Thanksgiving in NJ

We had a great time in NJ. Roman talked for days about how he went up, up, up in a plane to go see Grandma Cozy, and ride Larry's tractor and he's still hiding in the corner of elevators, knocking on every door he can find and saying as loud as he can, "Hello!? Elmo?" Thanks for that.... Uncles Mike and Gary. : )

He also wondered where his crane went and kept asking if we could go see Grandma Cozy, up, up, up in the plane, of course. I told him that she was sending the crane soon, but he has little concept of "soon," so he kept asking.

He is now 26 months. He has matured so much in the last couple of months. His vocabulary has grown exponentially and he repeats EVERYTHING we say. He still uses a lot of sign language, but his words have become much easier to understand, which is good since he will repeat it 1,000 times until you confirm you know what he's talking about. And, don't try and trick him with that smile and head nod you do to children, he doesn't buy that.

He insists on using the bathroom by himself. He says, "No Mama, Roman, by self" and pushes me out the door. I get a little nervous when he goes in there alone and shuts the door, but everything always turns out okay. He even dumps his potty into the big toilet and sprays it with the sprayer connected to the toilet, and somehow makes less of a mess than Daddy usually does.

He now plays happily in his room by himself, but often requests that we at least sit on the bed and watch him, but he doesn't mind if we read. He wakes up in the morning and says, "Mama, Dada, wake up! Play!"

He's still a terrific eater, but now he likes to open the fridge door and place his order. Everything in there is healthy, so I usually give him whatever he wants. But if I say No to something, he usually accepts that just fine too. He is oddly reasonable in his negotiations.

The only time he gets a little bi-polar is when he gets hungry or needs to use the bathroom, but if we remember to feed him or if we remind him to use the potty, he does and then says, "Roman... better," and another crisis is averted.

I would tell you how amazing and adorable he is, and how funny he is, but I think that's pretty obvious from his pictures and videos, so I won't brag any further. But, seriously, has anyone ever been more fun than this adorable little guy? He's full of surprises and at the end of the day I can usually only remember about 1 or 2 of the 100+ hilarious or crazy smart things he did that day. People say age two is bad and sometimes three is worse, but I really don't know what they're talking about. He is such a joy.