TIWTRT

Shane is just so FUN to be around. Seriously! Like every toddler he has his stormy moments but mostly he just loves to play and read books and smile and laugh and talk and, of course, give Mommy heart attacks.

This kid always has bruises and bumps, and it's usually from when I'm in the bathroom! He is just so into EVERYTHING. A few days ago, he tried to climb up the side of a counter stool. Of course the stool fell toward him and the corner of the stool gave him a nasty bruise on his cheek. We call him our little mountain goat, because: 

This was the day he learned he could get up on the chair. The next day, he pushed that chair up to the table and climbed from the chair, to the table, to the counter.  I walked in as he was dangling half off the counter telling me "down, down!" He seriously thought he could get down FROM THE COUNTER the "safe way" we taught him to get down from the couch or the bed, where he rolls onto his tummy and slides down feet first. I think it was God that I caught him, because that's a pretty far drop!

 This is his very favorite place in the house. He climbs on the couch, up the back, and stands on the windowsill to look out. It gives Nathan a heart attack but I'm pretty used to it. Yes, he has fallen, but he lands on the couch. Except for once, when he missed the couch and hit the floor. I wasn't even in the room. Yah, mommy fail.

And just check out the mischievous face. I see that face a lot these days with my little daredevil.  Good thing he's cute!

Most of the time with Shane I am pretty laid back. He's a toddler and a boy and a risk taker, and it's not going to do me or him any good if I micromanage him. So I sit back and watch him learn all about the world in that unique way children do and really, it's beautiful and I am learning so much about just taking time to look around, absorb, just BE.  

I love our mornings together. Shane wakes up about 8:16, usually to the minute, and talks for a minute to wake me up. Then he nurses and cuddles with me for a little bit and then its "dow', dow'!" He runs to the bedroom door and tries to pull it open, and rattles it if he can't until I get up and let him out. He does this funny little early morning stiff-muscled waddle/prance/run down the hallway to the living room and heads straight for the toy basket, while I sit on the couch and yawn and wake up a little. He starts signing for food after about five minutes so I drag myself up to make breakfast, which is usually hot oat bran with raisins, yogurt, or occasionally eggs and we like to have a banana too. I was having a cup of coffee a few times a week, but not since I got that positive on the HPT! 

Then we play for a few hours, or I try to study while he climbs all over me and gets more naughty the longer I ignore him, which is difficult. But that is a whole 'nother post that I need to write, all about school and why I am crazy to do it with a toddler!