blah blah blah little STAR!) in perfect tune. Sometimes he wanders around singing the new sugarland song, some Steve Miller, or the brady bunch theme.

That is just a bit of info about our little guy. He has topped the charts at 21.6 lbs- a hefty 2 oz. heavier than he was 6 months ago, and is now negative on the charts. I wish I was told by the doctor to double my butter intake. Me and Pop Secret would get along famously!

Happy Birthday, buddy!