Midwest Madness with the Aanderud's: Joren time- 2 1/2 years old

These past few months with Joren have been unbelievably precious and oh so trying too, as 2 year olds are. His personality has been coming alive and blossoming in such a fun way. I try to take Joren to story hour at the library while Eirik is at preschool every Wed. Joren is so fun at story hour. He gets so excited and is not the LEAST bit shy. He wants to hug and touch all the little kids. He likes to hold the little girls faces and kiss them. When the songs come on he runs to the middle and dances and jumps like crazy. He spreads his legs in this really wide stance to do his "spiderman" dance that is so cute. He has amazing balance and rhythm. He can really jump. Last week he was doing all his cool moves in the middle of the room while all 20 other kids were shyly dancing by their moms when someone tripped and fell on Joren and then another kids sat on Joren's head smashing his face into the ground. Joren is so tough. He cried for a bit, and then got right back into the middle to dance more with a giant red bump on his forhead.
He loves to climb. I can't get him to sit down for anything especially to eat. He sits on his high chair like this to eat all the time. It drives me crazy.

He is always balancing on something. People at the grocery store are always judging me. I sometimes want to put up a sign that says, "do YOU want to try to get him to stay sitting down?"

Again, standing up to eat-- always!

One of the funniest moments Paul and I laugh about sometimes is from probably about 8 months ago. It is kind of mean to write and Eirik might be mad at me one day for sharing, but here goes anyway. Eirik was bragging about how he could jump from his foot board onto his todler bed, (about a 6" drop). As he was "jumping" (actually stepping tentatively) we looked over at Joren who was seriously balancing on the arm of our spinning desk chair and we both just cracked up laughing. Paul goes, "Eirik, that's not very impressive, but JOren. WOW!" (Sorry Eirik, it was just so funny.)

Joren loves to be naked. He loves to take his clothes off, especially at inopportune times. The other day we had 4 little boy friends over and their dad for dinner. All six boys were exploring the forest behind the house when Joren shows up completely naked. Before I could grab him he ran to the neighbors yard yelling, "I'm naked, I'm naked! Of course, they were all outside grilling as I ran over to snatch my streaker. He loves to take his sock and shoes off and fill his socks with things like dirt or bark dust or coins or grapes. Yes, this boy knows how to make messes and it doesn't bother him a bit to be completely filthy. He hates to get dressed, hates to put on his diaper. He won't come when you call him and deliberately does things you ask him not to like "Joren, please put that lid on. Don't spill please!" "oh, you mean like this mama, ... glug glug glug.. . glug." Ugh! "but it so magically disappears under your quick cleaning towel mama."

He does this trick that slays us. I will tell him for the 1000th time not to do something and he will look at me with these big innocent eyes and repeat back what I have just said in the sweetest voice as if he has never heard you say it before. "Don't bite Eirik mama?" ARgh!

Greenfield Village: In the picture below Joren has just taken a break from trying to hug the chicken including laying down in the dust next to the chicken in order to get a hold of him. "Really? you ask. YES, REALLY!"

Joren loves to make us laugh. He likes movie quotes. He started saying, "Tut tut looks like rain" randomly one day. When he got laughs, he kept it up. He also picked up, "Well Hello Gorgeous!" from Alvin and the Chipmunks. He knows just when to say it too. Like when he's in trouble and I'm giving him a stern talk, he'll say, "Mama, you so cute." Or in his darling little charming high voice he will say, "You angry mama?" or "you happy mama?" Or if he's in trouble he'll say, "but I'm nice." in his little sing song voice. How do you get mad at a little charmer like that? He has been a little pill to put to bed too. For about 2 months he wants to go to bed around 10:30 or 11! When he gets tired he gets totally wired. He will come down the stairs after being put to bed 15 times and say, oh so sweetly and excited, "Mama, it's me Joren. I'm awake!! I want to hug you mama! :)"
He is incredibly sweet. He says "hug me mama" all day long and has started saying, "Your best mom," which really melts my heart. Both my boys picked up the habit of telling me how much they love me by comparing their love to big things like, "I love you more than a humpback whale." "I love you more than a gigantasaurus!" "Yeah, well I love more than a bascilasaurus!" "I love you more than the whole universe!" Then I say, "no way!" Then they say, "I love you more than you love me." and I say, "Not possible!" Paul started saying to them, "I have a secret. I bet you can't guess it. He's done it so much that before he even says "secret" both boys scream out, "I LOVE YOU!" The boys love this game.
Church is not fun with Joren. He is LOUD loud loud. We have talked about whispering a lot and, of course as we walk into the chapel Joren always says, "We be super quiet in church mama?" but he says it in his loudest voice! How can I get him to understand?!

You know how I said Joren is a pro at making mess after mess after mess? Well, the other night I put Joren to bed and later went tuck him in again and found that he had been holding an egg from the refrigerator in his hand to go to sleep with! An EGG!! people! And, that's how our days go.. MANY many messes one after another!
This week we went on a nature walk and discovered there were giant puddles along the road. Super fun for the kids, and a big mess for me. Do you think I could stop Joren from sitting in the puddles up to his armpits? No. I could not. The other day we went to the park where it had been raining the day before. Do you think Joren would find the biggest puddle, walk right to it and deliberately sit in it? Yes. When we went fishing at heritage park the other day I explained to Joren most carefully how to hold his new fishing pole so that it won't fall into the water and that if it dropped it would most likely be gone forever. Do you think he held on to his pole? No, he threw it right in. As I was trying to hold the dog, answer Eirik's insistence that the other fishing pole was now completely his and he didn't have to share now, and fish the fishing pole out of the water, what do you think Joren did? he took the container of worms we had just purchased and started to dump them into the pond. Do you think it was all I could do to keep Joren from going swimming? You guessed it! It was quite the perfect storm. Luckily Paul got off work and met us there and completely saved the day. Of course he was able to find the pole. Miracle! And then both boys snagged baby blue gills within moments of each other, and they got to pull them out and hold them and then throw them back in. Magic moments like that happen a lot when Paul is around.