Two just might be one of my very favorite ages. Sure there’s a fair amount of “No!” and the occasional tantrum that live up to the name “Terrible Two’s” but in my experience Two is pretty Terrific. I remember Clare being especially silly and exuberant at this age, just bursting with new thoughts on the world and building the vocabulary to share them. Sammy has reached that two and a half year old burst of vocabulary and it’s so. very. fun. On most days he is a bright, energetic little bolt of lightning ready to light up the world.
Sammy is so very smart. He’s relaxed and chill about things, not prone to boasting about his new knowledge. But every now and then he’ll point out several letters on a sign, line up five items and count them for me or organize his toys by color. He is very interested in plants, especially now that the flowers are blooming. We’ll tell him a type of flower once and every time we see it after that he’ll point out “iris” or “rose” or wonder where the daffodils have gone.
Sammy has always had his sweet, sensitive side. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of his personality. He has a deep and empathic soul. Whenever he sees another child having a hard time (specifically his beloved sister or best buddy M – both of whom are strong-willed girls prone to some temper tantrums) he gets very upset and worried about them. He hates to see anyone in distress. He’s also genuinely grateful and kind to people. We rarely have to remind him to say thank you – he usually throws out a “thanks” even if it’s not necessary. One day when Adam left after a fun day just the two of them Sammy ran up to him, arms outstretched for a good-bye hug, and said unprompted “Thank you for playing with me today Adam!” I wasn’t there to witness it, but J said that both he and Adam choked up with the sheer sweetness of it.
The other side of Sam’s sensitive soul is that he sometimes gets scared or worried about things. He’s still physically tough as nails so it usually takes us by surprise when he gets scared of things. In Bend a few weeks ago we were canoeing in the middle of a lake when we discovered a stowaway frog in our canoe The frog, which was pretty big, took several hops towards Sammy along the bottom of the boat. Sam had been sitting very comfortably on the bottom of the boat, enjoying his first canoe ride, until the frog came towards him. He shrieked in terror and almost threw himself out of the boat to get away from the frog. I ultimately had to pull him in the front of the canoe on my lap to settle him down. He was in danger of either a) jumping overboard or b) tipping the canoe over. While Sammy clung to me, brave Daddy got the frog out of the boat. Sam hasn’t stopped talking about it.
Now that the fear of the frog has worn off, frog jokes rule. Sammy has a dry sense of humor so his jokes are usually when he looks at me deadpan and says “Mom, there’s a frog on your head.” Or he’ll tell Clare “frogs eat flies… and sisters.”
Of course we do hear a fair amount of No! (even if he actually means yes). He has thrown a few tantrums, but they are very few and far between. Mostly he gets in cantankerous moods where nothing is right and everything is wrong. Grandpa described him in these moods as “Sam has turned into Dr. No.” Clare couldn’t remember how exactly to say that and called Sammy “Mr. No Doctor.” Well, that name stuck. So we see our Mr. No Doctor on occasion, but mostly we see our sunny, silly Sammy-Sam.
