Rock- A -Bye Baby

There is nothing quite like rocking a baby to sleep. So peaceful, calm, sweet and precious until your right arm falls asleep and you look down only to realize this "baby" you are rocking is in fact a two year old toddler. When did it happen? I rock Lane to sleep twice a day - once at nap and once at bedtime. We don't rock alone though. In the chair with us are all of his favorite "stuffies" -little bear, baby blue eyes, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Kitty, Puppy and the other Little Bear. And we don't just rock we have a routine - a singing routine to be exact. He puts in requests just as though he's calling into a radio station ( he's oblivious to the fact that he isn't getting the same quality of music)- it's always "You Are My Sunshine" first. Followed by, "Tomorrow" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (can you tell what decade I grew up in?) And if by then, he's not asleep we do a little "Jesus Loves Me" and "Hush Little Baby." It's funny how this will put him right to sleep even though I'm sure if this voice of mine rang sharp notes in your ear while you tried to snooze I'd end up with a bloody nose. I always know when he is "out" because he finally lets go of the grip he has on my ear. Yes, he has to hold an ear to fall asleep- strange you say? Yes, but no more strange than the fact that his older brother did the same thing! I find that to be really strange and to just go ahead and add the extra cheery on top of the oddness their father used to (and sometimes still does) have an ear fetish too!!!!! Bizarre -I know, but these are the little quarks that make me smile when thinking about our family. Since we are taking about what Lane likes I will go ahead and list some for you.

1- he loves books- both being read to and "reading" them himself. He has become more picky in which books he prefers now. He calls them "little books" although they aren't really little at all (normal size) they are smaller than other books in our (extremely) large collection. He packs his "little books" around with him from room to room- often needing assistance because he tries to pack about forty of them at once.

2- he loves milk- which is a good thing (good for his little bones) until it turned into him requesting milk more than a few times a day. He would get a sippy cup of milk in the morning after waking then one at nap time and one at bed but now he requests milk if he's tired, bored, hungry or hurt. He calls his milk "big milk" and only likes to drink milk out of two particular sippys and none other. Good gosh-can we say spoiled?

3. He loves water- not necessarily to drink but to play with. He loves to fill up cups of water and dump them out in the sink and he really enjoys bath time because it involves water. 

4. he still likes trains and tractors and if you see him playing with anything at our house it is usually one of these two-he also enjoys building with magnatiles but only the square ones.

5- he loves having the daycare kiddos here. Especially Aiden.After Aiden leaves to go to school he will talk about him quite a while...he'll say, "Aiden loves me" "Aiden holds me" "miss Aiden" "see Aiden more"

6- shows on tv- I am not going to sit here and pretend to be one of those parents that always engages my children in active play and I am not going to tell you that I don't use the tv as a babysitter so I can take a shower or make a meal....my two year old loves to watch certain shows on tv. His newest favorite show is called "Paw Patrol" he loves puppies and this show is all about these sweet little puppies that join together to help people and their friend, Ryder. Cute show! He still loves Little Bear but I think he is getting burned out on the 15 DVR recorded shows we have...we no longer get the channel that has Little Bear so he never gets to see a new episode now. Franklin and Curious George  are favorites too but only because big brother likes them.

7-He loves to throw things up in the air while simultaneously jumping and yelling "hot chocolate." Ever since watching Polar Express and taking the Polar Express Train ride he has tried to mimic their performance.  Sometimes this is hilarious -other times, not so much. Depends on what it is he has in his hands and how much I have to clean up afterwards....(a whole container of popcorn comes to mind as a "not so much" moment)

He says so many funny things- my favorites usually tends to be things he says incorrectly.
"Oh goshness gracious" I guess he's shooting for "oh for goodness gracious"
"Lift up me" -"lift me up" just in reverse order
"Breakissed" -"breakfast"
"Orangin"- "orange"-when ever he says the color orange he always adds "in" at the end.

There are so many other things he says constantly but I can't quite think of all of them now that I want to.  He is quite the little personality.  We have hopes and plans of potty training him this next weekend...we will see how it goes. I'll give it three or four days and if no significant success we will just wait til summer....we shall see. I think he's ready and has been for a while...the real question is "am I ready?" Potty training my baby means THE END of diapers, baby lotion, and wipes...which I have very mixed emotions about.  We will see.....I will let you know how it goes.