Where have TWO years gone?

A Sunbeam to Warm you
A Moonbeam to Charm You
A Sheltering Angel
That Nothing May Harm You

John Robert Born March 17, 2008 at 12:44 pm at 8 pounds 2 ounces, 20. 25 inches long and named for his Great Grandfather.

John Robert is officially one year old, March 17, 2009, walking and running, and only having one tooth...

Officially John Robert can no longer be called a baby...he is a toddler at TWO years old!

Really where have two years gone? I just went back and flipped through his first pictures, and remembered a million moments all at once (and oh yes I cried.) The last two years have been more then amazing, and he has more then filled all of our lives and hearts.

When it comes to these things I find I can't find the right words for everything I am feeling. His birthday snuck up on me, in fact him growing up has snuck up on me. Looking back last year we thought he was so big, so old, WOW! There was no moment when he became this toddler and left that baby behind, but each and every day he grows a little more, learns a little more and shows us the person he is becoming.

He is caring and generous with a unique sense of humor. He often brings things to his little cousin Samantha And gets worried when he hears one of us yell out in pain or sees us cry. He will ask "okay" with his head titled to one side, or runs up to us and places his head on us. He loves his family and does not like to be alone, dragging us to his play areas to just sit with him.

He learns very quickly and is very curious, he now points to anything and asks us what it is, then repeats back to us what we explained to him (with the inflection of a question at the end) and you can just see the information settling into his mind. He also picked up on "pease" and "thank you" very quickly, he basically knows how to use these polite phrases to get what he wants. All though we have only been doing wooden puzzles since Christmas he can do most of them all by himself and name each animal or number as he puts them in place. And even though we always said he could play however he liked with few gender specific toys or interests he has attached himself to dinosaurs, trucks and blocks! (and of course Elmo!)

Every day we see a little bit of who is he become more visible, but still I feel like I have always known him, always known he was going to be the person he is now, and the person he is going to be. When I look back at those younger pictures I can see no differences and a million differences. But the core of him has always been there. Sometimes I get sad at how fast he grew and I wonder where this toddler came from, I just had a baby and now he is nearly 40 pounds and running in circles just to make himself fall down and laugh.

John Robert makes me proud to be me, and makes all of my other accomplishments seem like trifles. I am proud to be his mother like I have never been proud before. But still even more so I am mostly proud of him!

One more overly emotional thing I have been thinking lately is how much Great Grandpa Bob would have loved his John! He is the perfect kid to play with, smart and big, they would have had so much fun. But I can't help but think how much of GGB is in Johnny and that is a comfort to me, Grandpa is always here with me in his name sake.

Tomorrow is the big day and we are headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC for a special day where Johnny will get to see Dinosaurs! Elephants! and Butterflies! I wish he could understand and be excited as we are. I can't wait to show him the world!