Terrific Two!

I can hardly believe that Luke turned two today. At random moments throughout the day, I've looked at my watch and thought, "At this time two years ago, I was doing ____." It's amazing what a difference two years makes. It seems like he's been around forever and at the same time, it seems like I blinked and he went from being brand new to being a sassy, crazy two-year-old.

So what's Luke like at two? Predictably, he likes to climb and run and spin in circles and dance. Not so predictably, he also likes to clean. He'd spend all day reading, given half the chance, and one of his favorite places to go is the library. He has developed a new found affection for stuffed animals, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he brings an assortment of kangaroos and dogs and frogs into our bed with him and then, we get to spend the rest of the night rolling on said animals--not such a big deal until you happen to roll onto the elephant, which plays an annoyingly shrill version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

He's still pretty mellow for his age, but every day, a little bit more of the two-year-old comes shining through. His current favorite words are "No," and "Mine," and his most-used phrase is "I'm do it!" Of course, "I'm do it," frequently turns into "Mama help Guk," when the task at hand becomes more frustrating than he'd expected. He's developed a well-tuned whine, so we spend lots of time practicing nice voices, but often, when I ask him to repeat a request in a nice voice, he whispers it inaudibly and grins at me.

And of course, he has attitude up to his ears. He's pretty convinced he knows everything there is to know about the world and that his way is absolutely the right way. His birthday party isn't until next weekend, so to celebrate his actual birthday, we took him to the zoo, where the following conversation occurred:

McMoose: Look, see the baboons?
Luke: Yes!
McMoose: What do baboons say?
Luke: They go boom!
McMoose: Noooo...they go "Ooh-ooh-ooh!"
Luke, looking annoyed: They do NOT go "Ooh-ooh." They are baBOOMS. They go BOOM!