Two

Tomorrow, our little man will be two!

How are we celebrating, you ask?

Err...well...we're world class parents.  We left him with his grandparents and flew to Prague to try to make him a sibling.

This morning we did a frozen embryo transfer of one hatching 5AB blastocyst.  So yeah, I'm PUPO again!  The timing sucks, but after the delay caused by my never-ending miscarriage this summer, this was just how things worked out.  Everything went smoothly.  The only tiny hiccup was that our embryos had been frozen in pairs, and the Czech clinic seemed really against refreezing the one we didn't want to transfer.  But I honestly don't know how I would manage twins with Q around, so we initially agreed to discard the unused embryo.  Then we had second thoughts because it's a 4AA and who in their right mind discards a 4AA??  So we went back and told them we changed our minds and wanted the leftover one revitrified, even though it basically doubled our cost.  Everything online tells me that the chances are still good on a second thaw, despite the Czech clinic insisting it stresses the embryo too much, so there you go.  

In the meantime, updates from Grandma indicate that Q is holding up well.  Which is nice, because the howl he let out when we said bye bye nearly made me want to turn around and cancel everything. Missing his birthday makes me feel exceptionally shitty, but I know he won't remember and it means nothing to him right now.  We'll have a party when we're back and all will be right with the world.

So, what can I say about our little guy so that you can understand just how truly awesome he is?  Stats don't do it justice, and I don't have any anyway.  Unless you count his words, which I stopped tracking after he passed 200.  The "language explosion" DEFINITELY happened in our house between 18 and 24 months, and he pretty much surprises us on the daily with a new word we had no idea he knew.  All those worries about his speech development were quite obviously unfounded.

Personality wise, he is fun-loving and exceptionally easy going.  His daycare providers have also noticed his ease with transitions, and at home this means that most (though certainly not all) tantrums can be nipped in the bud with a distraction like a squirrel outside or a tractor video on YouTube.  

TRACTORS.  I know more about fucking tractors than I ever wanted.  A few months ago our neighbours were redoing their front steps and had a small Kubota rented to lift the stone.  Q fell in love with the damn thing, so one day to quell a rising storm I Googled "tractor videos for kids" and our world hasn't been the same since.  Now he'll bring us the iPad asking for "tactor" when he wants to watch, which we try not to do too often.  But yeah, the no screen time under two rule doesn't work in our house.  If I had a kid who would sit and play with a toy for 15 minutes while I make dinner, sure, but instead I have one who jumps on the couch so rather than letting him kill himself I pick the lesser of two evils which is YouTube tractors and a bowl of goldfish crackers.

Other loves include basketball ("backieball") and garbage cans.  Yes, I have a delightfully weird kid.  He has his own made-up word for garbage ("argo") and when we take the dog for walks he chatters non-stop about "argo cans".  "Argo cans!" he shouts and points from his stroller.  "Anonna (another) Argo cans!  Boo (blue) argo cans! Geen (green) argo cans!"  The other day when we got home from daycare he literally ran up the driveway and HUGGED our garbage bin.  He loves finding random trash in the park and putting it in the garbage can.  He'll have a brilliant future in sanitation management, I'm sure.  

What else? He's a pretty good eater and still loves all fruit, although he also now loves typical kid stuff like pizza and "i keem" (ice cream).  He's also still a ball of energy, and I'm confident now that he's outside the norm there given that every single caregiver at his daycare has at come point commented on how busy he is compared to the other kids.  Here's hoping this isn't an early indicator of ADHD or something!  But he has learned to slow down a little, and will sit and cuddle with us and read books.  His hugs are the best thing ever, although he's also working on saying "I love you" (I you you, Mommy) so that's pretty damn awesome too.

I could keep writing about all the cute little things he does and how I've started using little Q-isms in my own conversations with M, but I'm realizing that none of it will ever do him justice so you're just gonna have to take my word for the fact that he is the best kid ever.  And that's completely unbiased and objective, of course.

Anyway, happy birthday Q!  Hopefully when you're older we'll be able to tell you how we went to get you a baby brother or sister for your second birthday.  We love you!!