Two-year-olds are such fun! I awoke this morning to the sound of Jonah happily playing his little keyboard in his bedroom—after sleeping all night in his own bed! Woo hoo!
Then I discovered that he’d stripped—again!—and was sitting there on this chilly morning totally naked save his diaper, which, thankfully, was still intact because it held a quite malodorous surprise.
Couldn’t that possibly be the definition of “joy”? I mean, how amazing it must be to be able to play that happily while cold, unclothed and sitting in a pile of poop?
After I changed him, he helped me feed the cat breakfast, as he does every morning. He reaches into the container, holds the empty scoop in one hand while he uses the other to grab a fist full of kibble. Then he drops the tiny handful onto Max’s plate, and Max invariably looks up at him as if to say, “Is that all?” Sometimes Jonah repeats the process, but not today. He zeroed his attention on one little piece of cat food, picked it up and asked me, “Candy?”
Hey, at least this time he asked so I could say “No” before he tried to put it in his mouth!
Then he pulled my shirt, saying “Sausage? C’mon!” trying to drag me into the kitchen to fetch him some food. I microwaved his favorite sausage, chopped some grapes and added a handful of dry cereal to his plate. He watched me carefully, every so often saying, “Sauuuuuuusage!” and laughing.
Of course, being two, after begging repeatedly for sausage, he dug into the grapes and ate all of them first.
It’s Halloween and I can’t wait to take him trick-or-treating tonight. He has this new love affair with candy and is going to be completely amazed to find himself in possession of so much of it.
I’m afraid that when Zach and Eli were two, I tended to see the two’s as more terrible than terrific. What a gift to have another child at a mellower, more mature stage of life, when I have the hindsight to appreciate the jewels hidden in every ordinary day. Because this, too, shall pass. And oh how quickly it passes by.