Happy Birthday, Digger Fuzz Bucket!

You've heard of the Dirty Thirty when someone celebrates their thirtieth birthday, but around here it's a little different.  I can't believe it's already been another year since I wrote this, but my little one is turning the "Dirty 2.0" today!!!  And believe me when I say, Alex gives dirty a whole new meaning.  This boy loves dirt.  He loves digging in it.  He loves dumping it.  He loves eating it, swimming in it, even "bathing" in it.  He moves dirt from the sandbox to the garage, from outside to the bathroom floor, even his bed is gritty at the end of a long day.  The bathtub ring that's left over when his bath water drains is evidence enough that this boy loves to be filthy.

For his 2nd birthday, I decided on a "dirt" theme.  Because, really, what categorizes my Alex at this age better than his love of wallowing in grime?  So, I enlisted the aid of a fantastic friend who put together the best chocolaty dirt/mud cake ever imagined!  It was delicious!  And Alex got to make a mess with it which made him ecstatic!  (a separate post and photos to follow!)

Things about Alex at this age that I don't want to forget include:

I love his devil-ish guttural laugh that sounds evil and usually means he's pure trouble and up to no good.

He holds his hand out and says "Sake, Sake" (Shake, Shake) in an effort to be polite and shake hands.

He always says "Bye" and blows kisses when he's off to play, or pretending to leave somewhere.

He has this scary look when he's pretending to be shy or hoping you're not looking where he stares up with his head tucked down.  It's creepy!  If you've seen it, you know the look I mean!

He loves singing songs and dancing.

He's relatively cooperative and listens fairly well.  (See below for why I say "relatively" and "fairly well") .

Right now, his favorite book is Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

His favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider, especially when the rain comes down and tickles him on the face.

He loves dirt and water (see text above and photo below!).

Alex loves eating...anything, all the time.  You can't tell because he's such a peanut, but this kid is an endless pit.

He's in 12M clothes but now that it's getting to be pant and long sleeve weather, it's necessitating a move to 18M for the length in the legs and arms.  His pants are looking a little short.  It looks a little ridiculous.  I recently bought him some Clippos to make his 18M pants stay up, though...very exciting stuff!

He has at least a 100 words and can repeat anything you ask him to say which is a fun game!

Alex could happily swing for hours at a time.  Yelling, "Fast!" and "Up, up, up!"

And he can even swing like a champ, "big boy style" (see what I mean about the short pants/sleeves, though?)

He loves throwing balls (or anything round and ball-like for that matter).  He'll spend hours putting balls in boxes, dropping marbles in holes, or just playing catch.  He's got a wicked arm and mastered the eye/foot coordination to kick a ball at a VERY early age!

Alex is one heck of a climber...he loves to climb and does so swiftly (he recently even climbed up a ladder onto the roof of the house after Daddy, before either of us knew it)

I love the way he says "yes"...very pronounced and with the slightest lisp at the end!

When he writes/draws (which he loves to do) he'll name letters 

and pretend he's writing them...."A", "B"....

He's a snuggler.  More so than Nate ever was at this age, anyway.  He says "Hi, Mommy" when he gets up, points to the couch and says "Sit!"  "You Sit, too!".  I get hugs and kisses every morning and he loves to snuggle in the morning (so much so that I often get a late start heading to work!)

He already has his brother's imagination.  Recently when Nate wouldn't let him play with his puppy, Alex wadded his blanket up, stuffed it under his arm and started petting it, calling it "his puppy".  He'll pretend to hand me a monster and expects me to scream and throw it away, then he laughs, says "More, Mons?" and will hand me another monster to discard of similarly.  

It's one of those things that never gets old. 

When I take his picture, he'll squinch up his face, squint his eyes, and grin, "CHEESE!".  It's adorable, but makes it difficult to get many good pictures of him these days!

Alex loves tic tacs and asks for them all the time.  We have this "game" we play where he'll ask for a tic tac when he knows he can't have one (breakfast, just before bed, etc.) and I'll say "No, tic tac!" so he laughs and says, "Coo-kee?", and when he gets a "No, cookie!", he'll smile and say "Gom!"...to which he gets a "No, gum!", lather, rinse, repeat.  It's cute!

He loves his brother, so much so that he instigates the crap out of Nate and is always in his face.  Nate gets "annoyed" by his baby brother but I can tell they will be the best of friends some day.

He has definitely started those terrible twos a little early.  His frequent use of the word, "No!" is strong evidence of this!  He likes to do things yourself and don't particularly like to share.

Alexander, it seems like just yesterday that you were brand new in the hospital.  

Meeting you this day, two years ago, was one of the best days of my life.

I treasure those first few days together in the hospital.  It was just the two of us, and the bonding opportunity we were given was the best!  I loved that time to get to memorize you, soak you in, and have it be just the two of us before we threw you headlong into our family and the world.  

You are my sunshine, Alex.  You bring me joy in ways I can't explain.  I can't imagine my life without you in it and I thank God for you every day!  I love you, Digger Fuzz Bucket!  Happy birthday!