A (Mon)Day in the Life of my TWO-YEAR-OLD!

Come tomorrow evening, it will have been two years since I first laid eyes on the eyes that would eventually melt my heart with a mere glance. It'll be two years since our lives were suddenly all about diaper changes, the 5 Ss and peaceful cuddles. Two years since I began hoping and begging that my body would stop feeling broken. Two years since I first started to realize that the pain I went through...and any challenge that will come... was and will be worth it. 

I've had 730 days of being top-of-the-head deep in a love like I never knew existed. That's something...actually...that's everything. I can't imagine our world without Weston in it.

From the minute he wakes up, whether he's groggy and cranky or wide-eyed and ornery, I relish lifting him up and feeling his warmth for the first time every day. Now that he can actually wrap his arms around my neck, and cling to me intentionally, I feel needed and loved on a level that does wonders for the parts of me that are weary. Our breakfasts together, though sometimes trying, bring a smile to my face at some point because he's becoming a little boy so fast, who has things to tell me, jokes to play on me, and an endless amount of love to share with me. 

I've been a mother for two years. And they have been the best two years of my life in so many ways. 

This age is a fun one. It's a phase of independence, constant learning and not-so-much interesting, but very amusing conversations. It's an age of tantrums and neediness at times; downright silliness and craziness at others. It's an age that I don't ever want to forget. 

So to fulfill that want of my own, I decided to spend this past Monday with him as not only a mom, but a photographer. I wanted to do a (Mon)Day in the Life of Weston. I will caption some of the pics, but at the end, I will share what I found kind of sad about the experience. And I hope to do this "project" every year, before my Roo puts up yet another finger on his precious lil' hand in response to the question of how old he is.

And so.... as he is on the cusp of turning 2.... this is what a typical day at home is like for us. 

The day begins with him hooting and hollering for me. This isn't always the case....the other days of the week, I have to wake him up at times (at 6:15 a.m.). But usually, he's awake before us... and this Monday, January 27, was one such day.

And I should note: he is not wearing makeup. He has a shiner. It's lasted over a week now... two Sundays ago, he nailed his eye on a bolt at the playground. It bled. And then his eyelid itself went all "ugly makeup" on us. And it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to heal. Some of the pics, I've edited a bit so the bruise doesn't tarnish an otherwise great portrait. But for the most of them, I left it in, because let's face it..it's who he is. Tough and stuff.....a boy through and through. 

(HA! As I write this, I  just got a text from daycare saying that Weston smacked his head on the tile floor in the gym. He has a gooseegg...but they are putting ice on it and giving him a popsicle...and he seems to not be too bothered by it past the initial tears. Sigh. Yay. another war wound.)

I arrived in his room to find that he'd already gotten started with undressing himself. But I think it was done out of boredom because he tried ever-so-hard to put the pants back on. 

He easily gets frustrated when things don't go smoothly after much effort. Hence the tantrum on the right. "Mama, hep me pants?"

Ahhh! Look, Pants are back on...and he's now jumping to go!

Wait. Not quite ready. Elmo needs the Binky.

Every morning, he opts to bring a friend or a blankie to breakfast. But this glorious day, he opted for two. His fave buddies.

And here is my early-morning ball of sunshine. :) Who needs coffee when you have this face to wake you up? Or maybe...this is why they invented coffee!! (I don't drink coffee...other than maybe 1/2 cup 1x every 2 weeks.)

The Breakfast Club. Notice the uninvited furrball. 

Breakfast was followed by listening to the LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD recorded by BaBa Gibby and Geema. He LOVES this thing. Especially the page that my dad says, "chug chug chug ding dong, ding dong." Weston likes to repeat that out loud. Then turn the page...then go back to that page to hear it again. 

Ahh, yes. What is this pic you ask? Well, you see, I left my camera on the couch while I went to refill my drink. I came back to Weston holding it and saying, "Mommy daddy touch." He is correct. Only Mommy & Daddy can touch it. But if that's the case, how did I end up with 10 pics of this same thing on my card??? hmmmmm???? 

We had to wash his hands...he loves doing it...but in his excitement of clapping his hands with soap on them, he got some in his eye. Poor guy. And of course, I didn't clean it out before I snapped a pic. Priorities, okay?

Play time!!!

He's great with stairs, but still sometimes requests to hold my hand on the way down. Which I am glad about, frankly. 

I got supplies out to make paper bag monsters. Let's just say it didn't last very long. Although, I loved his idea to use all the eyes up. hahaha 

then he declared he wanted to paint. So I threw on an old t-shirt to protect his clothes...and that lasted for about 5 minutes. I think it took him longer to get the shirt off than it did to make his masterpiece. 

Snacking with his blocks. 

And of course, moved on to playing with his cars a few minutes later.

this might be one of my fave pics of him. 

VROOOM everywhere. On the right, I heard him saying, "Coming! mommy!" and then he'd line up a car. Then he'd get a new car and say it again. Then he pointed to the first two cars and told me that one was mommy and one was daddy. 

Love his expression on the left. He was just being goofy, before he decided to put all his cars in our decorative bowl. 

I ran upstairs while he was busy with the car toys and realized how awful I looked. So I put my very short hair up into a tiny ponytail. I hadn't even reached the bottom step when Weston exclaimed: MOM! pony! Pony! (Have I ever mentioned that Neil LOVES girls in ponytails??? haha)

I said, "Yeah! I have a ponytail." 

He said, "I want ponytail! I want ponytail. Pwease?" 

And he followed me around, trying to put his hair in a pony tail. 

So...I did what any mom who loves her kid would do. I put his hair in a ponytail. 

Isn't he gorgeous? ;)

We needed a new activity to keep him busy, so since we had just gone to the carwash the day before, I asked him if he'd like to give his cars a wash too? He was on board, doing his little up and down dance jig saying, "ya ya ya ya!" (One of the many moments that I was unable to photograph since I also had to be a mom and GET the stuff set up.)

Once his cars were all wet... he wanted another snack. So he dumped his raisins out and ate them off the floor. Gross. I mean, we're clean and all, but come on. haha And the train book once again became front and center. 

Then it was all about him being goofy...running back and forth, despite me telling him to sit down while he was eating. He was showing off for the camera, I think. Love his many faces. 

Then it just got out of hand where I had to put my camera down to save it from being destroyed or save my son from choking. haha It was time to have a chill moment...something that would get him to sit still for a bit longer than 5 minutes. So LAND BEFORE TIME it was! He is fascinated by Rex (Sharp Tooth.) He's always asking, "Where Rex go?" or telling me, "Rex in water."  

and then it was time for lunch, so he was upset. "More di-sores!!!!!"

I distracted him by showing him what I was making for lunch (veggies mixed with Pastaroni...sooo healthy. ha) And he wanted a few dry noodles to eat and to have "kitty try?" {Note: Kramer doesn't like noodles. Or little boys who chase him with a box.}

I showed him how to twirl his fork to pick up the noodles, but he sucked at it...and showed his disdain for his own failure via a meltdown, fork in hand. 

Finally he figured out his own way of doing things...

Then it was on to expelling some energy before nap. 

And I begged him to sit still for a few pics in exchange for an M&M. These pics look great...like it was easy. But I was sweating and beseeching my son to STAY STILL. I can't believe I got what I did!!!

But here, folks...is my most favorite pic in a year that I've taken of my pride and joy. :) 

And a few others... including one with Geema's face. 

He was mad cuz I only gave him ONE M&M and he wanted TWO!

He was sad when I said no more M&Ms cuz he was kinda being bratty. Does this face not kill you??

So I tickled him one-handed (ask me how hard it is to hold a camera, use back-button focus AND tickle a kid) and got these. Oh...my answer to that question you asked: FLIPPING HARD.

And I caved...I offered THREE more M&Ms if he'd just sit there and give me his happy face. SCORE. You have no idea how elated I was that I had gotten a few good ones. 

And then it was wind-down time before nap. We read books... and then he had to  do his ritual "closing all doors" thing. 

Though I skipped the actual main event...after changing his diaper...he wanted to kiss the boo-boos on my hand. 

We'll be nixing the binky soon. But when he does use it (only at nap time and bed time since October...and on the airplane...and we used it at the chinese restaurant the other day when he lost it because we wouldn't give him both our plates of food AND his plate of food....) he reminds me of when he was a baby. And it is sweet. He asked for a song, and he grabbed my hand to hold while I sang THE ROSE to him. 

So....yeah..usually he naps 1-3/3:30. But for the first time in a year...seriously...he didn't nap. At all. He was happy though. Just not nappy. 

So since I still needed some time to get a few things done that I'd been planning to do when he napped, I treated him to 30 min of CARS. He loves Mater and Lightning McQueen. 

SNACK...his faves: fruit snacks (or...dee dacks as he calls them. No clue why.)..and popcorn. 

We had Parents as Teachers at 4 p.m.... so Jackie came and chatted with me about a few things. I am always interested in the topic: MY SON!

Weston got to play with the sensory box of BEANs. Which I found kinda funny cuz I had been toying with doing that with him earlier in the day but decided one bag of beans wasn't going to be enough. 

So lots of missing pics here while I cooked dinner, and we ate dinner. (Neil got home in between there, too.) But after dinner, I stopped the clean-up process to capture a few frames of what he calls DANCE PARTY!!! We love this time. Though he always wants mama to dance, too... ha

Neil gives Weston baths 90 percent of the nights. I love hearing him splashing in there, laughing uproariously with his daddy. 

After his bath, he curls up in a ball and hides in our laps... he's cold...and kinda cranky. 

But so cute. :)

HIs nightly routine typically involves putting all his cars down the ramp, then putting them back in the case. And then a few random things like blocks or playing with a watch. 

or...climbing into our bed while I tried to watch THE BACHELOR. He wanted Neil to give him chapstick here. haha

Helping daddy undress... and on the right...he found his swimming diapers...with his pal NEMO...and decided to put them on, and before he pulled them up, he declared he had to go potty. He does this once a day, but doesn't ever actually pee in the toilet. But he loves to pretend. This is a reason we might be attempting to PT him in a few weeks...and if it doesn't work, then we'll wait till he is close to 3. 

When I read to him (I put him to bed 70 percent of the nights), we usually curl up in the rocking chair. But since THE BACHELOR was on, it's my treat...and Neil mans up and does the end-of-night stuff. (THANKS, HonEY!) 

But during commercial break, I had to peek in and say good night. Isn't he just so peaceful at times? He asked me to "HUG!" so I had to put the camera down. 

And 30 minutes later, the day in the life of Weston concludes. 

So...as I mentioned in the beginning... a few realizations over the course of the day filled me with this weird sadness. The main thing was that as much as I wanted to record these moments...I did it an injustice by being the one to record them. So much of his day (when he's not at daycare) involves me (Neil, too...but even more so me...). So there are so many things not pictured (aside from the things that happen on other days)...:

• Me carrying him around when he looks at me from below and says: "peek up. peek up."
• Him in my lap, in just a diaper, clinging to me to keep warm while I dress him. 
• Him sitting on my tummy and bouncing up and down till we both were giggling. 
• Him wanting me to make a tunnel (read: hole) with my leg draped over my other knee so he can slide through it. 
• His two timeouts (oops, I really should have captured this!!) due to hitting me/bucking against me. Followed by two "I sorry" make-up cuddles that clean our slate so easily.  
• Him just cuddling against me while we rest on the couch.
• Us reading countless books together, and my expression of being impressed as he points out something I didn't even know he knew. 
• Him trying to get on my lap while I pee....then offering to wipe. (Thanks, buddy!)
• Him grabbing my hand through his crib while I sang Swing Low and kissing all 4 of my owies on my knuckles (damn, dry winter!!) for the 12th time that day...but this time...tears brimming my eyes because as much as my kisses make HIS boo-boos feel better, HIS kisses make EVERYTHING in me feel better. 
• My hand patting his back, his cheeks, his chin and hair, as I stand over his crib, watching him...covering him up, praying that he stays mine and safe forever. 

And so many more. So many moments that we take for granted as worn-out, always-in-a-rush moms. We claim we want them to stay little, but we so eagerly await the next phase...when tantrums stop, when he doesn't use diapers, when he can dress himself...and so on. 

If anything, this project has highlighted the need for me to just stop. Breathe. Watch. Hug. Cuddle. And truly freeze in time, as many of the little things as I can...the things that will be gone soon enough.