Baby Will: 2 years.

When do we stop calling him Baby Will, you ask?

I don't know, but Little Baby Billy in The Righteous Gemstones makes it work into middle-agedhood, so I'm in no hurry to cut it out.

This baby is two. Two!

The baby that flew into the world one Friday night and has pretty much been eager to be part of everything ever since. That 6 pound 9 ounce baby.

I can't believe it, naturally. Two means school, two means potty training (or, fine, three), two means talking and personality and interests and picky eating.

Mainly, MY baby isn't actually a baby anymore, and that's a crying shame. He's a roly-poly smiling, funny, interesting human with bright blond hair that has taken to extra growing in the pandemic, 3 haircuts since March and going strong! I had this sort of hair when I was his age, and, while I know that looking alike fully does not matter, he has taken to looking more and more like me recently which I not-so-secretly love.

Will is, for the most part, the most fun thing in our entire lives. His big sister agrees, and of course the funny thing about a second child is that his entire life is defined by her. He wants to know where she is all the time, he wants to hug her first in the morning, he shares his snacks with her, he weeps when we drop her off at school.

I absolutely recognize that this will not last, so I celebrate those little moments between the two of them so strongly. It's ADORABLE, and so much fun to see them together, having known each other and, in his case, only her for these last several months, little brains and hearts so closely knit together by all of this alone-inside time.

The second half of Will's second year was defined loosely as Doing All The Things - talking, running, jumping, learning full songs, dancing, figuring out that, yes, for sure golf clubs get taken away if you swing them at people. It's been so much fun to have a little extra time to see him learn and grow, and knowing that we're into our last full year before he goes to school is bittersweet in all of the ways.

We try to talk to him all the time, and he talks right back, right down to narrating his own constant dangers. Picture this little chub standing on the back of the couch hollering "don't fall, don't bump your head, be careful weewee!"

W's and L's are not his strong suit, sad name choice, kid.

In lots of ways, knowing that this is the last time we'll have a baby (and all the stages after that) helps ground me a little more to the present with Will. Babies Don't Keep is an understatement, and lots of times I worry that I'm just MISSING everything, trying to hard to keep up with regular life and work and parenting. This year hasn't slowed down a ton for us, but having some outside world things cancelled or postponed has given us more pockets of time together, and I treasure that so much.

Will's newest obsession is asking for hugs and kisses, which sounds silly and is definitely silly but also the cutest damn thing in the world. In this routine he asks to be picked up, then says very loudly INEEDAHUG, then presents his cheek and says ANDAKISS. And then hops down and scampers off to copy whatever Beck is doing. It's this funny secure attachment home base thing and I just can't get enough of it.

Will's sense of humor has also come from watching Beck, and one of the highlights of my year was hearing him mutter "goddamn it" when he dropped a toy one day. NOW, I know that many people find this horrifying, but the fact that he said it CORRECTLY just mowed me over with funny, this tiny little voice so frustrated with himself. Beck has also taught him to answer the question "who's your favorite dad?" with "MAMA!" also a huge crowd pleaser, with me at least.

I love this age (and all ages, really) because there's still a lot of baby: sleep sacks, crib, snuggles, paci, bottles of milk, but paired with a lot of big kid and some independence. The ability to talk is very huge for me, because baby frustration is a struggle for everyone. Independent play is another one - the type of mom I am is ... one that likes kids to play happily alone, sorry to say. Will has recently gotten the hang of the kitchen stool, and we've been having a blast showing him new ingredients and talking about what we are cooking.

That mix of baby + big kid means that life with Will feels mostly regular. We're past the "what do I do with you" baby stage, onto this fun little unit of Willy and his big sister, jumping on the couch, picking up sticks on walks, and general fun inquisitive kid stuff that is just the absolute best.

Seriously, though, I know why it feels like the year flew so much, but I still wasn't ready for it.

Happy Birthday, Will! You light us all up.

these pictures were taken by me! please do not save them and use them, even/especially if you know us. ask. they are not yours. i use a canon 6dmarkii and a 17-40mm zoom lens and absolutely adore both, can't recommend enough.