The extremely wonderful (sometimes terrible) two-year-old Grayson!

On July 15, my baby turned 2!?! Time has done that weird thing where it goes by really fast and yet synonymously very slow. In so many ways, I feel like Grayson has always been a part (okay, let's be real, the center) of my life. It's a strange thing to know someone so intimately as you know your children. At least when they're little, you know their every movement, (nearly) every bite that has entered their mouth, and the interpretation of every little twitch, look, or groan. You speak their literal language fluently and you translate for others. You control their schedule, their media intake, and their interaction with the rest of the world. You are their everything, and they are yours. It's really beautiful and sometimes exhausting.

At two years old, Grayson is:

• A busy busy whirlwind of a boy - he rarely sits still. 
• Deeply curious - he's a master at taking apart, dumping out, and uncovering any thing that appears slightly mysterious to his little brain. I clean up a lot of stuff. 
• Extremely vocal - he has a huge vocabulary and we carry on in-depth conversations, some are pretty hilarious. 
• Smart and sassy - he counts, sings, knows his abc's, and can identify every truck, vehicle, and animal on God's green earth (at least that's how it seems).
• Sporting a silly sense of humor - he's frankly a goof who tells jokes about doggies wearing diapers and accidentally getting thrown out with the trash. 
• A love of music - He identifies and can name individual instruments and musicians. He LOVES to listen to music and can play the drums (to a steady beat) and his guitar (his ukulele) plugged in to pedals and amplifiers, of course. His favorite songs are: "Twinkle Twinkle", "Moonshadow", "Sweet Baby James" a.k.a. "the Cowboy Song", and "daddy songs" (all day, every day, repeat).
• An engineering mind - he can turn on the TV and DVD player by himself (we didn't teach him this by the way) and toast his own bread (I also didn't teach him this). My mom even caught him trying to put gas in her lawnmower (I definitely didn't teach him this!). 
• Mischievous - all of the qualities above combine to create an independent boy with a great memory and busy brain. He manages to get himself into trouble quite often. We're working on time out and listening.
• Opinionated - And lest you think he's perfect, let's document that as of late, his new favorite saying is "I not want to!" He can lose it pretty quickly when I don't drive on the right road he wanted me to drive on, when I don't have the right song playing over the radio, or when I tell him to do something he doesn't like which seems to happen about every 10 minutes. He is an expert at prostrating himself on any floor (bathroom floors, supermarket floors, sidewalks, etc...) and throwing a fit just to let me - and everyone else within ear-shot - know that he isn't happy with my choice not to obey his wishes. It's pretty fantastic. 

I am so curious to watch Grayson grow up - he is very special and I know that if we can channel his energy and ideas that he could be unstoppable. I feel privileged to be his mother and am learning to take deep breaths and remember just how much he was wanted and wished for even in those moments of exasperation and terrible-twos. Luckily, it's easy to move past those moments when he gives me hugs, exclaims to the world, "this is my mommy," and tells me "that's really cute," when I try on clothes. Even under that mischievous, spirited little soul is a tender boy and I am so glad he's mine. 

Grayson was well celebrated in July. Here's the proof.