"No"

It's been a while. I think of things constantly as they happen and want to memorialize them as they happen but Jett neither provides me the time nor do I find it easy to blog from my phone. So I'll play catch-up:

I love my son. I'm particularly lovey dovey at the moment as he is a snotty, hoarse mess of a germfest right now and he's just so helpless and sleepy and adorable. I want to cry for him every time he hacks in his sleep and run in and just clutch him to my chest. Snot be damned; I want to cuddle/coddle this kid.

Most noticeably, Jett is speaking more. It's the natural progression of things, but I see three year olds and it's insane that he'll cover so much distance on the language front in such a short time. No wonder kids can learn multiple languages easily; they're accelerated sponges. He's speaking in small 2-3word sentences ("Mommy, no dancing" or "Cash eat?") and words are sounding closer to the real thing ("motorcycle," while still imperfect, at least has more then 2-syllables now).

Motorcycles are his favorite sound, next to airplanes. He'll stop whatever he's doing and cup his ear to his hand with wide eyes and exclaim "mo-co-co!" And he thinks all vehicles are a type of tractor.

He also has his first chore: feeding Cash the dog. He'll grab the plastic container from the shelf, open it, scoop out anywhere from 3-300 pieces of kibble, semi-successfully pour it into the target bowl, put the scoop back in the tub, close the lid and put the container back on the shelf. Awesome. I think it helps to repair some of the relationship damage Jett has done in hitting and screaming at Cash (mostly territorial disputes over the rightful ownership of Mommy's lap).

Jett is now 2. We celebrated selfishly, gathering friends at a local winery. Jett and his crew had fun playing outside, snacking and sampling Jett's birthday loot, and the mommies and daddies enjoyed themselves as well. We were happy to make it, mostly unscathed, to two years in. I've been warned about terrible twos, but they don't scare me. I've pretty much danced with the devil already at this point; there's not much left to catch us off guard now.

Jett has been pretending. And singing. These are two new skills. He started singing maybe a month to a month and a half ago. I noticed he would mumble a bit when I sang his familiar bedtime tune, and that sort of graduated to discernible singing, in the car ("no Daddy, Jett sing"), playing an app, at bedtime. It's flipping adorable. He makes up the words mostly at this stage but knows some key words (likes Baa, Baa black sheep and sings the "yes sir, yes sir" 3 bags full part) and knows the melody. Which is great and cute but kind of a pain now that we have to have a 10-song rotation on hand because he may or may not be feeling a certain song that night and will rather quickly reject 7 in a row. (me: what about Twinkle, twinkle? Jett: Nnno! Me: what about the itsy, bitsy spider? Jett: Nnno! And so on). The pretending thing has been extremely cute. The first night he did it, also maybe a month ago, I was on all fours pacing around our bed while Kenny and Jett lay out of reach cuddled in the center by the headboard. I was pretending to be a hungry tiger/bear/monster/lion and would go from one side to the next, swiping my claws upward to graze an exposed foot or calf. Jett would squeal in delight and Kenny would reaffirm protection efforts. When I became a gentle beast and joined them on the bed, Jett made a calculated shimmy off the side of the bed to the floor and proceeded to get on all fours, growling, clawing and pacing the bed. I might have sobbed out of overwhelming cuteness if I hadn't been tasked with feigning fright and huddling with Kenny from our  2-year-old beast aggressor. He growls a lot as of late, and tries to startle me with loud roars. I may get sick of this later, but for now, it's ridiculously adorable.

Jett is a tyrant, and takes his own showers. He has been, for what seems like a while now, telling us our business. We used to have post-bathing dance sessions in his room, but he's taken to screaming at Kenny and I to let him dance alone because apparently our dance moves aren't good enough. He also tells us, repeatedly, to refrain from singing along with him, going over the top with character voices when reading bedtime books, or speaking along with the words to the same kids show episode we've seen 15 quadrillion times. He also likes to tell us when to sit on the couch by pointing. I have visions of that Nanny 911 show and my unruly 3-year-old who runs the household and let's mommy and daddy see the sun whenever it pleases him... Jett also likes to take showers now. Well, he doesn't like to shower, or bathe in general, but seems to prefer shower over bath most of the time. I just sit on the toilet seat next to him and he stands in the shower stream and relaxes like daddy, until he remembers he's got toys and growls at his disposal.

We're looking to start pacifier weaning maybe in the next few weeks, or maybe after his last 2-year molar has come in, the first of which finally poked through last week. Haven't had his 2-year checkup at the dr yet so no official stats, but he seems a reasonable height for kids his age (is still taller, if only barely) than the 3 18-month-olds he regularly hangs with) and is probably on the low side of the weight range because that's inevitably where he'll be from birth til 24. He's been 24 lbs for a while now, and in size 24 month or 2T as he gets a little longer in legs and torso. His hair is dirty blonde and shaggy, shaggy shaggy. Think I might let it grow out a bit to see if there's any wave to it (young surfer kid 'do) or if it'll be insanely straight like his old man's...if the latter, it'll get cut, when and if I can manage rationalizing a haircut with Jett or managing a sneak attack in the tub that doesn't result in blood and nips to the neck...He does seem to understand the necessity for nail trims, so maybe I can talk him into sitting still for this...

Otherwise, Jett's still running around a billion miles a minute. Have been meaning to take him to a tumbling kid gym place for the last three weeks but he's been sick for at least two of them. I hope it's awesome and gets some energy out of him; he just has more than he or we know what to do with. But that's how Kenny was as a tyke. And Jacque (his mum) figured it out so we can too. I think. I hope. He'll just be in 11 different school sports...

The poor sickly beast has awakened and I'm off to attend to my sweet child as only a mommy can. I hope to write again sooner than later-I want to document this next crazy year and all the language and logic skills he'll be attaining... And attitude...and entitlement...