Age Two - The Best and (sometimes) the Worst Year

Most of the time Age 2 is an amazingly fun time. Cole laughs and plays, talks and runs, explores and inspects. We can have conversations with him in which we understand each other. He may not want to hear or listen and he may ask "why not?" or "why?" or just the same question over and over again, but the repetition is helping his language skills and helping him understand motivation and cause and effect. He also can focus for longer periods of time and play pretend with more imagination. He also may go from one thing to the next very quickly (i.e. lose focus easily), but from our experience ease of distraction is sometimes key in keeping him out of trouble.

But some of the time? Age 2 is damn near impossible to comprehend or penetrate. Seriously. There are some days (and these ARE few and far between) when nothing I do can help Cole get into a good mood. Those days he needs non-stop structured activities so he doesn't have a meltdown. These types of days also occur in more compact forms, like an evening or one to several hours. On those days, he will somehow snap out of whatever funk he has fallen into or I will just put him to bed a tad early.

Here are some snapshots of the life of a two-year-old - good times and not so good.

"I'm sliding!" 

Refusing to sit for a meal. Nothing new.

"I want an ice pop!!"

Having fun with the train table at Barnes and Noble.

"Mama, paint!"

He peels the entire banana every time and then cries when the banana breaks every time.

Focusing on an activity.

Sleeping in after a long night of thrashing and kicking.

People watching.

The rocket ship finally moved outside.
Painting the rocket ship is the next phase in its journey to the garbage can (can we even recycle it?).

"Everything is wet, Mama."

Really? I wonder why...

"I don' like my sandwich!"

Cheesy paint face.