Oh, Darling Paul, how amazing is it that you are two years old today? It seems like moments ago you were first born, 4 weeks early, already on your own schedule. . .
Then moments later, you were scooting and crawling, and pulling yourself up on everything you could, funny and sweet. . .
And now? You are such a big boy! There are so many things you can do now!
Things Paul Can Do Now That He Is Two:
You can count to 14 (we have 14 stairs in the house).
You can sing the Alphabet song, and get about half the letters – and clap and cheer “
yay” at the end.
You know all your letters and numbers by sight.
You know many shapes, including circle, square, triangle, oval, and rectangle.
You can walk, run, jump (well, almost – you have the idea, just need to get the air), climb (oh, do you love to climb – up the stairs, into your high chair, up the cabinets to get a snack. . .), dance, clap, clean-up, help get yourself dressed and undressed, use a fork/spoon, draw with a crayon, do puzzles.
You know many animals – and their sounds - including (but not limited to) dog, cat, cow, sheep, duck (your first animal!), goat, tiger, hippo, chicken, monkey, rooster, lion, frog, bear, bird (other than ducks, chickens, and roosters), horse, elephant, fish, owl, pig.
You can identify Dora, Blue, Elmo, The Count, Oscar, Big Bird, Grover, Cookie Monster, Periwinkle, Magenta, Steve and Joe.
You know your body parts, including nose, eye, ear, mouth, teeth, tongue, chin, head, hair, neck, back, belly, elbow, hand, foot/feet, and while you sometimes confuse your
tushie with your penis, you do know that both are inside your diaper.
You are starting to sing along to familiar songs, including Rubber Ducky, You Are My Sunshine, Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald,
Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the Alphabet Song.
You know many words including (but not limited to) Paul, Mommy, Daddy,
Safta, Grandma, Grandpa, Asher, Aunt Margie, no, yes, cereal, grape, apple, cheese, bread, bagel, cookie, ice cream, up, down, open, closed, more, please, thank you, you're welcome, truck, car, boat, book, noodle, fly, lady bug, spider, caterpillar, butterfly, leaf, sticker, pen, notebook, clue, baby,
binky, potato (as in Mr Potato Head), diaper, blanket,
froggie, Pooh, all done, kiss, nap, ball, swing, slide, puzzle, pretzel, water, milk, cup, fork, spoon, bowl, shoe, high chair, tray. . .
You can laugh, and whimper, and play hide and seek, and be sweet, and throw a mean tantrum, and scream exponentially louder than you should be able to given your size. You can kiss and hug, and be goofy, and you love a good joke.
Happy Birthday, Darling Paul. We love you very much. And I guess we won't sell you to the circus this week. . .
If there's a mess, the party's a success!
And where, and where, and where is the Batman? Oh, he's right there, with a pizza bagel.
Ellie made a lovely mask.
And Mommy is so tired, she had to make a mask to remind herself who she is. Of course, she seems to have forgotten that it's mask, and not a hat.
. . .although, it's kind of unsportsmanlike to use clear cups.
Safta participates in her favorite sport: Paul Wrangling.
And Paul loves playing with his new train puzzle/block toy.
Things Paul Can Do Now That He Is Two:
And then pets a tiger. That's a birthday custom where he's from.
Pulling on a tiger's tail is also a customary birthday greeting in his homeland.
Already got his pucker on. . .
Shawn tried to feed Asher to the llama, but that didn't work out so well, llama's being vegetarians and all.
Then, we went Pumpkin Picking. . .Mommy likes the Punkin' Daddy picked. . .
. . .maybe because we make him do goofy things like this:
We met up with Grandma and Grandpa and Asher, just as Grandma and Asher left on a hay ride around the orchard.
Yes, yes he is. (His "binky" reads: I'm the BOSS)
Daddy is the Minotaur in the center of the hay maze. Who knew? 
Counting rocks over the alphabet book. . .
Then, Uncle Adam and Aunt Jill came over for dinner. Safta gave Uncle Adam a Beatles flip book. 
Uncle Adam tried to teach Paul how to say "JohnPaulGeorgeRingo" really fast. . .
A boy's gotta chill with the Blues Clues after a busy day, you know. . .
Fly around the cage and entertain me!
Hee hee - thank you!
