Rule #92: Actions speak louder than words

Evan has been a regular two year old lately. Tantrums, testing his boundaries, you know, the good stuff. And as maddening as it is to put him in time out a thousand times a day, he does provide some good stories as well.

Case in point. While walking up the stairs to our landing I hear Evan cheerfully saying "Oh, Evan No! Oh, Evan No!"

Worried and grumbling, wondering what he has gotten into I turn the corner and see that my happy toddler has dumped Jasmines water all over the landing floor.

Without missing a beat, and unable to contain myself I groan, "Oh, Evan...no!"

It seems he must hear that phrase a time or two :)

And time outs seem to be thoroughly ineffective. I saw him hit Jasmine, put himself in time out, say "sorry Jas" just to take himself out of the corner and hit her again....and walk himself right back to the corner!

But having a toddlers not all bad. He's a delight to be around, when he chooses to grace me with his charms. It's usually really easy to get him to laugh and play. His new love is play dough, and puzzles. Man that kid would put together (or rather take apart) his dinosaur puzzle all day if we let him. He's actually getting pretty good and putting it together without our help. And once he's mastered that, I think I might just LET him do puzzles all day long if it makes him happy.

He's talking very well now. When he's in a comfortable environment he'll talk your ear off. He can rattle off 6 or 7 word sentences. He's also starting to understand jokes a little. Like I said, when he has a mind to, he's an adorable little boy.

He's been loving having a baby in the house. He's excited to see him every morning, and if Graham happens to be asleep, he lets us know just how disappointed he is. He gives him lots of hugs and kisses still. Graham is finally becoming aware of his big brother, and is very interested in this loud noise maker when he gets close enough to see.