"Mommy, pick Matt up"

Oh my goodness how I love this boy, dirty face and all. What is it about a two year old that can warm your heart and push all your  nice and mean buttons all at the same time? From the weekend mornings wants to "snuggle" in bed while I read a book, to the witching hour in the evening when he screams and hollers for "more chocolate MILK!" until I'm ready to pull both our hair out, this little guy is really the apple of his mother's eye. Not that I have favorites of course, because no good mother would, but this age is just so darn sweet. Here's a little about Matt.

He LOVES to play "I-pawed" every chance he gets. He's not so naturally drawn to shopping as my girls were at this age, but if I promise him time with my ipod he's always game to go. He's ruined two covers. I finally got an otter cover that looks really ugly and utilitarian, but he doesn't seem to mind. He giggles hysterically - I mean big, belly laughs - at the game "Angry Birds" and makes people in the stores laugh too. I think he's over the phase where he screams for the toy at church but that could be the time change - at 1pm he's just too tired to determine what he's screaming about anymore.

Matt loves to play with his siblings. He terrifies them and thinks it's hysterical. While they know they can't hurt him without risking the wrath of their parents, he delights in chasing them around the basement with push toys and catches an unsuspecting ankle now and then. He's got a little wooden alligator clacking push toy that could wake the dead on the concrete floors in our basement, and the noise really adds to your terror when it's zooming at you full speed. We're working on that. He's also very imaginative and I'm truly impressed with the things he says not because he can say them, but because he's even thinking them!

Matt loves trains, trucks, and airplanes and insists on my drawing them (badly!) any time he comes across a stray piece of paper. He sits in my lap while I draw and is very verbal about what he likes and what he doesn't, if it's too big or small, and if "Matt" should be sitting inside the vehicle or not.

He doesn't love sledding, and he's very unsure of going fast, or feeling out of control. He doesn't even like swings. He trusts his dad to throw him around a little, but there it ends.

He's also very competitive when it comes to offering the blessing on our food. Either he does it or nobody else will be allowed to. That's new. We're working on that too. But he does offer pretty cute prayers. :-)

He loves to be tickled, both to giggle and to relax and that's the only way he falls asleep in church.

Finally, I love to hear him talk. Here are a couple of this week's phrases.

Mommmy... big... mouth... (yeah this was at dinner and the other kids thought it was pretty funny)
Mommy, no... pick... Matt... up... (the other variation of that is the title to this post of course)
Mommy, no.. want.. that! (this one has many variations - no eat that, no take that, no throw that, etc.)
Mommy peas? (Please?)
Mommy, NO... WANT... KISSES! (said pretty forcefully sometimes, but how can I resist?)
Mom... button... hut  (mom, my bellybutton hurts! *stomach flu*)
Mommy... fishy... mountain! (yeah, he'd dumped out the goldfish crackers, but was so proud!)
Mommy... BIG TRUCK! (or sometimes, MONSTER TRUCK!)
And one of my favorites, he called Erick a "froo froo" the other day, modelling his biggest sister.

Mommy is his favorite word. It's often used for Justin too, although he's "mommy-daddy." I hear the word mommy from him hundreds of times every day and I think I'll miss that most eventually. The other kids say it a lot, but they always need something, or are tattling, or something when they do. Matt just says it because he missed me and wonders where I am.

I really, really, REALLY love that boy.