Time for Marek's 2 year pics. Still very challenging. :-) Don't you love his guido necklace? He found Daddy's old gold Puerto Rico necklace and had to wear it. Ha!
He kept giving Blue Hippo a kiss.
And then going for the camera...
Here is Marek at 2 year old:
He is on a mega kick of playing "Our God is Greater" by Chris Tomlin OVER AND OVER AND OVER on our phones. He knows exactly which buttons to push to get it on, and he belts out and sings with the whole song, or he'll sing part of it then stop it and start it all over. I love that song, and I always smile now thinking how it was Ellison's first favorite song, and now Marek's, but I have to say we're a teensy bit tired of hearing it all the time. All. The. Time. But it really is the cutest thing watching him sing the lyrics.
Marek talks very loud. It's just his norm. Thankfully we were told at his check-up with the ENT doc that his hearing is now in the normal range. But he still talks loud. And a lot. He is a big talker! But he cracks us up. He is often found repeating and whispering phrases. Like if I were to say, "Marek, please shut the door." He'll do it, but then on his own repeat in a quiet whisper, "Shut the door... Shut the door...".
Marek still enjoys playing in the van or Daddy's car. Every morning after we drop off Ellison and Mason at school, Marek and I sit in the driveway with the van running while he unbuckles and just plays. The little stinker knows how to turn the van off and on (he will actually start the vehicle by himself), and will even take it out of park! Of course I'm right there, but my, my...
Marek is absolutely challenging to shop with now. Grocery shopping involves him taking chip bags or bread and crushing/squeezing them. As the cart gets full, he reaches back and starts chucking items out of the back and onto the floor. As I am retrieving the said item, he's already chucking another item. NOT. FUN. Thank you, Harris Teeter, for online shopping!!! In Target he'll do okay for a little while, then it's over with. He wants to ride in the back. Then he wants to ride in the front. Back and forth. I give him toys to play with while we are there. As soon as he decides he's had enough of it, he tosses it to the floor quicker than you can blink your eye. Seriously. It's in his hands, then suddenly it's on the floor. And I start getting a pit in my stomach as I determine if it's now a broken item we are now going to purchase. Knock on wood, that hasn't happened yet (except for the Costco laundry detergent fiasco). So then when Marek decides he's had enough and REALLY wants to walk or get out, he starts reaching for me. I keep telling him "no no", but he rapidly unbuckles the seatbelt and takes a dive for my arms. I have actually been "that Mom" in Target. You know, the one who everyone rolls their eyes or raises their eyebrows at. The ones who either think I don't have my s&*$ together or they feel so glad they don't have children. The mom who looks like she's about to lose it any minute and either start crying or laughing ridiculously hard. OK, so we've had only one of those REALLY bad shopping trips, but it's still at the forefront of my mind. The memory can make my hands start to tremble and suddenly give me an urge for a cigarette. And I hate cigarettes. All that to say, shopping with Marek isn't always fun or easy.
For whatever reason, Marek insists that he wants to "see the poopy" when I change his diaper. I don't know if this will somehow in some strange way help him potty train, but alrighty then...
Marek sometimes goes pee or poop on the potty. We even had one day recently that he did big boy underwear since he did not want a diaper on. We have 2 sets of days-of-the-week underwear, and started off on Friday. Several hours later when I was getting to Monday, I decided to put back on a diaper and not ask his opinion. But we did have some successes. Mama's just not quite ready to go hard on this yet.
Marek is definitely making his mark in this household. In the literal sense. He has twice gotten into some paints, unscrewed the caps that even I cannot get off, and had it splattered all over the dining room floor and the cloth dining room chair. He comes right to me when this happens, because he cannot stand having dirty hands.
Marek loves snapping things - especially his onesies when they're off. He loves Carmex - those mini tubs of it, not the chapstick shape. He just wants to hold on to it. Sometimes he'll unscrew it and put little finger marks in it, then apply it to his lips so that they resemble a candle. He is constantly seen in the shoes of every member of this household. Always putting on someone else's shoes and walking around. His favorite thing to do with them is go up and down the stairs, which then causes us to have to intervene.
Every morning when I drop the kids off at school, it cracks me up when Marek sees a particular volunteer opening the car doors of the vehicles in line. This particular person always assumes we have an automatic sliding van door (we ain't that fancy). She'll open it, assist the kids in getting out, then sometimes just walk away and go on to the next vehicle. One morning I had to yell out about 3 times, "Ma'am... ma'am... could you please shut the door?". Well Marek must've been completely glued to the scenario because to this day (a few weeks later), he will still start repeating out of the blue (or when he sees her in line) "Ma'am, shut the door!".
Marek's speech is crazy good. He talks loud, and he talks a lot. People are always commenting on his speech. At Walgreen's one day while I was perusing the skincare aisle, I was completely oblivious to his random chatting as I was concentrating on which eye wrinkle cream would be best. A lady walked past us and asked how old he was. When I told her he just turned 2, she said, "Wow! He talks a LOT!" Yep. On the phone one day with Grandma, he was telling on himself: "Bein' stinker. Knock it over, break it." He was telling her how he got in trouble for something earlier in the day.
Marek is into looking inside my mouth for some reason lately. Something about the back of the mouth reminds him of a carwash. (?!) He has me open my mouth wide by asking to "see car wash" all the while mimicking my open chompers, he grins and stares back there continually muttering "car wash" under his breath, then happens to gaze upon my molars, which have the old silver fillings, and says, "Poopy. Poopy in there." Nothing like your kids to make you feel fabulous about yourself.
One of the most endearing little things he does that I love right now is point out random things in a store and says, "This is cute." Like, he'll grab a box of coffee filters off the shelf and say, "This is cute...". He'll see a pack of batteries, or a shirt, or a pair of shoes, or a mop, and it's, "This is cute...". Love it. You'll be such a good shopping hubby one day, Bubba.
Marek has a favorite book right now, "Flush the Potty". He asks me to read it over and over, and will sit still as can be for it. He never flushes the potty button until I whisper to him his cue. He even knows parts of the book before I get to them, and will finish the sentences. I love that in one particular spot, he will always exclaim, "He got the underwears (with an "s")," as he sees the illustration of a big boy holding up his big boy underwear.
Marek's pretty adept at beating on his sister already. She's in tears at least once a day, and the bickering in this house is on a constant rise. He will just walk up to her out of the total blue, and haul off and whack her on the head. No warning. What on earth??? The two of them make me roll my eyes often in the afternoon from all the arguing, but then there are just the best moments ever between them. They really do adore each other. Just a couple of days ago, when it came time for us to put Marek to bed, he asked for Sissy to hold him as he got rocked for a couple of minutes in his room. So she crawled into the chair, and we put Marek on her, and she held him facing her, and he just layed his little head down on her while she rocked and patted his back just in the way a mother would with a particular rhythm. Melt. My. Heart. And he never did want me to rock him. When I tried to take him, he just said, "No, Sissy rock you." (He says phrases like, "Hold you" in stead of "Hold me", just like Ellison did. :-) )
Marek loves to play with cars and his tool bench. But he's always begging me or Jonathan to play with those things with him. "Mama, play tools!" or "Mama, play cars!". But he loves to line things up and loves having "garages". And for some reason, he's back at the register covers again. Grrr. We thought he outgrew his preoccupation of removing the register covers from the floor and sticking objects down them. He hadn't even touched them in a few months. Well, that vacation is over. :-/ Between that, chasing after him when he grabs the toilet plunger or toilet cleaning brush and comes carrying it to me saying "Uh oh", and just throwing nearly every object he gets his hands on, he makes every wrinkle on my face deepen a bit. But as much as he keeps us on our toes and completely exhausted, he is such a joy! He has such a fun personality, and loves to smile and laugh. He brings fun and mischief that we just wouldn't have without him. And we are so grateful to have him in our family. Every gray hair on this head is worth it, Buddy. We wouldn't trade you for anything, and we love you so very much! You have been such a blessing to our family over the last 2 years!
[January 18, 2013]
On Marek's 2 year old check-up at the pediatrician's, he weighed in at 30 lbs (74th percentile), and was 34.5" tall (62nd percentile). According to the 2 year old calculations, he will probably grow to be about 5'10.5". :-)
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