I'm finally Mommy

Well after several months at the Momma stage in life, I have finally progressed to Mommy. It seems like such a small status change, but at least it's forward progress. Evidently it is hard for toddlers to start switching vowels mid-word, so this is quite an accomplishment for him. I think he said it by accident sometime on Saturday. So I got excited and said it a few times back, accenting the last syllable so he could really hear it. And all of a sudden, it just clicked with him. He loves saying it so much that I know I heard it no less than 1,000 times for the remainder of the weekend. Sometimes when his nose was a little stuffier than others, it would come out as Bobby, but it was close enough.

And it's that time of the year, for sure. The constantly running nose, the sneezing. My favorites are when the two combine to form an explosive burst of flourescent green goop that instantly flowers out in every direction. It's really horrible to watch. Poor Brent standing there all panicked trying to say "Mess, mess" without opening his mouth to let it in, as I'm searching for the nearest piece of anything to wipe him with. There's been a time or two I've been forced into using something that I was still wearing at the time, just to save him. We're both a mess in every form of the word some days.

But his slight cold hasn't slowed him down. He's all into "walking" lately. He (so far) is willing to behave in stores if I let him "walk" like a big boy. Holding hands is a requirement, though. Sometimes that's a dealbreaker for him - that's when he just plops himself down in the aisle and won't budge. But he's doing better than I expected. And he has gotten to the point where he'll just continuously stand up in the seat area of the cart and jump into my arms to avoid having to sit there. Not exactly the safest of maneuvers, for sure. We're still ironing out the kinks, but so far he's being pretty behaved when we go out these days. I'm just not sure where my baby went. But there's an adorable little boy that follows me around helping me look for him :)

We also have been going for walks through the cornfields (that finally have been harvested) and in the woods a little. He just loves being outside and seeing new things. We looked for birds and played with acorns (which are known as "baby trees") and threw sticks and examined bugs. And then he willingly puts his tiny hand in mine as we head back home. For those few minutes there are not tantrums, no crying, no frustrations, no background television noise or phones ringing. I'm not sure it gets any better than that.