Guess Who Kissed the 3rd Percentile Goodbye (and had a birthday)?!

That would be my boy! My boy who (finally) had his two-year check-up today! Wade turned two back on January 30th, but we kept having to reschedule his doctor’s appointment until today. What a blessing, a sweet, sweet blessing it was to hear that he is gaining weight and making up for some lost time on that ol’ percentile chart. His stats were 23 lbs, 10 oz, and 34 3/4”, putting him in the 10th and 50th percentiles respectively. Following his clean bill from his most recent endoscopy, we’ve been slowly adding foods back into his diet. So far, we’ve been able to add (and keep!) dairy (!!!), white potatoes, and green beans back in. We just recently reintroduced barley, and we weren’t sure if we may have hit a problem, so we’re going to wait a few weeks and try it again. All that to say, I feel like we are in a really good place with managing Wade’s eosinophilic esophagitis, and for that, I am very grateful.

And lest you kind readers wrongly think that I’m only interested in documenting my little lady’s growth and development each month, I’d like to take this opportunity to fill you all in on life with my precious boy these days. In short, life with Wade is really, really sweet. This boy, this one who first made me a mother, is showing me that being his mama really only gets better and better. Now don’t get me wrong, we have our moments. Our moments where it is very clear that we have a two-year old on our hands. Take for example, the fact that I rely on Wade’s crib for time-out because I know I can’t contain him anywhere else. That’s not so great. And the fact that Wade’s general love and affection for his sister can sometimes turn into rough and aggressive behavior that warrants discipline. I could do without that. Or that Wade loves to respond with “No way” these days. Actually, I take that back, that one is usually pretty cute/amusing, (depending on the delivery). Wade also doesn’t like doctors or haircuts, both of which can be a bit of a problem.

He loves his sister and thinks that a great way to show her this is by piling every item in her crib on top of her. He also likes to lay as much of his body as possible on her as a gesture of affection. He calls her “Hawa” and it is oh so dear to hear him call her name.

My wader-tater is a sweet little soul and a delight to be around. He typically takes a little time to warm up to new people, but he absolutely adores receiving special attention, and you will become his new BFF if he senses your goal is to give him this. He’s a sensitive guy, much like his daddy, and he will crumble in an instant if I get really upset with him. When playing around other kids, he will often stand back a bit and watch before he enters in to play. Never one to show aggression to other children, if his feelings have been hurt, he is likely to be found quiet first, and then the tears come. (It’s the saddest, yet cutest thing!)

Wade is a passionate lover of trucks.

He truly has “truck-radar” as well call it; if there is a truck within sight, he will find it (and he will call it by its specific name). His most favorite truck is the side-loader garbage truck (which really, to Wade is any garbage truck). He is equally a huge fan of garbage cans, and he will happily spend long periods of time cruising the alley behind our house, travelling diagonally between houses pointing out each and every garbage can (and making sure I acknowledge each one of course.) A particularly enjoyable time of R&R for Wade includes a viewing of garbage trucks on YouTube (a frequent search query of ours goes something like this, “side loader garbage truck”, and then Wade points to the video he wants and says “Dat one” in the most adorable little way you could imagine.) And in case you were wondering, he still loves his little fire truck, only now rather than pushing it, he prefers to sit on it and use his feet to propel him swiftly down the sidewalk.

He also loves tractors, especially his Papa’s Kubota tractor (yes, he actually says “kubota tractor”!), which he usually gets to ride on when he’s in Lynchburg visiting his Mimi and his Papa.

While there, he also LOVES spending time with his Uncle G (seriously, Wade is Graham’s biggest fan. Wade thinks he is hysterical and loves being around him.) and my parent’s dog Copper.

(Although, if you mention Copper, Wade may say to you “fingah…Copper”, which is alluding to a recent incident when Copper nipped at Wade’s finger. I am sure Copper was provoked by my small man…) A new favorite pastime in Lynchburg is picking up sticks with my dad. Apparently my dad taught Wade all about how these things work because now Wade can be found saying “Papa, cut trees!”

Wade also loves tunnels. Almost anything can be viewed as a tunnel to Wade. He loves throwing balls, especially throwing them high (or taking shots in his basketball goal), and he is learning that he can’t throw balls at or near his sister…He loves his jammies and is often resistant to change out of them in the morning. He loves songs and dancing, and his favorite genre of music is Christmas music. {I believe this all started because I would sing “Silent Night” to him as a nighttime lullaby—it’s a soft, sweet song right? Well, then Philip recently introduced Wade to “The Little Drummer Boy” and now Wade is obsessed. Obsessed! He refers to it as “rumpapumpum” and he has his own Pandora radio station based around this song! I kid you not. His favorite line in the song is “Baby Jesus, I am a poor boy too…I have no gifts to bring…” When Philip starts to sing the song, Wade quickly interrupts him and says “poor boy,” meaning he wants him to sing that one line!}

Philip and I love how Wade often says to us, “hold me, daddy/mama” or “sit down, mama/daddy” (right next to him); we are treasuring what we know is a fleeting time! He also says “yes, please” whenever he thinks he’s in trouble or being corrected. It’s pretty funny. Somehow he picked up that that’s what he’s supposed to say to mend his wrongdoing?

An exciting milestone happened about a week ago too—Wade learned to jump! As in, both feet left the ground at the same time! He was pretty pumped about it.

I could go on and on about this kid. This has been a big year for him, and I am really just so proud of him. He made it through a really challenging time battling his allergies, he started preschool one day a week, and he got a new baby sister! That’s a lot for a little dude! I count myself richly blessed to be his mama. It is a joy to spend my days with him, and each day really just gets better and better.

We celebrated his birthday back in January with our families. At the time of the party-planning, Wade was newly into Thomas the Tank Engine, hence the Thomas theme. Here are some photos of our day.

Coal cars were one of Wade’s first favorites. I was thankful that this worked out pretty well for me and my amateur cake-making skills because coal cars aren’t that hard to turn into cakes!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about our head gear…Wade has a very creative daddy who decided that we should incorporate Wade’s love of trucks into our Thomas-themed party by making each guest their very own hat with a different truck for each hat! They were a big hit!

How funny is this next picture? The birthday boy was having a little, ahem, meltdown and only wanted me to hold him. Of course there was much to be done to get his party going, so I traded my two month old for my two year old in the Ergo! (I actually kinda loved this because it was like he was my baby all over again…)

It would appear that by the looks of things these two men may have forgotten that they’re wearing pictures of trucks on their heads…

Pictured above is Wade’s very own garbage truck. He kind of went crazy when he opened it and refused to do anything other than focus completely on this most precious gift.

Lovely little shreds of paper were used as “garbage”…where do you think the majority of that ended up? (hint: not in the new garbage truck toy!)

My dad got some of the first sounds that resembled a laugh out of Holland! He would swing her really high and she just loved it!

By the end of the day, we were all tuckered out!