When did our little boy get so grown up? His latest discovery is that he can get a chair out of the dining room and pull it up to the kitchen sink. Tonight, he helped me strain the beans in the sink. They were THOROUGHLY rinsed. He also likes to pull a chair up to the microwave and put his toys in, turn it on, and laugh hysterically (good thing the dogs are too big for Mack to get them in the microwave, yikes).His vocabulary is also expanding at a rapid rate. We have officially reached the point where we have to be careful what we say around him because he's become our little parrot (although, Richard & I are still the only ones that can understand the majority of what he's saying). Tonight, before we ate dinner, I plopped Mack into his highchair and said "I'll be right back, Mama's got to pee real bad." And what does Mack say? "Pee reah bah!" Oh dear.
Probably my favorite thing that he says now is his name - "Mack-eeeey!"
Mack has also expanded his counting prowess to include the number three. For the longest time, everything was "wuh, doos" (one, two). But now finally, he will say and recognize "free." Speaking of counting, he still only has ten teeth...not sure when the others are going to bother showing up.
He's also beginning to learn his alphabet. He can say "A, B, C, Deeeee!" and recognize A, O, and M by sight. He says "bites" for M though - thanks McDonald's (and we hardly ever eat there, I swear!)
Mack still loves to read his books but oftentimes, he just wants to read them to himself. Every night before bed, he & I read night-night books together. Recently though, he sometimes gets mad at me for sitting in the rocking chair, orders me onto the footstool, and sits in the chair by himself with his books - "Mack ree buh" or "I wahn ree buh!" This naturally hurts my feelings and breaks my heart to pieces but I guess it's just part of growing up. Sigh. Here is Mack allowing me to read with him one night last week by the fire.
He's definitely asserting his individuality and making us aware of his opinions on life. I wouldn't say he throws temper-tantrums, but he definitely has his moments when Richard & I fear the limits of our parenting abilities will very soon be exceeded. Despite these rare moments, he is still the sweetest boy (quick side story to prove the sweetness - every night after we finish reading night night books, Mack & I go to the top of the stairs together, at Mack's request, and he calls "Daaaadaaaaaaaa!" so Richard can come up and get his goodnight kiss & hug) and we constantly marvel at how amazing this precious gift of God is.
(Tunnel time!)