Turning two, Kindergarten finish line in sight

May.  It's both the finish line for the school year and Matteo's birthday month.  Really - Lily will no longer be a Kindergartner and Matteo will be two?!  Both feel so momentous - no longer will Lily be the little kid at North Beach, no longer will I be talking about Matteo's age in months.  They're both growing up and I'm lucky enough to witness it all.

For both kiddos, witnessing it all means being treated to their idiosyncrasies, which are in no short supply (goggles in the bathtub, anyone?).  For Lily, the most recent includes her new diary.  I thought she wanted it solely because it has a nifty little lock and key, but to my surprise and delight she's actually been writing in it almost daily.  What she's writing I have no idea - even if I broke her trust and looked, her writing is mostly phonetic and indecipherable - but whatever it is, it warrants deep concentration followed by carefully locking of the book immediately after.  More and more I'm getting glimpses of the teen to come.

Matteo's quirks are decidedly less covert and (mostly)adorable.  Ever the creature of habit, he's lately been a dream at drop off - he walks straight to the table, sits in a wee chair, folds his hands neatly in front of him and patiently waits for a plate of food to appear.  Never mind that more often than not he's had a full breakfast at home - second breakfast is his routine and darn it, he follows his routine.  At the opposite end of the day, his routine is a lot less adorable.  Like Lily when she was small, he goes to bed with a binkie and a 2 spares - one in each hand - to ensure that if he wakes up in the night he can always find one.  His new thing, unfortunately, is to chuck all three of them then wail piteously until someone comes and returns them.  This may happen about 5 minutes after tuck in....or continuously every 5 minutes after tuck in for an hour or two.  That's right - HOUR OR TWO.  Needless to say it's a less charming "routine."  Oh, he also likes to shut himself in his room.  Sometimes it's just to play, sometimes he's upset and has decided he needs alone time - regardless of the reason, it usually backfires.  Poor guy can't yet open the door to let himself out.

Lily has always been an artsy girl, but this month in particular her skills have taken a huge leap forward.  She's always liked to draw people, but the other day she came home with one of herself at the beach...with swirls indicating the wind blowing...and her hair being blown in the same direction.  I'll readily admit I never progressed much past the stick figure phase, but I know it never occurred to me to include waving hair on a windswept beach.  Impressed?  Heck yeah!

 

I didn't get any good quotes this month, but I did get a few awesome reactions.  Matteo was in a mood and decided it would be a great idea to smack me.  Lily informed me that her brother was NOT NICE for hitting Mama, to which I responded it wasn't ideal, but kids go through naughty phases and she did the same when she was small.  The look of shear horror on her face was priceless.  Matteo's great reaction was for Chris.  It was time to get ready for school and he was happily toddling about pantless.  Chris called him over and held up a pair of pants.  Matteo was running happily to him, saw the pants, came to a screeching halt, and ran the other direction, hysterically crying.  The boy does NOT like pants.

 

And finally, happy birthday again to our sweet, sweet boy.  It makes me especially happy that it takes so little make him happy.  He got a scooter his birthday weekend and spent well over an hour going up and down the street saying "yeehaw!" as I slowly pushed him (would have been longer but my days of walking hunched over for extended periods of time are well past me).  The next day was the greatest day ever - he ate half of Chris' pancakes, a fruit plate and a side of bacon for second breakfast (first was a full bowl of oatmeal), played for hours with the recycling truck we gave him, and got to have a cupcake at dinner.  I know he's two, that he's climbing everywhere, wants to perform tricycle daredevil tricks and is talking more and more everyday, but he's still my baby boy and always will be.