Our Sweet 2-Year Old

At 2 years and almost one month, Carter loves

-Our pets Maddie and Lily. He chases them both all over the house and loves to hug both of them.

-Transportation of all types...cars, trucks, firetrucks, trains, tractors, etc. He loves to play with them and also point them out while on the road.

-Snacks. This kid has a sweet tooth! His favorites are cookies, cake, pretzels, yogurt smoothies, and cereal.

-His cousins...all of them! He talks about them at random times and has started asking to go to their houses.

-Lightning McQueen and the other characters from the Cars movie. He carries them around all day and sleeps with at least 5 cars each night. A bad habit, I know!

-His friends at daycare...Colby, Riley, Gabe and Lucy.

-Praying. His mealtime prayers usually go something like this "Dear God, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Carter, Maddie, Lily, applesauce, milk, spoon, Mommy's food, Daddy's food, Carter's food. Amen."

-Playing Hide-and-Seek or I'm Gonna Get You throughout the house.

-Talking on the phone (but only if he's in the mood.)

-Going to the store...and not just any store...Target. If we pull into Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart or Dahl's, he asks to go to the "other store." The main reason he likes it is because we always get him a cookie from the bakery. And as I said before, the kid has a sweet tooth.

-Go, Diego, Go and Handy Manny on TV.

-Applesauce, milk, apple juice, mac and cheese, oatmeal, and Chef Boyardee ABC's

-Singing Silent Night, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Wheels on the Bus, CARTER (like BINGO), You are my Sunshine, and Old McDonald.

-Dancing to Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" or Jay Sean's "Down."

-Helping clean up after a meal. He loves to bring dishes from the table to the sink, throw away the trash, wipe off the table, and throw his bib down the stairs toward the laundry room.

-The books "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," "10 Little Ladybugs," "If You Give a Moose a Muffin," "The Story of Noah," and "The Wheels on the Bus." And all 5 books must be read every night before he can fall asleep.

-Brushing his teeth.

Carter is afraid of:

-Monsters...specifically an adorable monster puppet that he was given for Christmas.

-Rudolph...the little one who sings and his nose lights up.

-Bugs and spiders...sometimes. He's even started saying "Ewww, gross!" when he sees one. I hope I haven't rubbed off on him too much!

-His friends or cousins not sharing his cars. The irony is that he's the one that doesn't share!

Recently he has learned:

-How to identify all of the letters in the alphabet...uppercase only. We're still working on the lowercase letters.

-The sounds of all of the letters. He loves playing the game "A says ___" and he fills in the sound of the letter.

-The colors blue and black. As for the rest of the colors, he has no idea!

-How to put together some simple puzzles.

-How to identify triangles, squares, circles, hearts, and stars.

-How to make up stories. A recent one was that our cousins' cat "bit his milk." Doubt it.

-How to tattle.

-How to ask "Why?"

-That he doesn't like time-out.

-How to tell us that he is going to "toot" and then laugh hysterically. Nice.

-How to make pictures with cut-out shapes, crayons, and water colors.

Carter hates it when:

-Maddie tries to get his food.

-His trains don't stay on the track.

-We can't find one of his beloved Cars cars.

-We put him to bed and he doesn't want to fall asleep yet.

-We tell him "no."

Now that we're entering the terrible two's, I wanted to document the ins and outs of our little man. I've learned that none of these stages last for long, which right now, makes me pretty sad. In general, he's been so much fun to be around...I'm dreading the days where I can't say that!