Nate at {21} months

{21} months . . . already? I can't believe I have an almost two year old. But then you see the way my sweet little boy acts sometimes and there's no questioning that the terrible two's are starting a little early. Through all of the good, bad, happy, sad, frustrating and hilarious things a two year old brings . . . I sure do love this kid.

Here's a little about Nate right {now}:

- He's quite the chatterbox. Sometimes it's actual words and sometimes it's jibber jabber. It makes me smile - I love that he can communicate.

- He loves to "cook" and "clean". He's always asking for a bowl/spoon to "make a cake" or for a rag to clean.

- He loves to wash his hands.

- He's obsessed with hats and shoes. He rarely has a bare head or feet. And he loves gloves: garden gloves, oven mits, snow gloves.

- He loves our bed. He's always asking to play "boo" with the covers.

- The binky is still around - but it's only during nap time and at night. He still asks for bink throughout the day but he's slowly learning that he's only going to get it when he's sleeping. We still have a major meltdown every few days.

- He hates milk but loves everything else dairy.

- He can lock me out of the house. I experienced that yesterday morning - luckily Wes left the sliding door unlocked earlier that morning or I would have been in trouble!

- He loves to dance & even asked me to dance the other day.

- He loves balls. And he loves his basketball hoop. In the middle of sacrament meeting at church, he constantly looks back in to the cultural hall and says "hoop."

- He can be quite a little sweetheart giving hugs and kisses and pats on the back. Or, he can be a bully - pushing little kids over. We're working on that.

- He has a "happy run" that is more like a gallop. I love it.

- He asks for Ki (Kiley) all day long. Every time there is a knock at the door he looks at me and says Ki?

- He loves to brush his teeth. If I forget at night, he's always quick to remind me.

- His favorite words are: cheese, ju-ju (juice), mama, dada, mommy, hat, shoes, clean, cook, up/down, car, beep beep, honk honk, please, treat, eat, wet, hands, "I go", blue, green, Nate (pronounced Net with a strong N and a strong T), Had, Ki, no-no, mine, ice, Elmo, Why (Super Why), train, Pooh, Roo, poop, pee-pee, toot, burp (yes, he's a gassy kid), home, away, back, tight, play, weeee, owie, hug and many more I can't remember right now.

- He is obsessed with numbers 2 and 10. If he has two of anything, he'll tell ya.

- He says his name about 100 times a day. He is constantly telling me when something is "Net's" (Nate's).

- He's a much better eater these days.

- He loves to water the plants.

- He loves nursery. He relaxes so much in there that he always poops at least once!

- He loves to hide. He'll either hide behind the curtains, behind a chair, or he'll be in plain view with his hands over his eyes. If I don't notice that he's hiding, he's quick to yell . . . "mama - hide." Or in other words, come find me mama.

- For months, we had no problem at bedtime. He's starting to test those waters again but he'll soon find out that bedtime is bedtime, regardless of the stunts that are pulled.

- He has some really funny mannerisms that crack me up. He's got this head tilt that he gives you sometimes when he's "talking" to you and it makes me laugh-out-loud every time. If a little kid is sad, Nate will get down on the floor and look at them and pat their back and say . . "sad?"

- He's not a mama's boy or a dada's boy. If he had it his way, he'd have us both around all day long.

My friend Brooke just started a photography company so here are the photos she took of Nate a few weeks ago. {she also took my new blog header photo.} Thanks Brooke! You can check her out here.

Nate was running everywhere during this photo shoot. We were at a new place with lots of fun toys and Nate did not want to sit still. Pretty typical of a 21 month old boy. But Brooke got a lot of his personality - his goofy looks, saying "ssshhh", acting like a monkey, and hiding.

A couple of my favorites . . . a little bigger . . .

{he sticks his tongue out just like his dad}