The Harriman Family: Rhett is 2...oops, now he's 2 1/2 going on 3 and it's the eve of sister's next birthday...

I think this is about where I left off ~18 months

Dear Sweet Rhett,
Shame on Mommy! I think my last monthly post all about you was at 17 months. I missed the 2 year mark too, and now you're well on your way to 3. Ugh! This time is flying by and it makes me want to cry every time I think about it too much! Let me just say, my slacking on here is no indication of how much I love and enjoy you. You bring me so, so, so much joy! Like, I totally get why my brother got away with so much more than I did. He was cute, and you are so stinkin' cute I can't hardly stand it! And he was the baby, and well, you're the baby, and I don't mind keeping it that way. I don't even care that you still take a paci at bedtime and that you can throw a mean 2-year-old fit. You are probably a little spoiled, but mostly you are the smartest, sweetest, funniest, most beautiful boy in the world to me. You keep my on my toes with your nonstop, busy, on the go, no mode but fast little self. And I love you so!

You have been around 30 pounds since your 2 year old check-up. You haven't gained much weight lately, but I do think you are getting taller and slimmer.
Your vocabulary EXPLODED around 18 months! I couldn't even keep up with your words anymore. I thought most boys talked slower and less than girls, but I think you have given your sister a run for her money in the talking department. Y'all have no problem expressing yourself vocally. I remember at your 2 year old appointment, Dr. Lovell asked if you were speaking in sentences. I said, "Oh, yeah." He said, like 5 words? And I thought of a sentence you had recently said and counted 10. Now you can say anything. And you never stop talking. You use words like "actually" and "volcano" and too many grown up words for me to even think about.
You love to sing. You bob your head in the back of the car when a song comes on that you like. You love and can sing so many songs from church and Christian radio. Some of your recent favorites are: "With Every Act of Love," "10,000 Reasons," "Slow Fade," "Broken Hallelujah," "Jesus Loves the Little Children," "Daniel in the Lions Den," "Who Did Swallow Jonah," "God Made the Great Big Sun," "My God is so Big," "Good Old Noah Built the Ark." You also picked up a lot of new songs at VBS this year. I'm pretty sure you thought Uncle Ranjo was a rock star up there singing those songs. You love any and everything about Bible class, especially Noah. You think so highly of Noah that you sometimes say he made the animals. I love how you run into Bible class and sit right down. You are always excited and ready to go. You know the stories of Noah, Daniel, Jonah, David, Moses, and Adam and Eve.
Other songs you love to sing: "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Skidamerink," "You are my Sunshine (but you insert "lion" for sunshine)," "Old MacDonald," "Bingo," "The Beanbag Song," "The Ants Go Marching." I could go on and on. You and your sister also like to take turns making up songs. You sing a lot about God and Jesus, lions, dinosaurs, and monsters. "God is my heaven..." is one of your favorite lines. And if you are about to sing a scary song you say, "This ones dunna (gonna) be spooky." I love it! Y'all stand on the fireplace in the living room and perform like it's a stage.

You say the sweetest prayers. Always remembering to thank God for all of your family members by name. When I ask you what you are thankful for your first answer is Jesus.
Papa is probably your favorite person. He does and plays anything with you. One Saturday, he let you ride the lawnmower while he cut grass, and I was amazed that you stayed on with him the whole time. You love going to Gigi and Papa's house on Thursday nights while Mommy and ME go to Bible study. You get really attached to Mia too. One day you were talking on your cell phone and told me that you were calling the police and they were going to put me in jail. I said, "But who would take care of you if I was in jail?" And without missing a beat you said, "Mia."
You are such a good little player and entertain yourself so well. Now, you do make quite a mess dragging out toys, but I do have to say that you play hard with them. Some days it cars and trucks and tractors and trains and airplanes. Some days it cooking in the kitchen and taking care of baby dolls. You also love to build with blocks and legos, play instruments, do puzzles, play with your Little People, be a doctor, be a hairdresser, be a superhero, be Jake, play with playdoh, color. You also like to dress up with your sister and play with her princesses and castles and everything girly. But hands down, your most favorite thing to play with are your animals and dinosaurs. You got a variety of big and little hard, plastic animals for Christmas, and I am certain you have touched them every day since then. You just love them! We added the dinosaurs later, which you are totally into now. You line them up, scatter them all over the house, run with them, push them in your dump truck, dump them out, pull them in your wagon, knock them down, bathe them, brush them, give them check-ups, and don't forget fight with them. You run around the house constantly roaring loudly. Never know if that means you're a dinosaur, a lion, or a monster. ;)
You also love to play outside. Riding your four-wheeler and car, playing with bubbles and chalk, digging in the sandbox, swinging and sliding, getting sprayed with the water hose, playing with the kitchen in the playhouse, looking for bugs, looking for rocks, looking for sticks, digging, digging, digging.
You have the best imagination! You can go toe to toe with your sister in that department too. I love to watch and hear you play.

You hit and kick and push and bite your sister. I pray that you will never be that aggressive with other kids, but she just seems to bring it out in you. She can make you madder and sadder and happier than anyone. I can't blame you sometimes honestly. I know you get tired of her bossing you around and getting in your face! She can make you fighting mad, but you sure do love her. You watch and copy most of what she does. It's definitely "monkey see, monkey do." Like if I'm trying to round both of y'all up to go somewhere, if I can just get her to come, you'll come. Or if I can just get her to eat, you'll eat. Or it can go the other way, if she starts acting super silly at the table, so do you. Or if she starts yelling in the car, so do you. Y'all totally feed off each other and gang up against me sometimes. ;)
You love to read books. Like really, really love it, and I love that! You still love your baby board books, but you can sit for longer ones now. When we moved into this house, I went through the tedious process of going through my school books and picking out older picture books (and chapter books) to put into our library collection. One of those sections is non-fiction science books in the cabinet under your bookshelves. Well, once you discovered all of those animal and dinosaur and shark and snake books you were hooked. So, we don't read every word on most of the pages, but you LOVE to look at those books. Some of your favorites are: anything about dinosaurs and animals and transportation, Good Night Gorilla, Yummy Yucky, Let's Go to the Zoo, Will You Be My Friend, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Barnyard Dance, ABCs, Waddle, Swing, Opposites, Diary of a Worm, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Where the Wild Things Are, Green Eggs and Ham, Tickle Monster.

You can count to 20. You know lots of letters and sounds, but not all of them yet. You know your colors and most of your shapes.
You loved taking ME to her school, and you walked into her classroom like you owned the place. You would immediately start playing with the toys or reading books or doing puzzles. It wasn't always fun dragging you out of there, but I so enjoyed our Monday and Wednesday mornings together. I cherish any one-on-one time with either of you, but time alone with you is like gold because we have never had that before. On Mondays, we would drop her off and go get groceries. Then we would come home, and you would help me unload the car. We played at home until it was time to eat lunch and go pick up ME. On Wednesdays, we would go straight to story time after dropping her off. You enjoy the preschool storytime with ME, but you especially enjoy sitting in my lap for the toddler story time with Ms. Taylor. Then we would feed the ducks, or go to the park, or run errands. Lots of Wednesdays we had lunch out with each other or friends or Daddy.

You are stinkin' sweet! You pucker up and give real kisses and the best hugs. I had to invent a game called Kissing Monster, Hugging Monster, and Tickle Monster because there was a time when you didn't want to hug and kiss. But you can be so lovey dovey now I love it! Sometimes you say the sweetest things, and I just melt. Like, "You're the best mommy ever! This is the best day ever! I love you mommy!" You also can turn it around and say, "You're the baddest mommy ever" or "you're the baddest sister ever." Ha! One day you got mad at me in the bathtub and said, (and you get these words and drama from your sister) "I want a new mommy." Then I just started asking you questions, and it was hilarious. I asked you what kind of mommy you wanted, and you said that you wanted a big mama. Then you said you wanted her to be red. And when I asked where you would find her and you said Walmart. And you would pay using Chuck E. Cheese money. And then I asked what you were going to do with me, and you said you were going to throw me in the toilet. By this time you were out of the bathtub and dried off, and I said okay I'll see you later and acted like I was closing the bathroom door and getting in the toilet. Well, you changed your tune real quick after that. It was a little funny how serious your face got, but then you got sad and said, "No! I don't want a new mommy." Oh my goodness!

You make the funniest faces! Your mad face makes me laugh. And when you're disappointed or something doesn't go your way, your shoulders drop, you slump over, and you have the best sulky face ever. It just shows all over your body very dramatically. And then you have the sweetest smile ever! And you still have your sweet baby laugh. That makes me think about your thighs. Are the last creases gone yet? I'll have to check in the morning. This post has been in the works for a while, I just haven't gotten around to finishing it, because I know there's more I want to remember. But ME is turning 5 tomorrow, and I have to wrap up the post of you about 2 before that happens. I just blew up balloons and hung streamers for her birthday, and I had to sit down and finish this. Okay, I'm sounding a little crazy...

I'm just thinking of funny Rhett quotes now. The other day we were leaving the park, and I handed you a water bottle in the back seat of the car. I was driving and didn't think to take the lid off, but sister was there beside you to help. Somewhere in transition from her opening it and handing it off to you, it dropped and spilled in the backseat. You said, "I didn't see that coming."

You're big on asking "What are we dunna do in da morning?" before bed and naptime. One morning before you were even out of your crib you asked me what we were going to do. I said that after breakfast we were going to the gym. You said, "Are you dunna stretch and do yoga?" And I said, "Yes." Then you said, "Are you dunna be stinky?" ;) Probably yes to that because hot yoga is hot and sweaty! Also, one day after a long run, like 10 miles when I was training with Julie for the half marathon, I got home in time to put you down for nap. We were reading and rocking in the chair, and I'm pretty sure you had your paci in your mouth, and you started sniffing and said, "I smell sumpin (something)." Ha!

You're old enough now that you are not satisfied with us pretending to understand what you just said. And I can make out 99% of it. But recently when you tell me something, and I can't figure it out, but I attempt to act like I understand without actually lying and I say, "Hmmm..." You say, "No, don't say "hmmm" don't say dat." You also are not amused sometimes when we laugh and you are being serious. You say, "No, don't do dat, don't yaf at me." Or you say, "Don't yaf about me." And if you're talking and think I'm not listening or if sister is talking and you're trying to get through you'll say, "Hey, I'm talkin to you."

One night in the middle of the night I heard you say over the monitor, "Mama, what we dunna, eat?" And that was the end of it.

You say "tomato storm" or "potato storm" for tornado storm. Your vocabulary is amazing, but I do worry about your speech. I think you speak very cleary for your age, but I'm your mama and I can understand you. I have worried since birth about your speech because you were literally tongue tied. Your tongue was attached almost to the end. I asked the pediatrician about surgery, but it was not significant enough to affect your feeding, and he said it normally stretches as you grow. And yours has, but you kind of have a lisp on your "s's". Time will tell if that's just developmentally appropriate or if you'll need speech therapy. It won't be the end of the world either way. And honestly, I love the way you say "yeth" for "yes" right now anyway!

I love the way you say, "Yes, I'm mam" for yes, I am.
You did better at swim lessons this year. You're still not super comfortable and confident in the water, but you didn't buck and kick and wail like you did last year. The sand on the beach is where it's at for you!

We're working on manners and how to be a gentleman. When ME is at school and you help unload the groceries, I tell you what a gentleman you are, and you say, "Yes, I'm big and strong too." It only took a few conversations for you to tell me that a gentleman carries heavy things and helps the ladies, says yes ma'am and no ma'am, offers his coat when its cold, opens doors, pulls chairs out. I mean you were all over that stuff. I hope it sticks!

You don't get mad very often but sometimes when you do, it's really, really mad and it takes a while for you to get over it. Nothing can be done to soothe you. Nothing is right. Everything is wrong. And you cry and snub for some time. Usually in your crib with your paci and blanket because these kind of meltdowns only happen at night. And you just want to be left alone to self-soothe. If you're just normal mad, your version of a fit is yelling really loudly. And then it's over. I don't care for you yelling or more like growling about something, but if that gets it out of you it's better than kicking and screaming on the ground. Although, you have been known to melt in the morning over chocolate milk that is not poured all.the.way to the top of the cup. Yes, and that is "chokit mik peas" (chocolate milk please.)

You like to hang out in your crib in the mornings and play and talk to yourself with your paci in your mouth and your blankie ever near. Sometimes I come in you say, "I was talkin about _________." Or you tell me what you were playing and what was in the bed with you.

Blankie is pretty shabby by the way. It got a hole, and you put your fingers in it and touch the soft inside (how the blanket used to feel). You have rubbed and played until it is quite a large hole, and there are new ones along the sides too. I hate to tell you, but at 3 the paci is going away. I think you'll be okay as long as blankie is around though. When we pack to go on trips your sister insists on packing a whole backpack full of stuff she has hand-selected. When I ask you what you want to pack all you say is, "Paci and blankie."

We tried, tried so hard to potty train before our cruise, and you did consistently well with the pee, but not so much the poo. But I didn't want to give up because I thought you were doing well enough that we could do it. But it was more Mama than anything. As long as I took you to potty you would pee, and even hold it mostly until I took you. But you never said when you needed to go, so it was all me and very little you. So, as 3 is coming closer, you're going to have to take some responsibility for that stuff!

Did I mention I could eat your cheeks up? We finally stopped calling you baby Rhett, but sometimes you still call yourself that. Or I love how you say, "I'm Wet Waw Hawwiman." And you hold up 2 fingers and say, "I'm 2." We have lots of other pet names for you: Brother, Bubba, Bubbie, Pookie, Boo Boo.