The Terrible Twos and a Really Cute Baby

Adam will turn two years old this Friday, and it seems as if someone whispered in his ear, "Hey! You're two! Two-year-old children are supposed to be full of mischief and very naughty."

Duly noted.

In the past several days, Adam has eaten hydro cortisone cream, smeared hydro cortisone cream in his hair and the carpet, unrolled half of a roll of toilet paper, eaten the tip of a highlighting marker, given several of our chickens near-death experiences, emptied the towel cabinet of all its contents, and completely "reorganized" my sewing room several times. This is just the short list of all he's accomplished. He's always been a bundle of coiled energy, just waiting for physical coordination and thought processes to cooperate. Apparently the thoughts and physical abilities are finally coming into focus. I'm sure that this is just the beginning and I'd better brace myself for the coming years.

It's actually fun and amusing to watch him learn and grow and figure things out. It's just no fun rewinding multiple spools of ribbon, being bashed with a light saber, trying to protect the baby, dog and chickens from certain death, and cleaning various substances from various surfaces.

Something else that is new is speech. All of my children have been beeblers. They all chattered away in their own language and added real words as they learned them. Eventually, the real words outnumbered the baby speech and the child was speaking. Some of the baby words have stuck in our family's collective vocabulary, which is fun.

According to our pediatrician, Adam is pretty average for his speech capabilities, if not just a teensy bit behind. But we're not worried. He's picking up new words every day, which is fun, unless it's a swear word accidentally uttered in front of him. Then it's funny. Bad, but still funny. I guess that to strangers Adam looks old enough to speak and understand what is being said to him. It's not uncommon for complete strangers to try to strike up a conversation with Adam. He opens the door to that himself, because as we shop he says "hi" to everyone he sees. Then people feel obliged to stop and ask him how he is doing, how old he is, what is his name, etc. Sometimes Adam will play the shy card, ducking his head and remaining silent. Other times, he answers with a full volley of Adam-speak. This leads the other person to look to me for an interpretation. My answer is always the same: "He doesn't speak English yet." It's true.

I love this video. He had no idea that I was watching him, so he's just reading his book to himself. There are a few real words thrown in among the babble, I'm sure he says "tractor" once or twice, but the rest is uniquely Adam.




Emily is fascinated by Adam's speech. I guess her kids both passed over the gibberish stage in favor of speaking real words. Did your babies jabber?


I would be remiss if I didn't share another new development in our house: real Jack laughter! Morgan was changing Jack's diaper when he (Morgan) sneezed and Jack thought that it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Morgan kept "sneezing" and Jack kept laughing. It's awesome, if you can hear it over Noel and Adam shrieking in the background.