The Entertainer

I have a twelve-year-old, a ten-year-old, and a two-year-old. Needless to say, it has been a long time since I have had a toddler in my home 24/7. I forgot just how entertaining they can be. Our little man is no exception. As we speak, this little ball of energy is using a couch pillow as a battering ram and coming for me repeatedly as I sit in my office chair and attempt to write this blog. I don't have the heart to tell him to stop, because he has been belly-laughing the entire time! He has a big, beautiful smile that lights up any room. 

Have you ever thought to use bubble wrap to entertain a toddler? It works great about thirty minutes before bedtime! When my older kids were little, I was a consultant for a home based business; back then everything was shipped to me, which meant A LOT of bubble wrap. I used to line a hallway in my house and let them go at it. Up and down the hall, all I heard was POP, POP, POP! The other night I put some bubble wrap on my kitchen floor (because just about everything else is carpeted). He was on the attack; running back and forth in leaps and bounds. He is our funny little man; the entertainer.

Being a toddler, his vocabulary is growing daily. Some things are pronounced easier than others. Sometimes "truck" sounds like, well, a four letter word that rhymes with truck. Somehow, "X-Box" sounds like the same not-so-nice four letter word. Some days all I hear is "truck" all the way home from daycare. He is a little sponge, soaking up what he hears and spitting it right back out at you. This is why I have a swear jar at home. There is more money in that jar than in my wallet. 

Often, after his Daddy will tell him to stop doing something, he will say, "Do you hear me?" Our boy then likes to turn around and use such lines on his sister and brother; and lets face it, sometimes me. What a little stinker. This is our little man's newest favorite saying. He tells his brother to "go away" followed by "do you hear me" as many times as it takes for him to be far enough away or for me to tell him to stop it and be nice. 

He insists on helping carry in the groceries, probably because he sees his sister and brother doing it. He is two. He is not very strong. The other day, I had stopped at the store, but I didn't buy much. The lightest bag had a large jar of mixed nuts in it. By the time the bag got inside, the bottom was worn away from it being drug down the sidewalk, there was snow inside of it, and the jar of nuts was barely still inside the bag. He was so proud when he got inside, as he handed to me, he said with a big smile "Here you go!" 

He prefers to walk in the snow when there is a perfectly good sidewalk, he says he is hungry to try to get a later bedtime, he says no poopy when there is clearly poopy, he tries to lick ketchup off his elbow that he can't quite reach...he is our little trucking entertainer and we wouldn't trade him for the world.