And just like that, he's 2!

My baby is two years old today. My heart still flutters a bit when I hear him say "Mama." And he's such a little person. There's not much baby left to him, only dimpled knuckles and diapers. He even had his baby curls lopped off last week (I'm still depressed).

One of the coolest things about being a parent is watching the rapid growth and learning. Even though I know that Finn is progressing along a normal developmental trajectory, I still look at him in amazement as he learns so many new things. It is just awesome. The past year has brought about so many changes, yet he is still very much the same. The vast majority of the time, he's still so happy, bursting with physical and emotional energy, friendly, loving, curious, and focused.

Here's Finn a year ago on his first birthday, visiting the dog at the nearby playground.

And here he is at almost 2 years old, visiting the same dog.

Finn is still a very vocal little boy. He is always making noise of some kind. Lately he sings his way through life. One year ago Finn had but 10 words and a handful of animal sounds. Today, I can't even count all the words he has picked up, and he literally spits out a new one every day. I actually love that Finn has retained some of the words that he just kind of made up along the way. Since we know what he is talking about, why would he change? His word for bus is still singing the "round and round" part to "The Wheels on the Bus." Truck is still "urrt-urrt" (a combination of the growling sound a truck makes and the word truck). He is starting to put words together to form full thoughts or sentences. "Nana bye-bye, arr" (Nana went bye-bye in her car). I love watching the exaggerated movements of Finn's mouth as he gets out more difficult consonants.

Finn has a Spanish speaking nanny one day a week (and has since he was 5 1/2 months old). He says Spanish words when he is with her, and sometimes he uses them with us if he doesn't know the English word for something. Some of Finn's newest words are dirty, airplane, towel, juice, hole, shoe, white, and tunnel. He is really thrilled about learning his colors right now. So far he can verbalize (in the order learned) yellow, blue, black, red and white. He can ID pink, orange, green and brown. The past few months he has been kind of obsessed with the alphabet. He loves the alphabet song and learning different letters. Everywhere we go he gets excited to see letters that he knows and points them out. He loves to tell me what letters to write, and sometimes has me help him write them.

Finn loves to make associations between things and people. When he sees the double stroller he says, "Gleekley!" (which is his friend Berkeley, with whom he rides the double stroller). When he sees the beach he says, "Papa!" since so often I say papa went surfing or swimming in the ocean. When he sees a diet coke or a big SUV, he says, "Nana!" When he sees a picture of some mountains he says, "Grandma!" because he gets to see his grandma when he flies in a plane and sees mountains.

Finn is very much a people person, as social as can be. He says hi to strangers everywhere we go and starts playing with anyone. As his mom, it makes me so happy that Finn's life experience so far has taught him to love people, and to be confident that they love him (or soon will). I've been really impressed, and grateful for Finn's good memory. He does not easily forget people, or experiences with them. Just a couple weeks ago we were talking about grandpa, who he last saw at 18 months. He reminded us that they were blowing bubbles in the pool. That is indeed the last thing he was doing with his grandpa. Jeremy and I had not reminded him of this story that happened 6 months ago, a quarter of his lifetime. His favorite story recently is of a day he went to an apple farm, which you can read more about here.

One of his newest tricks is that he can (finally) drink from a straw!

Things Finn Loves as a 2 Year Old:

-His "momo" (motorcycle)

-His papa, especially joining him in whatever he is doing, whether it is gathering and taking the garbage out, doing the dishes, riding a bike, or a skateboard.

- Collecting and throwing rocks

- Spotting the moon and stars. "A gar! Da moooon!"

- Hiding. I love that every morning when I go to get him from his crib, as soon as he hears me open the door of my room to come get him, I hear him flop back down on the mattress. I enter to see him "hiding" in his crib, hands covering his eyes, with a big grin on his face.

-Finn has a mischievous streak and likes to try to get away with things he know we wouldn't like. If he has something he isn't supposed to have, and we are in pursuit, boy can he run fast.

-Spotting airplanes and helicopters

-To my delight, he has now started to enjoy taking a break from playing to snuggle with mama.

-He loves to show off his tummy trick. To everyone, strangers included. (Tummy trick= lifting his shirt and sucking in and pushing out his tummy repeatedly).

-He still loves that now-permanently dirty and stinky lovey, which he calls "Nanoo" for reasons unknown.

-Over the past couple months he now likes to fall asleep to songs about the moon. Until recently, his bedtime song was Elvis' "Fools Rush In."

-Bubbles are something that are in high demand

-His stuffed penguin named "Moht-moh" (monster) is one of his best friends.

-He likes to point out everything's eye (living things do not appreciate this)

-He loves the shape sorter and can quickly find the right shape. He can verbalize the shapes oval, heart, moon, and star. He still calls a circle "a ball." He can ID triangles and rectangles.

-Finn has started jumping and doing a modified skip singing out, "Hop, hop, hop!"

-He loves rolling his cars and trucks around different parts of the house and pieces of furniture.

-He adores skyping with long distance relatives, especially "gam-ga" and "gam-da"

-Every day he wants to cook something with mama and if he sees me at the counter he quickly slides a chair up to the counter (as the chipped cupboard paint attests) and climbs up. His favorite thing to prepare is a scrambled egg. When making pancakes he tells me when it is time to add the "mewk" (milk).

-Sticks are awesome.

- He adores his friends El-la, Ha-hee (Henry, x2!), Gleekley, and Charlie (still working on that name).

-"Da Beets" (the beach)

-"A Pok" (the park), where his newest trick is swinging from the bars.

-Depending on his mood he loves to dance and sing, or relax and listen to music. Favorite songs: Mahna Mahna (muppets), C is for Cookie, Dee De Dee, Rubber Duckie, Hip Hop Hooray ("Hey, Ho?" he asks for), Blue Moon Revisited (Cowboy Junkies), I Don't Want to Live on the Moon (Ernie), Waltzing Matilda, The Bare Necessities

-Finn pretty consistently finds things to climb

-He loves to brush his teeth (and eat toothpaste)

-He likes (and has gotten good at) stacking little blocks on top of each other to form a really tall tower.

Finn has got his terrible two challenges, that's for sure. He hates sharing, and doesn't realize that other people have a right to their own toys. He has zero tolerance for any discomfort (well, that's been consistent since he was a newborn). He wants to do it himself ("Inny?" he says, thumb pointing to his chest). Not having the final say is a dramatic display of emotion. He wants to decide everything. It can be frustrating. And exhausting. But I love this boy, and I'm so proud of him. I try to be conscious to savor all the precious parts of this time in his life. It is going by so fast, and I'm terrified of saying goodbye to "these days" like I said goodbye to those baby curls.

Even though this day is a reminder of the passing time, there is nothing I wish more for Finn than a Happy Birthday, and for us, there is no day as worth celebrating as the day of his birth.