TWO

Oh Leo, my sweet, full of energy, happy and a bit shy, truck loving boy, how can you already be TWO?   Two years ago I had no idea what it meant to be the mom of a boy,  I cannot tell you how much fun it is being your mom.

You are a "typical" boy in many ways, you love trucks, any and all trucks bring a smile and a squeal of excitement.  When Georgia and I started asking you what kind of birthday you wanted you were certain, "truck birthday".  We asked, dinosaur? airplane? rocketship? you just looked at us and said, "truck birthday".  You and daddy saw a firetruck recently and the fireman offered to let you take a look inside, you immediately became shy and didn't want to.  You are eagar to see new things but often become shy when meeting new people.

You love to snuggle, give hugs and kisses and at night as I rock you, I say, I love you Leo, you say, "thank you".  Last night as I rocked you, you were holding a small bulldozer in one hand and your soft snugly blanket in another, a perfect balance of you.

I think your favorite activity is playing with Georgia, you idolize her and all that she does.  That's not to say you don't stand up for yourself, you certainly know how to make your opinion known.  

You love to play with household equipment just as much if not more than your toys.  You literally cry when we put the vacuum away and would be perfectly content to play with it for hours.  

Happy birthday Leo, I have loved watching you grow and learn about who you are over the past two years, I can't wait to see what adventures you'll have next.

 Truck Birthday

 We were ready for the kids to do some work!

Patiently waiting for his cake.

 Yum

 I like this...

 MORE!!

He quickly got to work with his new blower, ride on car, vacuum and more.

Inspecting his new toy with daddy and Bawdy

To fully appreciate how sweet and fun Leo is you have to see him in action.  Here are a few videos from the last few months..

Warming up for the Seahawks

Sending a message to daddy & Georgia when they were out of town

His favorite past time, vacuuming

First time riding the zip-swing by himself

Leo going over some of his favorites

Big boy on his scooter

You idolize your big sister and love to do what she does.  Georgia had decided to put on a performance for us, just after she started you came running out with an outfit for yourself...

Smitten

I'd been hearing about it for several weeks before I witnessed it for myself.  The parent educator and teacher had told parents in a meeting several months ago that girls and boys would likely be chasing each other by the end of the year.  I kind of wrote the whole thing off thinking, geez, they're only five!
I work in Georgia's class once a week and finally noticed that Georgia seemed to pay particular attention to one little boy, Logan.  I'd been hearing more and more about Logan at home and after comparing notes with his mom, Georgia's name was coming up often at his house too.
I literally had to hold back from a full on gasp as I watched my daughter chase, tease, hug and quite frankly flirt with Logan.
At one point Logan was chasing Georgia and her friend Hazel, Hazel stopped and said, "Logan, stop chasing us!"  The look on Georgia's face was priceless, she looked at Hazel, totally confused, as if saying, What??  No, I want him to chase us!!
I've heard from other parents that Georgia's gets all giddy when Logan arrives at school, they call each other silly names and seem to be fairly smitten with each other.  The page Logan wrote in Georgia's big heart book reads, I like when Georgia chases me. And in the words of Georgia's teacher, "oh, she's got it bad for him!"
I stared to ask about Logan and noticed the more I asked the less she wanted to talk.  I remembered what a friend had told me several years ago.  She said that her barely teenage son came home and told her he'd had his first kiss.  I immediately asked, "how did you do that?  How do you create a relationship with your kids so they come home and tell you about that stuff?"  She said they've never teased or poked fun at him about girls.  They always tried to be pretty nonchalant about the whole thing to make him comfortable about something that can be so awkward.  
I have been trying to adopt this philosophy in hopes of training myself not to giggle like a school girl while watching my daughter have her first crush.
Logan rode in our car on a field trip a couple of weeks ago, I silently drove while listening to them chat, Logan asked if Georgia wanted to have a staring contest, it was all very adorable.
Last week Logan came over for our first ever boy playdate, it was a scene of total cuteness as I watched them show off for each other.  When his mom dropped him off she introduced herself to Brian as Georgia's future mother in law.  For now, it's pretty sweet to watch this friendship unfold, you can tell they know there is something different than their other friends at school but in the end they're just enjoying being smitten with each other.
The whole things is very eye opening for me, I had no idea social development of 4-5 year olds involved anything like this!

They decided to be partners on the field trip, think she's happy?

 They held hands most of the day, it was adorable

 Playdate camping

 Off to school