A funny scene from yesterday

Jared and Amanda have spats frequently, yea, even unto blows. So, when Amanda complained about Jared hitting her, Mom braced herself for another round of "she took it" or "she hit me first" or whatever the blame game of the day called for. However, Jared was in the middle of a game. So, it went more like this:

"Jared, why did you hit Amanda?"
"Because I a bad guy!" (says Jared with a big grin)

Now, to get him back to playing the hero and STOPPING bad guys . . .

Some memories of Jared, age 2

As I type, my cute little 2 year old is munching away at a pumpkin shaped lollipop, complete with a jack-o-lantern face. He expressed concern that it was "crying" when the black coloring from the "eyes" started to drip down the "face," saying that the pumpkin wanted its mommy and daddy. A week or two ago, he was concerned that I may have run over an ant with our stroller. "You cannot hurt baby ant," he said, "He meeds (needs) his mommy and daddy ant." So, yes, no matter how often he issues preemptive blows to his aggressive younger brother, at heart our little Jared is really VERY sweet and caring, as we can clearly see from how kind he is to his baby sister and by other sweet things he does, like helping Mommy with chores, sitting by siblings who are in time out, and giving lots of hugs and kisses.

Before Jared turns 3 in a few days, I wanted to record some of the cute things he's done as a two year old. There are lots of fun ideas and characters in his world. For instance, there's the "Speaking Witch." The Speaking Witch first appeared when Mommy was talking to grandparents about Jared on the phone. Jared walked in just then and heard Mommy say "speaking of witch" (referring to Jared), but he had a little different interpretation. He took a turn on the phone and said, "Why you speaking witch grandmother?" Later, he asked grandmother, "Why you going on speaking witch airplane?" Another day, he brought a phone to Daddy and said, "Talk to Speaking Witch!"

Also this year, Jared got a brother-sister. That's what he calls baby Lydia, and he says it with a great amount of love and wonder. "She's my brother-sister!" he'll say when Mommy says, "She's your baby sister." "Be nice to my brother-sister," he says when his younger brother gets too rough with the baby. I wonder whether he is getting this from memories of us talking about him getting a baby brother or sister. He uses the terms brother, sister, and baby well enough in other contexts that it doesn't seem like a variation of "baby sister."

Jared has been polite and loving for a long time. He's so cute when he says please and thank you, and he's very patient with Mommy who reminds him to say those things if he ever forgets (he's just so cute saying them, can't miss those opportunities!). He also says "I love you" a lot, but since he's been learning numbers, he's taken it a step further. Now he frequently says, "I love you three" (since that's obviously even more love than just loving someone two (too)).

Jared also knows all the right phrases for getting his way (or so he hopes). At first when Mommy or Daddy said "No" to something he wanted, he'd say, "But I say yes!" Now, he just says, "But Daddy says yes" or "But Mommy says yes" depending on which parent said no, regardless of whether the other parent is present to contradict his assertion.

Jared has been excited about birthdays for quite sometime now. At first, all candles and cakes were birthdays. His birthdays. Now he's starting to understand the "day" part of birthday a bit better and is excited about his coming birthday.

One of my favorite little Jared quirks is his consistent use of "mine" in place of "my." As he talks about "mine hat," "mine brother-sister," "mine Batman costume," etc., my German experience kicks in and makes me think that mein Sohn is very cute.

One last little two-year-old tale for this post, which must be finished to ensure the survival of Jared and his siblings: post Halloween, all candy is now "trick-or-treat." And whenever he dons his beloved Batman costume, he declares, "Now I can go trick-or-treat!" Love that Jared boy. Looking forward to continuing our adventures with a new age, which he has already declared himself. Just ask him how old he is. He'll say, "I'm fwee (three)." He may even hold up the appropriate number of fingers, perhaps after muttering about "put dis little finger down." He's even figured out that he can put up any three fingers, just so long as there are three. :)

Jared at the Big Kid playground

He did it!

Today Jared decided he wanted to use the potty. And he did! Several times, in fact. Yay, Jared!

Butterflies, dragons, and Jared

It all started the other evening when Jared decided to fly. He held out his arms as "wings" and soared all over the living room. Mom asked whether he was a bird or a plane and learned that he was neither: "I a butterfly!" Jared exclaimed. All that evening and most of the next day, Jared declared himself to be a butterfly, and he made sure to include everyone in his game ("Amanda a butterfly! You a butterfly!" etc.). And then, just about 24 hrs later when everyone had gotten good at playing along with Jared's butterfly game, it was time for a change. "I not a butterfly; I a dragon!" he announced. Should be fun to see how dragon day turns out. :)

note: Jared wasn't just any dragon, either; he was an orange dragon, in an egg, getting ready to crack and find his way to Dragon Mountain. That's what he said.

The Backyard Barbershop

Jared's latest favorite hang-out

If Jared's outside, there's a good chance you'll find him right here, doing just what he's doing . . .