Second year Thomas

Oh Thomas. How our baby is 2 years old on Thursday, we have yet to figure out. He has so drastically changed our lives that it's nearly impossible to recall the previous version of this family.

Thomas is an avid modeler; currently Jacob is 'reading' a DVD case while lying on the floor, so you'd better  believe Thomas grabbed a DVD and is nestled on the floor right next to his brother 'reading'. Most toddlers learn via modeling but Thomas appears to soak up every detail, then reenact the task perfectly (Jacob, on the other hand, was too busy trying to make people laugh and didn't start detail mimicking until about last year at this time).

(Mosty mos is the red shirted kid down on the right front, hanging with Jacob and his friends from school)

Since last birthday, Thomas has evolved into an impressive though generally slowish eater. Around 14 months old, food seemed to actual begin appealing to him and when he is well, he can't get enough. His all time favorites are pretzels, popcorn, pasta (hello carb kid), along with all vegetables minus tubers, and fruit smoothies. He continues to need dairy-free, be picky with meats, and requires absolutely no peanuts (yet tree nuts are fine...huh).

 

Have I mentioned he has a mean sweet tooth? (And finally got his first full-head haircut about 2 weeks ago to minimize the low humidity-induced fuzzy fro.)

His vocabulary is hilarious. He has followed an interesting learning path with speech and didn't start caring about nouns until about 3 months ago. His interest has been in the inflection and number of syllables; after mastering those details in a phrase, he then moves on to articulate the individual words.  -And he finally calls Jacob something- either baydub or waydub depending on which consonant emerges!

His current Thomas-isms include:
-constantly asking "Why?" to me, Daniel, his teachers at school, anyone who makes eye-contact with him while he has a question, etc.
-demanding we wake-up when he does in the morning by declaring "No sleeping, all done mommy, Up" or just repeating loudly, "Eat! Eat, mommy!"
-With an accompanying hand gesture, instructs others to "come on" when they are desired by Thomas (or if Jacob is falling behind)

From the Christmas pageant last weekend at church: our Donkey and little star- who stole the show by wandering around and pointing at 'baby Jesus' the WHOLE time.

  -Sliding a chair across the kitchen, up to the counter, then standing in it to ask, "what you cooking, mommy/daddy?" This is usually followed by extra spoons, fingers, spatulas, cars getting shoved into whatever is being prepared/cooked as Thomas offers his (adorable) help

Thomas continues to be fascinated by trains (no, he doesn't really know about Thomas the train yet) and cars, simple tools, musical instruments, books, and very recently fell in love with puzzles.

He is our cuddler, our yeller, our inquisitive engineer, and our little brave firecracker. We love this boy yesterday, today, and all of tomorrows.