Happy Birthday, Quintin!

Our wonderful little boy turned two on Friday, December 11, 2009. It is so difficult to believe that the tiny bundle we brought home with such wonder & awe has already grown into such an intelligent, independent young man! He is, of course, the center of our entire universe -- We're certain he's a genius, the most beautiful child on the planet, and the most well-spoken two-year-old ever;-)!

We work constantly to balance our innate desire to make him happy with our responsibility to help him to learn healthy boundaries & self control -- I'm never very confident that we're getting the formula right! In addition to this struggle, there is the call for emotional maturity that comes with having an opinionated, determined little person constantly testing limits & pushing buttons -- during the numerous temper tantrums that come with this developmental stage, I find myself forgetting, sometimes, who the two-year-old is & who the Mommy is!

We savor the moments of bliss that come when Quintin climbs into our laps to cuddle, gives us his sweet kisses, and lisps charmingly, "love ooooo."

As he's still changing very quickly, both physically & intellectually, I thought I'd give an updated snap-shot of his development (We just went in for his 24 month wellness check):
Height: 36 1/2 inches
Weight: 30 lbs.
Shoe Size: 7
Clothes Size: 2T
Quintin's favorite activities include playing with his numerous cars (his birthday & Christmas really added to his collection!), "driving" his new pedal car (Aunt Teresa's birthday gift -- he LOVES it, and refers to as the "red car from Tsa-Tsa!"), "cooking" with Mommy (stirring odd ingredients while Mommy makes dinner, helping to prepare breakfast on the days we work from home, etc.), coloring (he also loves finger painting, but we still only do that with direct supervision!), counting (he counts EVERYTHING, mostly repeating the first few numbers (1-4) over and over again), RUNNING (he gets such a blissful expression on his face that I wish I could successfully take pictures of him in motion!), and playing outside (he and Tucker -- one of our younger cats -- play tag together; it's hilarious!). His pretend play is becoming evermore sophisticated, and he loves playing with puppets (or any sock (see picture), oven mitt, etc.!), making his Little People and cars talk and interact together, and chatting up his stuffed animals!
His vocabulary is still growing by leaps & bounds, and he's learning to sing the correct words to a number of favorite songs; he particularly likes "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "Frosty the Snowman." He knows & says all of the basic colors. He knows and makes the animals sounds for all of the typical farm and zoo animals (his particular favorite are the elephants) -- Mommy & Daddy can't wait to take him to the zoo someday! Our favorite new words of Quintin's are the "Peeees" (Please), "Dank oooo' (Thank You), and "Elcome" (You're welcome) he uses now! It's also very sweet to hear him say, "Bess ooo" (Bless you) anytime we sneeze, or "Scoooze eee" (Excuse me) while he squeezes past us or burps (or, as he's shoving us out of the way;-) It's much harder to say no to a request when he asks sweetly, "Peeeeeaaaas?" He refers to himself as "Tin-Tin" and knows that he's two (he can hold the correct number of fingers up, but has to use his other hand to help hold down his other fingers!). Another favorite phase "Tin-Tin do himSELF!" (he also asks, "Help, peeeees," if the situation warrants).
Quintin is going through a picky-eating phase -- his favorites (about the only things he'll consume right now) are "Chalk-it" (chocolate -- don't worry, it's a rare treat!), ice cream (Mommy also calls the fruit/spinach smoothies she makes "ice cream" -- sshhhhh, don't tell!), soooouuuup (Campbell's makes a Cars soup that Mommy bought one day as a special treat -- it's since become a staple!), "O gart" (he's especially fond of "staw-berry" yogart), "pet-zels" (esp. honey wheat pretzels), donuts (he beeeeeggggsss for them, then eats only the sprinkles off of the tops, so I'm not sure these count as food!) and animal crackers (if we don't have any animal crackers, he chews his crackers into shapes and shows them to Mommy, "Oook it, Mommy, elephant!" lol).