It's tough to be 2!

Oh Eli. 65% of the time, Eli is really good. He's super cute and fun to be around. He loves reciting nursery rhymes (our favorite is when he tries to do Jack and Jill... "jack and jill...what the hell..."), loves singing yankee doodle, loves playing with his trains, cuddling with his little brother (we're working on getting him to understand he can't use Liam as a pillow), reading stories (the cutest is when he does it himself.. it's amazing how many things he's been paying attention to that we didn't realize), "playing" baseball (we throw the ball and he drops his bat and runs all over the apartment, sliding and saying "SAFE!"). The good Eli is charming, gives hugs and kisses, smiles a lot and is the life of the party. He's a super sponge and I really can't teach him things fast enough. He busts out all the time with things like - "Gorillas eat sticks and leaves but giraffes just eat leaves." He'll tell me that he went swimming in the pool with Leo and Sean (ok...that was for about 20 minutes, a month ago, and that's the only time he's ever met them). He'll bust a move on the dance floor (when we went to Gerardo's mom's birthday party, he was a hit on the dance floor). He'll sit and happily build a track for his trains.

Sigh. That's the good eli. Another 20% of the time, he's a challenge, but not the worst person to be around. He'll throw little fits...ones that are generally easily corrected by distraction... or I can just ignore him and he'll move on to something else. This is the Eli that tries to jump over his brother, humpty dumpty himself off the couch, run around instead of sitting down to eat, ask me for a banana and then refuse it after I've unpeeled it, chase Cliffy around with his pirate sword, etc. This Eli is tough, but I can handle it.

15% of the time, demon Eli appears and there is absolutely nothing I can do to handle him. This is the Eli that screams "I WANT IT!" or "I NEEEEEEED IT!" at the top of his lungs on repeat. This is the guy that refuses to get in his stroller and will fight to the death to not get in there (and therefore the reason that I cannot take him out of his stroller yet if I am out with both him and Liam... if demon eli appears, there'd be no way I could get him back in his stroller if I'm holding Liam). This is the guy who throws food and the one who refuses to eat anything other than grapes or popsicles. This is the Eli who appears for 99% of his diaper changes.... twisting and kicking and screaming and fighting until I finally give up and start screaming myself.

It's hard to be two. I know this. It must be super tough to KNOW what you want and not get it (ice cream for breakfast). But man... it sure is not easy being the MOM of a two year old, either.

He's lucky he's charming. :)