terrific two's

at pace's two year check, he weighed: 24 lbs (19 %ile) and was 33 1/4 inches tall (13 %ile).

we are simply loving this stage!  pace is hilarious, sweet, full of energy, and is so, so fun to play with.  he is becoming so verbal, and it is so fun to see what's he's going to say, or how he's going to match up words and phrases.  most of the time we have to tell him what something is just one time, and he'll remember and pull out the word next time he needs it.  he's recently started asking, "what is it", and then he'll answer his own question--almost like if he knows the answer, he doesn't need to be afraid of it.  He also says, "Ok?" with a very worried look and tone of voice.  And then we ask, "Are you ok?", and he'll respond, "Yyyyes."  (with emphasis on the y--very cute).

pace knows his abc's, matches the majority of upper case letters with their lowercase counterpart, understands the concept of counting and will count independently to ten (he'll occasionally keep counting 11-20 although these numbers are still jumbled up), knows the basic colors and shapes, understands and uses most basic opposites (big/little, hot/cold, etc.) and loves music and singing.  he can distinguish musical instruments--he knows when he hears a guitar vs. a piano, and was absolutely mesmerized when the primary kids had their program at church last sunday.  all those kids singing!  

he also distinguishes trucks by sound and sight--he knows the big construction trucks by name (bulldozer, excavator, dump truck, mixer truck), knows when the trash truck is coming down the street, and knows when he hears a car vs. a motorcycle.  i can't help but laugh when pace comes running into whatever room i'm in, eyes wide, finger pointing to the door, and gives a very excited "guck! chash guck!  big guck!" exclamation.  and then before i can grab him into a big bear hug, he's off to look out the window at the truck.  

he has been a terrific two, not a terrible two, but we didn't expect anything less.  this little boy is so dear, and most nights david and i look at each other with big smiles and melted hearts and ask, "how did we get so lucky?"    

pace's birthday fell on a sunday this year, so we got extra-dressed up for church with a vest and tie!  i asked pace to smile for me, and he held the ball up in front of his face.  and then ran into the fort.  so i grabbed a couple photos of him sitting on the ball in the fort, looking handsome for church.  he opened his presents from ninny and papa later that evening after his nap (we skyped so they could watch), and bicka flew in later that week, so we had another birthday celebration.  so fun!

in lieu of the frankenduck mistake from last year's birthday, i decided to make it easy and go two-dimensional and throw some construction trucks on a cake.  this even proved a level of difficulty beyond my skill...ha ha.  i envision exactly what i would like to do and have it look like, but there is a huge divide between what i'm picturing and making it happen!  i tried to make brown colored icing, but it came out more of a concrete color.  good thing he's into construction trucks!  while we sang happy birthday to pace, he noticed all the sprinkles--of all the things to be excited about!  

then time to blow out the candle--

take a deep breath...

and blow!

david then helped him out a little, but pace was a bit spooked when he saw the candle flickering.  and then--poof!--"tondol, all done!"

he's even polite digging into cake and uses his fork!

"are you ready to open presents pace?"

"yay!"

we started with the huge box of gifts from uncle jon erik.  pace says "ooohwoooow!" whenever he sees a big box, and he was very excited about this one! 

one of the present jon erik sent was a bag full of plush monsters.  i thought it would be fun to stuff them in pace's shirt, but he did not.  here he is saying, "all done!"

one of the favorite gifts was a bath time crayon from ninny and papa.  pace loved coloring in the tub!  it's the best toy ever--fun and educational!  during baths now i'll ask him to draw me a red circle or a blue square, so he'll find the color and draw away.  he's really good at circles, but we're still working on corners.  i took a picture of this bath because this was the first time he'd drawn something and then named it!  the green lines right above his head he said were "aypanes" (airplanes).  even cleaning up is fun and he willingly does it while singing "een-up, een-up!"  we just take a wash cloth and wipe down the tub.  viola!  

bicka left early in the morning, so we got some quick photos before she left for the airport.  whenever pace sees an airplane in the sky now, he'll say, "bicka, aypane!  bye, bicka."