22 Months Old at Christmastime

Moses is 22 months old! He had a rather eventful 22-month-birthday, too. In the morning, he went sledding for the first time ever. He was initially terrified when I placed him on the sled and wouldn't stop screaming until I took him off, but after he watched his brothers gleefully glide down the hill in our backyard, he insisted on having a turn. Moses went down the hill head-first on his belly just like his brothers (I'm convinced that he thinks he's 5 years old, too) and loved every second of it. It never even occurred to us that our backyard would be good for sledding until it snowed, but it turns out that it's perfect! We are so thankful for our awesome backyard and the year-round outdoor fun that it affords our energetic little boys.

Later that day we went to Caleb and Joshua's school for their classes' Christmas parties. When we arrived at Caleb's class, Moses walked right on in and immediately made himself at home with the other children. He helped himself to a seat at the table and made a gingerbread house, and at circle time he sat in a chair and got up to dance to "Move It, Move It" with all the other children. The kids take turns dancing two at a time until everyone has had a turn, then they all dance together. Moses, however, got up to dance with each set of children, but took great care to return to his seat in between each session. He was the star of the show! Yesterday, when I dropped the boys off at preschool, he threw a fit and cried because he wanted to stay, too.

The Baby Center's "Your Child is 22 Months Old" email I received this week said that my child probably won't be able to jump with two feet or kick a ball for a couple more months. Moses has been doing both of these things for at least a couple months. He loves to play with balls and frequently asks me, "Wanna play soccer ball?" He is also growing like a weed. His 2T footie pajamas no longer fit because his feet are too big! Whenever we put them on, he quickly unzips himself and frees his feet from the captivity of the footies.

Moses continues to talk up a storm. By the way he talks, you'd think he had a good 4 or 5 Christmases under his belt. "Look at the snow man! Look at the Christmas lights! It no-ing! There baby Jesus! Can I have a candy cane?" A couple days ago while we were eating dinner, Moses grabbed his ears and pulled them so that they were sticking out and said, "I a reindeer!" He never ceases to amaze us with the things that he says. Here are a few more examples from the past few weeks:

One day last week Joshua came stumbling into our room first thing in the morning, as he is apt to do. "Do you want to sleep in mommys bed?" I asked him. "Yeah!" he replied eagerly. Moses, who had also just woken up, was quick to object. "No!" he protested, "Moses sleep in mommy's bed. Joshua no sleep in mommy's bed!"

Over the past few weeks, Moses has been smitten with my FONZ membership card. I guess it's hard for him to resist those cute pandas. Since it's expired, I've let Moses take ownership of it. The only problem with giving a 22-month-old a toy that's literally the size of a credit card is that he loses it all the time. The other day he was agonizing over not being able to find it, as usual. When he finally found it, he said, "Mommy, I found my panda bear card! Gimme five!"

One day last week, Moses was playing with a monkey Beanie Baby when the sun went behind some clouds. He said, "It dark! It dark, baby monkey." Then he turned to me and said, "Heh, heh, I talk baby monkey."

Yesterday I was driving around with the boys and Moses, for whatever reason, was being grumpy and unreasonable. Caleb scolded him, saying, "You're being a naughty boy, Moses." Moses snapped right back and said, "Don't say that me!"

Over the weekend, we were driving by our neighbor's house and Moses said, "Look at that orange car!" Sure enough, an orange car was parked in front on their house. Later that day, Moses asked me, "Where is the green Guido?" so I found the green Guido and gave it to him. "No!" he replied, as if exasperated with me, "where is the green Guido?" Suspecting my error, I found the blue Guido and gave it to him. "Oh, thank you, Mommy." I guess we'll keep working on those colors!