Terrible/Terrific Two

It has not really been my experience that the age of two is necessarily terrible. Mason may be a little crazy at times, climbing and jumping off of anything he possibly can. He has a new bruise every other day to show for it. And he is much more stubborn than Bree was. But he's more of a cuddler. He loves his siblings. And, most importantly, the screeching that started when he was about 15 months old has greatly decreased. "Speech" is increasing instead, and although he is difficult to understand, we are under the impression that he is of adequate intelligence.

So Mason turning two is exciting. We're looking forward to a year of improved language skills, potty training, and lots and lots of sports-themed play time. He loves the soccer ball ("hocca bah") he got for his birthday, and is completely obsessed with his new baseball glove; he wears it everywhere, and falls asleep with it on. We draw the line at wearing the glove at the table, but Mason's become a pretty big fan of food (not that you could tell by looking at the skinny kid), so it's not a big battle to take it off to eat.

We celebrated with a couple friends and a Mickey Mouse cake (it turned out cute and "vintage" looking...true black and vivid red frosting is beyond my grasp). Of course, Mason doesn't really eat cake. But that didn't bother the rest of us. Bree was more than happy to eat Mason's share.