i love almost-2-year-olds. really, i do.

my baby is almost two.  this is how i can tell.  twice this week, he's refused to fall asleep for his nap.  actually, i take that back--today he did fall asleep after 2 hours in his bed (he was happy the whole time, and alternated between singing "twinkle twinkle" and "i am a child of god", and reciting the names of people in our family (mommy, daddy, neeko, adline, getchy, pace) (neeko=liesel and gwyneth both) and counting (3, 4 jump!  3, 4 jump!).  just when i was going to go in and get him up from his "quiet time nap", he fell asleep for 2 hours, so spent a total of 4 hours in bed, and then wasn't ready for bedtime tonight.  he thought it was so great to say goodnight to all the girls while he was still up and running around.  sigh.  also today, he got ahold of a purple marker and colored on many, many surfaces in my house.  (the couches--luckily just the leather ones, coffee tables, vases, walls, stairs--luckily tile, doors, himself).  he proudly showed me them all, and then walked around saying "no, no pace".  guess i waited too long to hide the coloring things.  actually, they were hidden, just not well enough, apparently.  he's also on an eating strike, and won't eat anything i put in front of him unless it's a cookie.  i think all my kids have gone through this.  and now they all drink spinach smoothies, so i'm trying not to worry.  in fact, that's the benefit of having 5 kids.  by the 5th one, you don't stress about the stages.  unfortunately, my oldest 2 still get stressed about, because they're the first ones in each stage.  sorry, girls!  but, hey, i was the oldest, and i survived, right?  

speaking of liesel, (in a round-about way), here is a quote from this morning:  "i so wish i didn't have to go to school today.  i've got such better things to do with my time."

i agree, baby (sometimes, at least)--good thing next week is spring break!

but i digress:  back to pace being 2:  he does that limp-body tantrum thing, he insists on walking everywhere, etc., etc., etc.

on the other hand, he says the funniest things.  today he saw 2 helicopters in a row (his favorite next to motorcycles and tractors), and said "oh my goodness.  'copters.  oh my goodness." and then got so excited that he lost all ability to form real words and just babbled for about 2 minutes.  

and in all honesty, the 2-year-old stage is one of my favorites--now, 3........that's a hard one.