Are you shocked? Because I am shocked. Zane is going to be 2. Two. Dos. The big, terrible two in just a month. TWO!!!

This month, Zane's sass has really come out. He knows exactly what he shouldn't be doing and how to do it sneakily. And when he gets caught, he knows exactly the perfect face to make to try and get himself out of trouble... and when that doesn't work, he knows how to bolt it in the opposite direction. 

Recently, Zane has been talking up a storm. He loves to read books and will go through the book and point out everything he recognizes. The other day we were reading a book and he saw a picture of a guinea pig and said, "Other pig. Oink oink." He also loves going to stores, where he can ask, "What's this? What's that?!" a million times and find all sorts of neat vocabulary words like 'ladder', 'meat grinder', and 'cot'. 

Zane has started to play with toys in a really adorable way. Now, he can imagine different things happening other than just feeding the toys. He will set up a whole mess of an area and then say, "Guy's house" and stick the little figure into this pile of rubbish. He will also build train tracks or roads for his Little People toys and try to drive on them himself. He has always been good at entertaining himself, but recently the way he plays with toys can keep him entertained for an entire afternoon. 

My favorite change in Zane is how he is recognizing emotions. Mitch was gone for the past month on active duty with the military. Whenever something hard happened (often) that played with my pregnant emotions (constantly), Zane knew to be soft and tender. He would come sit on my lap or snuggle into me without me beckoning him over. When everything would work itself out and I would feel better, Zane would give me a kiss and say, "All better!" before moving on to his next play thing. 

Other developments in Zane's day to day is he has developed a love for doing chores and helping. If we start to get the trash ready to go out, he will do his darndest to carry the trash bag to the door. If I am doing dishes, he pulls up a chair and scrubs the same bowl 12 billion times right alongside me. He loves to unload the silverware from the dishwasher, and he even likes to sweep! One day, he helped me pull laundry out of the dryer and he acted like that was the proudest moment in his entire life. He is such a good helper and his mood instantly changes if I ask him to help me. 

Lastly, Zane has already started gearing up to be a big brother. When clothes are too small, I've been saying, "Oh! Looks like this is for brother now!" and sticking them into a specific drawer for us to sort through later. Zane will grab random clothes and try sticking them in the drawer too, saying, "Bruder. Baby Bruder shirt!" He loves to blow raspberries on my belly, and sometimes he will try to shove things into my belly button to 'give' them to the baby. The most interesting so far has been a spoonful of yogurt, followed quickly by a toy airplane - the Holy Grail to little Zane. 

22 months has been quite the adventure. I can't believe Zane is going to be turning two in just a few weeks! If the terrible two's are filled with him still doing the dishes and laundry, I think we might be just fine. 

View Zane's 21 Month pictures here.

This Memorial Day weekend was very tender to say the least. Grandpa has had a rough few months and has moved in with the Holts. It has been hard to lose his independence, but I don't think he realized how lonely he was. He has been the absolute sweetest to Zane, and his spirit in the home is amazing. I learn all sorts of interesting things about him, his parents, and his dear wife, Mabel. 

He has made comments before questioning why he is still here, and a very selfish part of me keeps tugging at my sleeve saying, "For Zane! For Zane and your new baby! And for you! For you to learn about this family!" I would love if Grandpa could be here as long as possible, but I realize that he is growing old and tired. He is still lonely and longs for the companionship of his sweet wife, so I have to nudge that part of me away. 

For Memorial Day, we took Grandpa to go see the resting place of Mabel. It was a tender moment as he sat and looked at the graves, one for his wife, one for his infant daughter, Patty Jo, and several headstones for his departed siblings, parents, and grandparents. He recounted how the wife was actually supposed to be on the left side of the grave, and the husband on the right, but because Patty Jo was buried to the right of their plot, he put his wife beside her so that they could be together. 

He told us stories about his parents, his grandparents, his siblings, and his uncles. He recounted many stories that I had heard before, but somehow looking at their graves made these stories link up in a way that they hadn't before. 

Grandpa's parents. Grandpa told us that when Enid (his youngest sibling) was born, one morning his siblings all woke up and their parents were gone. Grandpa said that they were worried, but that they were also worried what their father would say if he came home and no one had started the chores! So they scrambled to get the chores done in case their father showed up. 

Their father eventually came home and told them that they had a new baby sister! Grandpa said she was the first baby in the entire family to be born in a hospital. 

Grandpa's older brother, Duane. 

Grandpa's older sister, Arleen. 

Grandpa's younger sister, Enid. She was the youngest and he was the second youngest. 

Grandpa's uncle, Clyde, and his wife, Connie. When Clyde and Connie were courting, Grandpa would deliver their love letters so that Clyde could herd sheep and do the farm work. Grandpa said that Clyde paid him well to not open the letters and to take them straight to Connie, who was a school teacher.

Clyde has a very interesting story that will one day become a movie, I'm sure of it. He became an engineer later in life (after his love letter, sheep herding days), and during a plane trip to Egypt for some structural work, the plane mysteriously "expired" and sank in the Mediterranean Ocean. No one knew if there were any survivors back home. Connie was left with their (ten?) children, unsure if she should hold a funeral or not. 12 days after the plane sank, a body washed up to shore that had severely deteriorated because of the salt water. They could only identify that it was Clyde because of the garments that were still intact on his body.