Now we are Two!

Now we are 2. There was a Curious George party with balloons, babies, and yellow hats.

Here are some images in no particular order from that day...

(I decided it was in everyone's best interest for me to cool it on the crazy cakes - at least for a while. It made for a much more relaxed mommy.)

Sitting by himself at a party - what else would you expect from a Johnson?

And what's a party without a truckload of cicadas to help you celebrate? They make me want to vomit.

Super awesome birthday gift from Grandma.

Matt being "The Man with the Yellow Hat."

Walter and Grammy.

Walter and Mommy - he's so cuddly right now!

My favorite things about Milo:

• He loves to sing. He is constantly humming and singing without seeming to realize it. Plus he loves to be sung to. He loves to play the piano, to hear the piano. He loves musical instruments of all kinds. Music, music, music, music, music, music.
• He thinks weird stuff is hilarious. For example, Bach cantatas played on the piano by Glenn Gould are hilarious. Giving Walter his shoe to chew on is hilarious. The cat attacking him is hilarious. Having Walter lay on his stomach so they're stacked on top of each other is hilarious. Popping out from behind the curtains for six hundredth time to scare me is hilarious. Etc.
• He has strange phobias. Bushes! Bushes are way too scary to walk past without a grown up holding him or at the very least holding his hand. When he sees one from a safe distance he points to it and growls as if to tell us what sound bushes make. Very mysterious. (He also is terrified of the ocean but that one makes more sense)
• He has started talking like crazy! Words, words, words. It's absolutely delightful to hear him say something for the first time in his little kid voice. Some of the words he spits out are easy to predict like "cookie" and "pee-bu'er" (peanut butter) but some seem completely random such as "tur'le" (turtle) which comes up in his conversations surprisingly often. All non-water beverages are "mi'k" and all non-berry fruits are "app-ohs" (apples).
• He has trouble saying double consonants. Daddy = Da''y, Jenny = Je''y, Butter = Bu''er, Ellie = E''ie, And rhyming compound words present a problem such as Backpack = Packback, Flip-flop = fyip-fyup, TV = tee'ee, Pancake = ca'cake, etc.
• He has tons of nonsense monologues to share, complete with hand motions and high and low voices to act out whatever the heck he's talking about. "Anookaluse bik pata (nonsense, nonsense) tick-oh, tick-oh (in a high voice "tickle, tickle"). (Then long fake laugh, laugh... then -) No! No! (in his low angry voice and shaking his finger) a blah blah blah blah (nonsense nonsense nonsense)..." This can continue on for several minutes if you pay attention and if he doesn't run out of material.
• We told him his grandpa's name is "Pohpa," but he thinks it is "Pohpa" - said in a very low voice (and it's pretty smart because Pohpa does have a very low speaking voice). He always says it that way. Every time.
• He often remembers to say "Peez" (please).
• He has entered the inevitable train phase and we can watch nothing but Thomas and must sleep with a little wooden train in the bed and must read about Thomas and pretend to be a train and pretend our food is a train and we must screech like a train whistle and we are very upset when ANYTHING gets in the way of our train mania.
• He is sweet to his brother. Usually. It might just be my favorite sight in the world.

Wow, I could keep going but I won't. I love you little Milo, terrible twos or not. You are the biggest challenge and the greatest reward - all day every day. Don't grow up too fast, little one! Happy birthday.