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.









