So I'm back...

First things first. Let's get this out of the way. Two year olds are very obnoxious little people. I adore Lennon. I want another one just like him. But TWO sucks. SUCKS. Here's a little peek into my life, when the tantrums get bad:

But, the little pain in the .... well .... he's totally worth it.And it doesn't always suck, really. In fact, most of the time it is amazing. I still love being a mom!

So I've been chasing after a 2 year old and of course, that means I have not, for months, updated my blog. But SO MUCH has been going on in the Hartless House.

We had our second Christmas with Lennon. He dressed up super handsome and I wish I could get away with dressing him up like this all the time:

But, I think Daddy would protest if this was our daily attire. I think he thinks boys are supposed to get dirty... WHAT? Just kidding. I love him in shorts and a tee-shirt, too. Back to Christmas - Santa Claus was very good to all of us this year, and we had a great trip to Nashville to visit with the family. We are so blessed

Other important milestones...

We got to play in the snow for the first time this year!

You can't really tell so much in this picture, but he really loved it. I definitely struggled to get him to come in for a nap after this. I am looking forward to next year when I can reason with him about keeping gloves on, etc., and that we can come back out after we go in a while. Oh, wait, he will be 3 next year.... maybe in 3 or 4 years, I will be able to reason with him.

Also, got our first real bona fide shiner!

It was really hard to get a picture, but the basic story I got from day care is that he had a little tantrum (imagine that, right?), and threw himself on the ground. Sadly, his face hit a shelf on the way down! This thing lasted for 2 weeks, and after the swelling went down, it looked like purple and green eye shadow. He looked like a tiny drag queen that only did one eye!

Another BIG BIG BIG and WONDERFUL milestone...

NO MORE BINKY!!!!!

He was going through a rough patch sleeping (see many many previous posts for history on this one), and we finally had to break down and redo the sleep training. Well, when he would cry himself to sleep, he would get so mad that he would throw all of his binkies out of the crib. Eventually he went to sleep on his own without them. 3 days later when sleep training kicked back in, he refused to put the binkies in his mouth. Hates them. He slept with them in his hand for a while, but I caught him putting them in his mouth last week and got rid of them all for good. He hasn't really complained. He has asked for it a couple of times, but as long as I ignore that, he stops asking. YAY for no binky!

Another big milestone for my little squirt is that he turned TWO!!!! We had an awesome party for him - no blizzard this year, thank God! It was a Yo Gabba Gabba party, and we had 2 cakes.

We had a Brobee cake:

:

And we had a Plex cake:

and YES, I MADE THEM!!!! Go me.

Lennon did a little better with his cake this year. Let's do a little comparison.
First birthday cake eating:

And second birthday cake eating (notice the fork):

Much better this time, don't ya think?


Anywho.... little Lennon has become quite the man of mischief. One Saturday morning, I went to pour myself a cup of coffee, came back to check on him, and found him in the laundry closet brushing his teeth (hey, I guess it's better than finding him in the basement smoking, right?)

And thanks to the technology of very-low-light digital camera capabilities, I walked in to and was able to capture this scene first thing one morning:

What would you give to have that kind of joy and energy at 7 a.m.? I would give a lot. A LOT!

A favorite pastime is still, of course, playing with Brett any time he can. I got this of them sitting at Lennon's new table recently:

That's some serious love right there.

We have a hilarious play area in the mall that was built and sponsored by our local ABC station, and I take Lennon there to play sometimes. Here he is practicing to be our next local newscaster:

What he is looking at is the TV screen that shows him himself sitting at the news desk. He really loves that.

Potty training is on the near agenda. He has shown some interest...

Looks just like Daddy, don't you think?
Honestly, though, I hope the interest picks up soon. I'm getting a little tired of diapers.

In other Lennon news, the kid is definitely a talker. He speaks in complete sentences and knows what he wants and asks for it. And definitely lets us know when he doesn't like something (refer to the picture at the top of the page). He is super snuggly still, which Mommy LOVES, and very sweet. He is starting to get into Disney movies like Cars and Toy Story, which is lots of fun for me, and he is a big fan of anything related to wrestling or to animals.

I'll try not to wait so long to update. This kid just keeps me busy!