1. I think I have bragged about Gram before, somewhere?, but let me just say for the record again that he is an AMAZING little boy. He is well behaved, obedient, perceptive, attentive and capable. Personally, this stage for me as a stay at home mom is more difficult. I struggle with feeling guilty about whether I am doing enough with him, whether I am intentional enough with our days, if I am being creative enough to stimulate his learning. But I have been reminded these last few weeks that obviously something is going right because he is a good, good kid. And really, that's what I want, a good kid and not, to be honest, a hellun'. Praise God!

2. Gram's first imaginary friend is a monster. Kind of weird, huh? He doesn't have a name, just monster. Monster hides in his cardboard box house sometimes, or jumps in his bed, or lurks in the laundry room. We tell monster to go away sometimes or run and hide from him. Such a fun and silly and quite unexpected imagination. I never know what monster will be doing next. The other night for homegroup Gram wanted to wear his Batman pajamas. We asked him if monster was around and he said, "No, I'm batman!" Apparently, monster knows to stay away when Batman is around. Too cute!

3. While Dustin or I drive, Gram will often yell "2 hands! 2 hands!". Safety first for him, apparently! We haven't been able to figure out where he got this. He has done it with my parents as well and they are just as clueless. However, what I realized today is that I often tell him to use "2 hands" when I want him to be extra careful, such as dumping out the dust pan (yes, that is one of his chores he helps with), or eating a sandwich or burrito that might fall apart, etc. So, did he put those together in his mind? He wants us to be careful driving so is telling us "2 hands"? If so, my mind is blown. That's pretty smart, right?

4. My brother and sister in law got Gram this "Ok to Wake" froggy alarm clock for Christmas. It's awesome and he is loving it. We set it to turn green at 7:15am so he knows it is ok to get out of bed. We often hear him talking well before 7:15am to his animals and such, just waiting for the green froggy to light up. He then comes running out of his room shouting "green froggy, green froggy!" So excited and so fun to experience each morning.

5.Gram has always been a very cautious and capable little boy. This quality influences my parenting quite a bit, I just don't have to worry about him doing certain things because I know he won't. Therefore, he has freedoms that I might not be able to give our next kid, depending on his temperament. However, Gram is just 2 and so it's hard at times to know how much freedom and trust to put in him. A prime example from today: we were having mom's group at Amy Hyatt's house and the kids were playing in Josie and Janie's room. Gram had been in there for a bit so I went to check on him. I found him on the TOP BUNK of the bunk beds, with only a ladder to get him up there. This is how things went down...
Me: Ugh...Gram, watcha doin' up there?
Gram: (smiling hugely!)
Me: Did you climb up there all by yourself?
Gram: Uh huh.
Me: Ok...are you ready to get down?
Gram: Uh huh.
Me: Do you want me to help you down?
Gram: No.
Me: Have you got down all by yourself before?
Gram: Uh huh.
Me: Ok...can Mommy watch you get down all by yourself?
Gram: Uh huh, (big smile)
I proceed to watch him swing his leg over and climb down the ladder.
Me: Well....(stunned and not knowing what to say)..good job bud, I'm proud of you for doing that all by yourself....you need to be very careful getting up and down, ok? Be very careful.
Gram: (smiling) Uh huh.
He probably climbed up and down atleast 50 times throughout the rest of the morning, totally preoccupied with his new accomplishment. I was stunned at his capability. And while I understand the risk, I couldn't bring myself to squelch his obvious control and pride over the situation. I have learned over the last 2 years that Gram just doesn't do things that he doesn't feel capable of doing. He has proven to us time and time again of his control and understanding of situations. It's pretty remarkable and something I did not expect to see in my kid.

Overall, I feel incredibly blessed by Gram and by the stage that he's in as we are embarking on becoming a family of 4. I know his little brother will change family dynamics and I'm trying to think of lots of ways to empower Gram as an older brother. I couldn't have asked for a better time for Gram to become an older brother, I thank God for his timing and for the 2 beautiful gifts He is giving to us.

1 step:

1. While at the community center this week, he pushed a little girl who was going for the same toy that he was going for. After talking to him and asking him to apologize, which he did, we moved on to other toys. Later that night, we were telling Dustin about all the toys he got to play with at the community center and Dustin asked him about pushing down the little girl. We re-explained that we don't push other kids but that Gram did a really good thing by saying he was sorry to the little girl. We moved on and began to play with other toys. A few minutes later, Gram said, "Push the girl....I am so sorry." WHAT?! My heart melted. His little heart was still thinking about what we had just talked about and he said "so sorry", what little kid says that? Such a sweet boy.

2. I took Gram to his last music class this week, only to find out once we arrived that it was cancelled due to the snow. I said to Gram that I was sorry that class was cancelled and we would go play somewhere else instead. In the car Gram said, "Class cancelled....I am so sorry." And he kept repeating it! He was sorry he didn't get to go to his last class, so sweet.

This age is so amazing, he is like a sponge, just soaking in everything we are teaching him. It's humbling to see him listen, think and respond. I wonder if I am doing as well as that as he is.