[Daniel] Happy Birthday, Number Two!

The big Two Year Old! We're so very proud of you and all the big strides you've been making!

[Daniel] PyCon 2010 Lightning Talk

My talk starts at 17 minutes in.

Long story short, I went to PyCon last week, which was awesome. While at PyCon, I gave a lightning talk (5 minutes, anything goes, fast-as-you-can about a topic) about my biggest open source project - Haystack.

[Daniel] Car Seat Upgrade!

Today was a big day. We measured Mini Me and discovered he was big/heavy enough to move to a booster seat! So he got upgraded to his new booster and Number Two got Mini Me's old car seat, which was an upgrade for him as well. We'll try to post pictures soon but both boys were thrilled.

[Daniel] Hilarious!

To Number Two, who was playing with a flashlight, Mini Me said "Are you flashing me?"

We just about died laughing.

[Daniel] Wonderful!

Mini Me melted Moriah's heart the other day. He turned to her at lunch and, without prompting, said "Mama, you are wonderful!"

[Daniel] Parenting Is... #45

...trying to help your panicking toddler calm down after the first time he throws up and to explain what happened. Poor Mini Me.

[Daniel] Mini Me's Leaps & Bounds

Of course, Number Two isn't the only one making huge strides. Mini Me has made enormous strides in the last several weeks, an almost incomprehensible amount had we not witnessed it first hand.

He constantly talks in complete or nearly complete sentences. His vocabulary is expanding at a tremendous rate. The estimates of ten words per day for his age seem very realistic, often picking up a word within only one or two mentions.

What's even more impressive is his understanding, logical abilities and imagination. He's fascinated by more complex books (growing out of board books). He's correctly naming all the basic colors as well as matching them. He's sorting and matching shapes. And he's using his imagination all the time when he plays, everything from driving a race car to floating in space to being a fireman to cooking in the kitchen. He recites movie dialogue very well and frequently talks about things he did days ago.

It's really quite amazing and a big shift from a month or so ago, when most of these things weren't the case. It's awe inspiring and I'm (we're) really proud of him.

[Daniel] Number Two Speaks!

Granted, Number Two has tried saying a couple things before, infrequently saying "mama", "dada" and making car/animal noises. But within the last several days, he's started trying and saying much harder words!

Yesterday, while reading a book with Moriah, he said "apple" at a picture of an apple and giggled to himself. Today, while looking at pictures with Mini Me and I, he saw a picture of Sean from last October in a maze of hay bales and said "hay". He's also said "baby" on more than one occasion. Then tonight, while reading a book with everyone, he tried to say "school bus", which came out a little mangled but still recognizable!

Just crazy but attaboy Number Two!