Proud mama

I realize it's been a while since I have blatantly gone on a bragging streak about my wee one, so here goes!
Monkey turned 2 back in May. He's getting bigger, of course, and although the issues he had with eating/speaking are still there, he has really come a LONG way. Allow me to list (yes, lists! mama loves LISTS!) the new and wonderful things he has been doing lately...

• Vocabulary now consists of Mama, Dada, Baba (bottle), dinky (his version of stinky, in referrence to a desperately needed changing of the diaper), Hi, Byebye, Baby (both pointing to himself and greeting a very cute girl in the mall), Booya. The last one started out as BOOOOOOOOO being screamed really loud in public places, but recently morphed to booya. Can say Mine, although doesn't know what it means (thankfully). Recently started calling my dad Popo. The cats are 'iggies', and his stuffed doggie for bedtime is Oggy.
• Sings. Yup, he'll run around and sing an odd little tune of Lalalalalala. I swear this has nothing to do with mama's obsession with Katamari Damacy.
• Eats pasta, ramen noodles, Fig Newtons, cornbread, oranges slices.
• Rides down the slide all by himself! he climbs up the ladder, swings his legs around, and scoots forward saying 'weeeeeee'. Priceless!
• Figured out how to come into the game room, turn on the guitar amp and then strum on Daddy's electric.
• Actually puts his toys away! He knows to put the legos in the lego truck and the rest of the toys in the toybox.
• Plays basketball and catch.
• Can put together about 4 legos at a time.
• Knows that socks and shoes go on his feet. Although he takes particular joy in taking them OFF, when mama goes to put them on he calmly sits back and sticks out his tootsies.
• Loves giving eskimo kisses, which we've dubbed Nuzzles.
• Has been attempting to brush his own teeth and hair. The latter isn't very effective, but is dang amusing.
• Knows that 'Going Bye Bye' means putting his shoes on, walking out the door and opening up the cardoor. He will go through these steps usually before I have even grabbed my purse.
• Knows that when you move the little sticks on the game controller, something on the screen moves. Yes, my son's a gamer!
• Has begun experimenting with crayons.
• Picks the dandelions in the backyard and immediately presents them to me.
• Goes into the kitchen and grabs the tupperware I keep his goldfish in, opens it, and happily nibbles away.

He's constantly learning, and I can clearly see the development. I think he's at the point where he's playing catchup with a lot of his peers, which is obviously a huge relief to us. You can really see the delight he takes in the world around him, which is a beautiful thing. He's experimenting a lot with babbling and different sounds (his favourite thing to do is sit on my lap and have a 'growling contest'. Whenever he's outside he is just running from one end of the yard to the other, picking up leaves and sticks and examining them.

Thank heaven for little boys! I decided I am going to go through some of his outgrown baby clothes (which I was hording for the next baby) and donate them to whoever is running Hurricane relief programs in my area. Seeing how everyday life with my son is such a treasure, it makes me realize how the simple things mean so much.