Conversations with a 2 year old

The biggest change this past year has been Max’s ability to communicate. It’s weird to think that a year ago he only knew a few words and could only communicate in one or two word sentences. Some days I can’t believe how grown up he is, then I’ll see certain things that remind me he is still our little boy-the way he sleeps with his bottom up and legs tucked under, how he cuddles up with us when he is sick, the way he pronounces “buh-lex-Ah” and even the uncontrollable tantrums that occasionally ensue when we give him breakfast on the wrong plate (definitely hope he grows out of that one).

Here’s what conversations with our two year old look like (and I fully realize these might only be adorable to Aaron and I):

One.

One afternoon Aaron came to the garage to help me bring stuff in from the car. He slipped on flip flops with his socks and got Max out of his carseat. As soon as Max was out he looked down at Aaron’s feet, furrowed his brow and said,

“Dada what are you wearing, tell me what you are wearing”

It was absolutely the appropriate question to ask someone who is wearing socks with sandals, but it was just so funny to see how puzzled Max was by the combination.

Two.

One morning I came downstairs to find Max had dumped his toys all over the living room. I asked him if he was making a mess and he said,

“I’m not making a mess. I’m just bringing stuff together.”

Three.

Max was splashing in the bathtub and getting water all over the floor. When I told him to stop splashing he said,

“Mama, it was just a whale jumping.”

His response was so genuine that I couldn’t help but smile.

Four.

Max has been doing great with potty training, but for a while he didn’t like to poop on the potty. To incentive the task, we started offering “special treats” for pooping on the potty. I guess we didn’t make it clear that the treat was just for Max, because one day Max came running to me with a huge smile on his face and said,

“Daddy pooped on the potty! He gets a special treat and he has to share with Max.”

Max is really good at telling us that “sharing is caring” and “we have to share with Max”, but he isn’t always quick to offer us a bite of his cookie.

Five.

Aaron was upstairs doing the seven minute exercise routine (which is seriously hard!). When I asked Max what Aaron was doing, Max ran to check then came back and said,

Daddy is blowing.

Six.

Max gets pretty weepy at night when he knows his night time routine is coming to an end and it’s time to go to sleep. He comes up with a lot of reasons why he is sad. One of my favorites was on a night we were reading Ratatouille, and he stopped and said,

“I’m sad because I just wanted to be a great chef.”

Seven.

Some of our funniest conversations with Max happen right after we pick him up from school. Here are a few of our favorites:

“I have a mouth because I love to talk.”

“I’m going to Ms. Bonnie’s (his teacher) house for dinner tonight. We are making cookies.”

“I think Thomas came to clean the snow from my driveway when I was at school.”

He didn’t.

“Spider-Man came to my school and he bothered me.”

Aaron and I brushed off that comment as one from a toddler’s imagination. But we found out later that Spider-Man did come to their school and he did bother Max (a.k.a he gave Max a high five).

Eight.

Aaron has been the favorite parent (by far) for a while. In fact if Max were going to list his favorite things, Aaron would be somewhere at the top around trains and race cars and I would hover above biscuit day at school but below finding a really big bubble in the bath. That’s why it was extra funny one day when out of nowhere Max stopped what he was doing, looked up and told me,

“I think I like daddy.”

Big eye roll. We know you like daddy, but what about me!

Nine.

Max spends a lot of time playing with trains, so a lot of our conversations are centered around that topic. The other day we had this conversation,

Max: “Come sit on my train tracks.”

Me: “Is the train going to hit me?”

Max: “No.”

Me: “Are you sure?”

Max: “Yes I am. It will go around you. It’s a nice train, just look at it.”

I sit on the train track. The train hits me.