Two!

The baby is two!  I would be sad that the baby is no longer a baby, but I'm too busy enjoying him.  I love twos.  It's simply the best.  I don't know who these people are that say two is terrible.  Their children must not be exquisitely adorable, articulate, funny, sweet, ridiculous, curious, and precocious.  Our toddlers are all of those things and it's bittersweet that this final baby is such a magnificent specimen.

Fritz marches around with the absolute confidence that comes from being the much-adored baby master of the family.  He flings himself off high surfaces and assumes (correctly) that someone will usually catch him.  He says ridiculous things and knows everyone will respond appropriately.  He rolls into the hockey locker room in his pajamas, chugging his bottle, and all the boys greet him like a member of the team.  He wrestles with Henry and totally holds his own but knows that Henry will always let him win.  He inserts himself into the big kids' field trips and class parties like he owns the place, and he sort of does.

What?

Pool boss

How Fritz bakes Christmas cookies

He matches his siblings decibel for decibel, but when he's being sweet, he uses this tiny little voice that I cannot resist.  Like when I lay him down in bed and he wants cuddles, he says, "Come in, Mama.  You come in."  He says the most ridiculous things that other people do not expect -- like when another mom came by and found him naked from the waist down and said, "Fritz, are you potty training?"  And Fritz replies, "Dese my buttcheeks."  He wants to wear his Wild jersey all the time and tells everyone, "I got my hockey player on."  His one and only insult is, "You a stupid buttcheek!"  When I admonish him for this (or for hitting), he disappears me by closing his eyes and pretending I'm not there.

We read for many hours a week.  Recent favorites have included the Gruffalo, Room on the Broom (Boomonnaboom), the poems book, Curious George, Mercy Watson, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and animal photograph books.  The blue zipadee-zip suit that he used to sleep in, is now his lovey, which he clutches against his face while we rock.  He naps in Henry's bed but sleeps at night in the crib.

Boss baby rolled up to Santa Claus and asked for a "vehicle."  Excuse me?  Henry teased out of him that a vehicle meant a bike.  So Santa commandeered the trike that Grandma Jane had already purchased.  And on Christmas morning, Fritz was delighted . . . with Heidi's bike!  Good thing Heidi was a patient big sister and let Fritz ride her pink, streamered bike until he realized his motorcycle trike was awesome too.

Potty training is nearly complete!  He's awesome if he's naked at home and about 80% when he's wearing pants out and about.  Still a few accidents here and there but we canceled the diaper Subscribe & Save.  We only had one truly disastrous poo accident involving a pair of sweater pants after eating a LOT of craisins.  Luckily, we were at home and I could take him straight to the shower, where Fritz could loudly exclaim, "Mama, the shower is DIRTY!  CLEAN IT MAMA!  CLEAN THE SHOWER!  I no like it!  DAT'S GWOSS!"

The king on his throne

Does Not like underwear

Our morning outings include the indoor playground, gym time at the rec center, the pool, the zoo, ice skating, getting coffee ("kopke"), and Target runs (where he MUST get one toy animal from the bin).  If we have half an hour to kill before picking up Heidi, we stop by the garden store to watch the koi in the pond, and Fritz is very popular with the grannies who work there.

Skating is hard

Fritz gets stubborn and pouts and all the usual things that go along with being two, but it doesn't make him any less delightful.  Small things that would have stressed me with Henry or Ingrid don't even register.  Fritz flips out in the store?  Meh, the shopping is still done.  Fritz won't put on a shirt for Christmas Eve dinner?  Oh, well, his body is awesome in sweater vest alone.  Sometimes I wonder if this is what grandparenting is like: simple enjoyment, relaxed perspective, low standards.  Our parents didn't get to kid #4 until Ingrid was born.

Sucks to your photo shoot

Shirts are lame

Not to mention, this is the first time I've had a toddler and not a baby.  It's extra-delightful!  I don't have to rush him or shush him or ignore him while I'm nursing someone else.  It has fostered the feeling that Fritz and I are wrapped up in a mommy-child love affair.  We spend hours a day just doing whatever we want and adoring each other.  He gives me cheeky looks to invite me to appreciate his silliness, and of course I indulge.  I tell him, "I need a squeeze!" and he runs to give me a whole-body hug around the neck while screaming, "KWEEEEEEZE!"  The sight of the babysitter makes him weep.  I'm not even pretending to be annoyed that he prefers me to everyone else on the planet -- even grandpas and big brothers.  No one will ever love me more than 2-year-old Fritz loves me.

So I am soaking him up.  This is also the beginning of the end of the toddler season of our lives.  I left work when Henry was just this age.  My daily life for the past six years has been defined by life with toddlers -- mornings out, home for afternoon naps, moving slowly through the moments.  That routine is time-limited.  Fritz and I have our lovely mornings until June, when the other kids get out of school for the summer.  Then we'll have our usual summer of chaos, then . . . Fritz will go off to school.  And that's it.  Mornings with toddlers will be done.  I can't keep Fritz two any longer but I can be certain we squeezed every minute of awesome out of this year.

But enough of my sentimentality and on to the birthday.  We have a steady stream of birthday celebrations in the fall, so Fritz has internalized the birthday traditions and loves them.  I hang the birthday flag in the office door, we make chocolate oatmeal with a candle for breakfast, have dinner at Grandma's Carol's house, and have a friend party.  Fritz relished in all and requested many singings of "Happy Birt-day To You."  We combined his friend party with our holiday block party again because no one need an extra event in December.  By this time next  year he will probably have school friends and we'll do a kid party!

Happy birthday, little man.  Mama loves you so, so, so, so, much.