Rye is 2! Happy Birthday Rye!

"I am two years old!"

Gearing up for visitors.

First frosting beater to lick!

Mommy baked the car cake, but Grandma did the heavy lifting with paint, body work and detailing. Rye supervised.

Later, Daddy was trying to explain that something was sweet, and said it was "sweet, like cake." Rye responded, "Sweet, like tires." Tires? We think he meant cookie tires.

Ciera always tries for an extra wish, no matter whose birthday it is. Hey, you can't win if you don't play.

Rye enjoyed many generous gifts!

Rye received a squirmy snail, a trash truck, a skip loader, a dump truck, y mas. Nearly every gift had wheels.

When your family is big, sometimes it takes two parties to get all of the celebrating in. Ice cream cake and song with Nana and Granddad, Tio and Zena, Uncle Bill and Aunt Colleen.

Rye is skill-building quickly! He is extremely verbal and talks in fairly complete sentences. He still is learning to make the back-of-the-throat sounds such as /k/ and /g/, but he is working on it. He also is learning the difference between "you" and "I." He still sort of thinks his name is "You." But with drilling from Grandma and Grandpa, he is picking up "I." He is more often able to say, "I would like...." rather than "Do you wanna...?" which to him mean the same thing. If you ask him to say the phrase he is offering in a sentence, he often is willing to do that, using a somewhat appropriate subject, verb, etc.

He can count to about six, most of the time. He can't always count objects more than three or four, though.

His favorite books lately are Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Jon Scieszka's Smash Crash and Garage Tales, Richard Scarry's Hop Aboard, Here We Go! and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Lord and Burroway's The Giant Jam Sandwich. He also still enjoys Jamberry, Harry the Dirty Dog and Spot Sleeps Over and If You Give a Pig a Pancake. He likes to hear books 3 or more times in a row.

Out of the blue, he will say lines from a book he has read. Today he was talking about Farmer Seed from Jam Sandwich.

He is able to finish sentences and ideas. Earlier this week, Rye did not want to remove his firetruck PJs in the morning. Mommy told him that we needed to take them off, so they would be clean to wear tonight. Mommy said, "...because if they get sandy and you can't wear them tonight, that will be a problem." Rye agreed, and said: "That would be drama."

He is able to find synonyms for words that you can't understand him saying, such as "top" and "lid." He also talks with his hands a little bit, showing how things twist or fly.

Daddy was reading Rye a book about how things are built while Rye was on the potty. Daddy turned the page and asked, "What are we making here?" And Rye replied in pointed explanation, "We're making poop, and you're reading, 'Where Everyday Things Come From.'"

Recent famous phrases:

"I can spell A-B-C-D-E-F-G."

"The tile is similar to the light." (And it was.)

"Heeere's Peter Sagal!"

Rye is enjoying his music class and his art class. He is very interested in the activities during the art class, listening to the stories, and listening to the sea shell to see if he can hear the ocean. He now tries out every seashell he can find.

He can jump from two feet to two feet. He can climb Grandma's backyard slide to run cars down it. He is helpful cleaning things up (but not always). After watching his older cousins ride tricycles, he finally wanted to try one, with purpose this time.

He is extremely dextrous and can screw on and off lids, he can open a door that is clicked shut, does well with a spoon and fork and tries cutting with the side of the fork.

He likes to wear hats and sunglasses, and carry his scavenger bag that Mommy made for him (he keeps trucks and two plastic giraffes in it). Trousers and shoes are often optional, however. Sometimes he accessorizes with a necklace or bracelet.

He likes giraffes, penguins, dogs and kitties.

He was extremely flexible while we were displaced from our home for five weeks this summer while workers plastered and painted (We did actually have a worker who both kept to schedule and to the bid, but we also had two others who....didn't. So we were out of the house for at least a fortnight longer than we expected). We took his bed and his favorite books and toys with us for continuity. He was able to adapt fairly easily and stuck it out in the end when he was ready to go home. It helped that we were able to stay with family in places with lots of room to spread out and plenty of places to walk to.

We think he is an amazing, gentle, sweet, generous and brilliant boy. He impresses us, daily.