Happy Second Birthday, Al Pal!

Saturday is Alex's second birthday.  I can hardly believe it.  It's such a cliched thing to say, but, seriously, where does the time go?  I am holding on to Alex's last little fragments of babyhood.  His chubby thighs, the way he curls against me when I hold him in my arms, that angelic look on his face when he's napping.  My sweet baby boy.  Not really too much of a baby anymore.

For your second birthday, here are ten things I love about you.  Just ten.  I'm really limiting myself here.

1.  I love your smile.  You've been smiling since the day you were born, and it's a big, glorious one.  Everyone remarks on your smile.  It's infectious, like catching awesome-itis.  You spread sunshine and rainbows with your grin, and that's hardly an exaggeration.

2.  I love that you're such an athlete.  I mean, sure, I'm probably the foremost authority on being so very nonathletic that it would be an embarrassment if I actually gave two shits, but you- you are a born athlete, and I love it.  You're drawn to sports and balls and basketball hoops and baseball bats.  You kick, you catch, you've been known to take your football to bed.  It's something so uniquely you, a character trait that no one even had to introduce to you.  From since you could crawl, you've been a sports star in the making. We'll see what happens as you get older.

3.  I love that you're an artist.  It's not just athletics- you get excited about painting and coloring, too.  You pull the crayons out of the pantry yourself and just start coloring on paper.  You have already figured out ways to keep yourself busy, and sometimes it involves creating a masterpiece or two.

4.  I love the way you raise your hand and yell "ME!"  When I ask who wants to go to the park/ have a snack/ take a walk, your enthusiasm is beyond adorable.

5.  I love your cuddles.  At night, when we're reading our stories, you know just how to fit yourself against me, or lay your head on my lap.  You like my arm around you.  You cuddle against me so sweetly.  You are my own personal teddy bear.

6.  I love that you're a copy cat.  I love watching you follow Andy around and do what he does, even when it's the naughty stuff.  You're learning, you're figuring things out, and you're picking up on things so very quickly.

7.  I love watching you play.  You love toys.  You make the cars go vroom and the superheroes babble. You fit blocks together like an expert engineer.  You concentrate and imagine, and I like to watch the gears turn.

8.  I love your Hat Teddy.  Of all the stuffed animals in the house, you really gravitated to this odd little teddy bear we have that's wearing a knit 2010 sweater, a scarf, and a red hat.  That guys is your teddy, and if story time starts and you don't have him, you cry for him.  Teddy!  Teddy!  Teddy!  At first, I didn't know you wanted that specific teddy, and I would just go get you a random bear.  But you let me know which teddy was your teddy.  Hat!  Hat!  Hat!  You like Hat Teddy the best.  He's your teddy now.  And you take really good care of him.

9.  I love sharing food with you.  When you climb into my lap if I'm eating something tasty (you and me, we both have a cheese tooth and a ranch tooth), you smack your lips together in such a hilarious way that I can't help but cave.  Mmmm.  Cheese fries.

10.  I love the way you say "Come on!"  I love that "Come on!" (pronounced "Nummon!") is your brand new catch phrase, complete with slipping your soft little hand into mine and dragging me off somewhere to play.  Nummon!  Come on!  Let's go have some birthday cake to celebrate two of the best years ever.

Happy birthday (two days early), my sweet Alexander!  You are the second child of my dreams- a perfect little brother, a perfect baby, a wonderful kid.  I love you.