Justice's 2nd Birthday - WHAT?!?

Dear Justice,

This morning as we sat down to breakfast, I recalled that two years ago at about that same time, your daddy and I were getting in the car to head to the hospital to welcome you into the world. My how time flies.

You opened your first present this morning - a soccer ball. You proceeded to eat breakfast while holding fast to it and repeating over and over again, "My soc cer ball." After breakfast you kicked it around the house saying, "kick it, kick it, kick it." Yes, you love giving directions, even to yourself.

Last night and this morning I tried to teach you how to hold up two fingers and say, "I'm this many." The best I get is one finger or you hold up your entire hand and say, "Peace Mommy." We'll work on that.

Speaking of numbers, you now how to count to 10 but refuse to start with the number one. You tend to begin with 2 and if left to your own devices will only count to three repeatedly - "two, fwee, two, fwee, two, fwee." You have recently gone beyond "fwee" without prompting but every once in a while you revert back to your 23 month old ways - HA!

You have begun singing on your own in the past couple of months. When we ask you what you'd like to sing, your response tends to be "Baa Baa." You will let us sing with you most of the time but sometimes you NEED to sing a solo. At those times, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tend to merge into the same song. You also enjoy a good rendition of the ABC song but again, if it is necessary for you to sing a solo, you tend to only make it to P and that's with a whole lot of liberty taken on the first half of the alphabet anyway.

With Easter just being last week, I find it necessary to include the fact that you dyed easter eggs this year for the first time. You didn't quite get their fragility but loved dunking them in the colored water. When all of the eggs were dyed you simply wanted to keep going. You also loved the egg hunts. You participated in about 4 or 5. Some with the real eggs we dyed and a few with plastic eggs. When you discovered, however, that there was candy in the plastic ones, the easter egg hunts came to a quick stop and turned into a picnic. That happened last year too - if I recall. All the other kids were quickly collecting their spoils and you were happy enough just to sit down and enjoy the animal crackers.

I have loved watching you grow up. You astound me daily with your ability to speak in full sentences and communicate your wants. Mostly those come out as whines but whatever. You're learning. You have been such a fun part of life. I used to think that college was the best time of my life, then I thought it was marriage but not anymore. I may talk to adults now about having to go potty and tell stupid jokes that I learned from Elmo's World but YOU are the best time of my life now - even when you make me angry or frustrated because you continue to ask the same question about 100 times even though the answer continues to be the same. Daddy is still probably driving the car even though you just asked a second ago, "Wha's he doin?" and will ask the same question in just a second. Perhaps this is your version of why. I'm okay with that but I'm wondering if we could work on spacing them out a bit more. Maybe you could ask every other second from now on? I'd appreciate that.

Little boy who's not so little anymore, you are my joy. I love you more than I thought it possible to love a human. Hopefully someday there will be more little Mikles that you will get to share this life with but for right now, you are my delight and I completely enjoy it being just the three of us.

Love you baby boy,
Mommy

TAAAAAA ruck

So, this week has been hard in the Mikles household. I'll probably share more next week but for now, please remember us in your prayers as we walk a hopeful road.

Now, for a bit of a laugh. Turns out, Justice loves trucks! He loves Mac trucks, dump trucks, toy trucks, trucks you can ride on, vans that he calls trucks, you name the truck, he thinks it's cool.

About a month or so ago, he discovered the word for truck. We had actually just dropped Marty off at the airport and were headed to the car. All the way back to the car he asked, "Wha's tha, Mommy?" Which is his 2 year old version of the question "Why?" Well, that and "Wha's he doin'?" Those two questions never cease. So, anyway, we're walking back to the car and Justice points at a truck and asks, "Wha's that. Mommy?" And I tell him.

Immediately he tries the word out for himself. Here's the problem. Toddlers can't say double consanants. Granny comes out Ganny. Spaghetti comes out sketti. But truck does not come out tuck. It doesn't even come out ruck.

Perhaps this might help you discover how it does come out. When Justice says train, it comes out fain. That's right. Fain. So, when my boy, WHO LOVES TRUCKS says truck, he drops the f bomb. We try to get him to say it correctly. We even break it down into separate sounds - TA Ruck. But then he thinks it's funny and just says the F word even louder.

So, dear readers, please know that Marty and I have not taught our child the worst of the curse words. Not at all. He just simply has a tendency towards a foul mouth.

I suppose it doesn't help that we giggle when he says it.

Small Victory

With a toddler who is about to turn 2, every day is a battle. Some of them he wins but the majority of them I win with a time out or a hand pop. I know it's sad but sometimes the tears are a victory. Don't think me awful. That's just the way it works sometimes.

This morning, I had a fantastic victory. We were on the way to school/work. Justice has one of those fancy books that has the buttons on the side that play noises. This one also has a small screen at the top that when you push the button, not only does the sound play but a little picture at the top shows up and moves. For example, one of the buttons is a horse. So, when you push the horse button a beautiful nay comes out of the speaker and a horse gallops across the screen. It's pretty fantastic. Well, we were almost to school. Justice is pushing the buttons and having a good time. Then, I hear it. A tear. He has torn one of the pages out of the book. I say, "No Justice. We don't tear pages out of books!" Well, then I hear it again. This time I say in a much louder, much more unkind voice, "NO!" and I take the book away. At this point, the whining/crying commences. I don't respond. That's the price you pay for destroying your stuff.

Then, the victory. Get this. About 30 seconds later, Justice, in a sheepish voice, says from the back seat, "sorry." You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen. My son, of his own volition, offered up a sorry for one of his actions today without being prompted. WHAT!!! We must be doing something right.

I don't think anyone really reads my blog anymore so I'm not quite sure why I'm posting except for the fact that there's an urge in me to write today. I don't have an agenda or a topic just a heart full.

I've been closely monitoring a woman's blog whom I have never met. She has a sick baby boy who is in desperate need of prayer and even more need of healing. I keep envisioning his heart being held by the creator of the universe because that's the part that's sick. I believe God will heal him. I believe God will bring restoration. By entering into this journey with some strange woman that I have never met, however, I have found myself quite emotional. I want to meet her. I want to be her friend. More than that, though, I find myself drawn into prayer more throughout the day for a little boy I have never met than I have ever really been drawn to prayer before. Why is that? Because he's so innocent and young? Because he's got so much life left to live? Because I have a little boy that I couldn't bare to watch go through something like this so my heart aches even more for MckMama? I don't know but I know I've been in prayer for baby Stellan a lot the past week and a half.

At the same time, I find myself overwhelmed by the health of my family, of my son and of my husband. I don't have to walk through the desert for a while to find healing. So, today, I am incredibly grateful to the Lord of all for the gifts he has given me.

Justice turns two this month. I can't believe it. So, since he's not quite two yet, I'm going to list 23 things (one for each month he's been alive) that make up his handsome little self:

1. He loves cho mil (chocolate milk)
2. He thinks airplanes and choo choos are fantastic. In fact, anytime he hears an airplane in the sky he has to stop and look.
3. He loves his granny, pop pop, nonnie and poppa.
4. Lie Fween (Lightning McQueen) is currently his favorite book. A chow (Ka-chow) is a frequent saying.
5. Sometimes he uses a spoon. For the most part, however, he still uses his hands to eat - much to his mother's chagrin, especially when we're having oatmeal or yogurt.
6. He's never quite content unless both Marty and I are with him. If I pick him up from daycare he wants to "see daddy?" If Marty is with him alone, he wants to "see mommy?"
7. In the mornings, he loves to call his daddy to the breakfast table. "Ohm eat Daddy!"
8. He is now 35 inches tall.
9. He loves to play the drums.
10. He has a toy guitar that he calls his "tar" and he carries it around the house so that mommy can play it. Why me? I can't quite figure that one out. I play a mean Three Blind Mice.
11. He hates getting his hair washed. The fights are nasty and usually end with one of us crying.
12. He also hates having his teeth brushed. Not even a Cookie Monster or Elmo toothbrush work.
13. He wants fre fries for every meal. Evidently they go well with cho mil.
14. He gets embarrassed pretty easily.
15. He gets tickled if Marty asks him to tell me I'm pretty. (one of those easily embarrassed moments).
16. He loves it when I draw Daddy playing basketball on the Magna Doodle. He has never seen Marty play basketball.
17. M&M's are his favorite candy.
18. He thinks other kids are fantastic. This past weekend in Orlando, he wanted to hold Baby Cyana and kiss her all the time.
19. He has a monkey to wear as a backpack that also works as a kiddie leash and he loves it! Score!
20. Justice thinks that any "puter" can only get one website - Sesame Street.
21. He can laugh like Ernie.
22. He can spot a balloon a mile away and will not rest until it is in his possession.
23. He's the cutest 23 month old ever. See?