Terrible Yet Terrific Twos

To: My Little Cub


Wow. It's been awhile since I wrote, to you, about you, just wrote.
 I really cannot belive how much of a grown kid you appear to be these days. You speak. Regularly. You tell me how you feel, what you're thinking, what you did in school, what you remember happening, what you remember me saying. You follow rules without me telling you to. You say thank you, welcome and bless you on your own. You say excuse me after you burp (and fart! lol) without me reminding you to do so. We've come a long way!

 Two has been extremely fun and rewarding, yet...extremely challenging. As the oldest of five, I knew raising a child on my own would be a lot of work. But I can honestly say that I had no idea just how hard it would really be. I couldn't have imagined it. What can I say Baby Bear? You are quite the stubborn little guy. I'd like to think this means you'll be a very confident, strong, independent adult. A leader and a champion.

We went running this weekend, at a track in our neighborhood. I've been waiting for this day to come. You ran half a lap. Then walked, played ball and sat out for a break while I ran 5 more. You looked revitalized. I felt revitalzed. It was a nice soon-to-be spring day. I felt on top the world. The river running along side of us. New York City shimmering in the distance.  And my munchkin and I...together; experiencing life...as we'll continue to do.

Love,
Mama Bear

My Big Boy...

Date: October 2012

I've had many moments the past couple of months where I looked over at my munchkin and thought, holy canoli, he is not a baby anymore! These moments occur often...

Yesterday, I picked up my son from school and on our short walk to the car we passed by the very spot where we had seen a dog enter into an apartment building that morning on the way to school. "Doggy!" he shouted and pointed at the door to the apartment building. "Yes, that's right, the dog went in there." I responded. We kept walking and stopped in front of the pizza shop (I told him we'd have pizza for dinner). He ran inside and immediately found a seat and sat down. I smiled. He looked ADORABLE sitting in the chair with his legs dangling down, observing everyone around him. He no longer needs a highchair or booster seat at restaurants!

I ordered us two slices of pizza and asked the lady behind the counter to cut both in small slices. I sat down at the table next to my munckin. "No, mama! Over there!" Oh. He had picked out my seat across from him. "Ok Bubba, you want me to sit here, across?" He replied with his new most commonly used phrase, "Yeah." and then proceeded to grab my purse and place it on the seat next to him. We ate our pizza followed by a walk to the nearby park...it was a peaceful, pleasant evening with my little guy.