No!!! I Wanna Do It!!!!!!!

Insert a crazed wail with the title of this post and you'll get the general idea of what it sounds like around here lately.  This refrain can be heard from morning til night, sometimes followed by a very sweet, "Can you hep me?"  Yes, we are in all-out toddler mode.  All cooking -- even boiling water -- must be supervised (from a stepstool that's a highly dangerous addition to any cooking routine).  All gardening requires surrendering the tool you'd prefer to use and using the plastic version instead. 

Making Zucchini ribbons 

The other way we know we're in toddlerdom? The sound of the word "Why" reverberating over and over.  I love having a curious kid, and having the opportunity to take a deep breath, think about how to explain something in terms a nearly-3-year old can understand, and make my best case to the prosecution.  However, anyone whose kid is in this stage will know the end of the story..... no matter how good your explanation, the response you get back is likely to be another, slightly whinier, "Whyyyy?" When he really doesn't understand something, however, it is more likely to be the very cute, "what you say?" 

The flip side of "why" is that there's a lot of pretending going on.  When he wants some snuggles, my little boy suddenly turns into a kitten, meowing for attention.  And he loves dressing up in his fireman costume -- too cute.

I've learned in another way is that children are the univere's way of teaching you humility..... I find that I'm already bumping up against the limits of my understanding of the physical world, unable to answer why it thunders, or what snails eat.  And Micah's already posed some tough questions I thought I wouldn't get for a few years, like "what's god" and "what's a soul?"

Some of my favorite Micah-isms at the moment -- he still calls the computer a "bee-ga-do," still asks to be carried by saying "uppy!"  and still cherishes -- and squirrels away like a little financier -- his "beechies" (pacifiers.)  Those beechies are going to college with him, I'm pretty sure, along with his "na-na,"  which he sighs with delight and tells me "its so soft and cozy."  He loves being part of a "Micah sandwhich" -- we ask him "who's the bread? and he answers "ME!" "who is the peanut butter?"  DADDY!"  who is the jelly? Mommy! and then each kiss him on a cheek.  (Interestingly, when I was a kid I would only eat jelly sandwhiches, and my mother told me I was going to be a jelly sandwhich when I grew up.  Now it appears to be true on several levels!
And the final way we know there's a toddler in the house?  So much ENERGY!!  He's always wiggling and dancing, sometimes just taking off and doing a lap or 7 around the living room, doing funny walks or demonstrating how he can stand on one foot.  He loves going to the playground (no longer calls it a "geygound" sadly) and has gotten more adventurous about climbing and slides.  But we were very impressed with his ability to sit still recently -- we took him to the circus last weekend, the first time we went to entertainment where everyone had to stay in their seats, and he lasted for the entire first hour very happily, despite a lot of sensory overload.  Even during intermission, he sat quite still while getting his face painted, but his attention (and ours, I admit) started to flag during the second half, so we beat a hasty retreat and considered it a good outing. 

We've all adjusted to and grown to love our new house.  Micah was a trooper during the move, spending several long days at Grandma's house.  Our new house has lots of room for guests, by the way, so we'd be happy for visits from any of our surrogacy "family" should you ever find yourself in Denver!