To my sweet 2nd child on his 2nd birthday.

I two!

Happy 2 Bam-Bam!

I’m so excited that it’s your birthday because I needed an excuse to sit down and really celebrate YOU.One gets so overwhelmed what with all the parenting, cooking/cleaning, and full-time jobbing, that one often overlooks the most important things in life.And you are exactly that, my sweet.

1 day old

It was more than appropriate that you were born at Thanksgiving. Of course every parent is thankful for their children, but there is something about the “baby” that we all relish in a different way. The dessert of our family. The little red caboose. The happy ending.



Except of course, that you never were an END to anything. You were the beginning of a lot though. The beginning of more than I could ever imagine.



1 year old

The second child defies the laws of mathematics. The second child proves why numbers cannot explain everything (or, for some of us, anything). We went from 3 to 4 (25% total increase). From 1 child to 2 (50% kid increase). But we also went from 0 to 60. From play to fast forward. The laundry somehow quadrupled. The messes duplicated themselves like fecund viruses. Not that I’m likening you to a virus or a bajillion loads of laundry. You are much more enjoyable, of course. If only I could isolate you, reduce you to an easy fraction, solve the equation of how you can – at the same time -- completeour family and also transform it into a very complex algebraic expression.

One of the things I like most about you, Bammy, is that you have all the right amounts of things a parent might want in a 2 year old: Zero seizures (since March!), not that many tantrums (so far), a few bad habits (throwing hot wheels and kicking), plenty of sincere apologies (“I all done”), immeasurable hugs & kisses (which actually make a smooch noise now!), and infinite sweetness.

But what I love about you most is your commentary on life, which at this point is about 97% successful. One of my favorites is your simple rendition of “NO,” always emitted at a much lower pitch than your normal voice.

Another good one is, “No, Jah-Jah!” which, this morning was paired with the causative statement, “Mama night-night.” A

And we all get a kick out of your usage of the possessive pronoun “my” in place of the subject one, “I.” As in “My ewww” (I pooped), or “My dur-dur”(I’m dirty), or “My balls” (I have a diaper rash) – many thanks to your big brother Jah-Jah for that last one.

I also love these phrases:

· “Mone!” (Follow me! C’mon!)

· “Out-hide!” (I’d like permission to exit the kitchen and play on the back porch.)

· “Ooosh OFFF!” (Please remove my shoes.)

· “Ice.” (This one’s tricky; I’ve seen it mean “There’s a cooler that might have juice boxes” or “I want ice in my cup” or “the sun’s in my eyes.”)

· “Aulk!” (Let’s take the stroller out for a jog.”)

· “Nie-nie -- ewwww.” (My blanket smells bad.)

· “Kuck!!!”(There's a truck!”)

· “Usss! Usss! Elloooww!” (A school bus!)

· “I all done!” (Please do not put me in time out as I’m truly sorry and promise not to do it again.”)

· “Hi, Mama!” (I’ve climbed on top of the table and used a marker to color a placemat purple.)

But the best of all, no contest, is:

“Hode you, Mama.”

It's enhanced by the arms-held-high lean against my leg.

Some of your favorite foods are CHEEEEEEZ, ‘NACK (goldfish), and DIP-DIP (applesauce with graham crackers as a spoon).You also like NANAs (bananas) and CHEEEEEEZ.Did I mention CHEEEEEEEZ?But NOT the jalapeno kind (“My HOT!!!”).

You’re obsessed with Thomas the Train, Lightning McQueen, and now Simba. And your love of tractors, which is serious, but doesn’t quite surpass that of your brother when he was your age, has encouraged you to develop a new onomatopoeia for the English language. It’s not graphically plausible for me to put letters together to make the sound that you do, but it’s a combination of the sound a tractor makes (brrrm brrrm) and the word “tractor” itself. It’s simply amazing. And brilliant. And so true and real that even John Deere himself would approve.

Bammy, you are everything I dreamed for my little boy Sam. I always wanted a Sam, and I got an unfair amount of it: YOU. When I think of how lucky we are to have you, I feel that life is truly NOT reasonable: Sometimes, we get more than we deserve.

XOXOX,

Mama