Chase at Age 2

• Chase isn't really stringing words together yet, but he says a ton of words—enough that I almost always know what he wants. He likes to drop off the end sound of words ("Why bother when Mom knows what I'm talking about?"), like "Me!" (short e sound) instead of "Mess!" Tonight in his crib he was saying "Ki!" I was busy tucking Trenton in and had no idea what Chase kept saying until I looked over at him, lying down in the crib, and saw he was rapidly patting his mouth with his hand, meaning he wanted a good night "kiss." 

• About a month ago he decided to be afraid of everything. If he sees the mail truck parked 50 feet away, he is suddenly terrified and will not move an inch until I pick him up, even though we're only a few steps from walking into our home. He suddenly acts like he's terrified of the indoor hallway at our complex, and he repeats "fall" under his breath when we ride the elevator. Don't get me started on the vacuum! All of this only means that I have been lugging our two-year-old chunker around a lot more than I used to. :) 
• Sorry in advance to bring this up, but the poo poo (as we call it in our house) is out of control! For the last couple of weeks I have very often changed four stinky diapers a day. I will be asking our pediatrician about that at his upcoming checkup! He is stinky so often that he's taken to calling it "ma foo foo," meaning, "more poo poo." It's always "more" since he does it so much! 
• He looooves bridges and tunnels right now. Our drives are narrated by him describing everything our car encounters or does—bridge! up high! down! hill! tunnel! (even if it's just a thick grove of trees that feels like a tunnel)

• He loves trains so much and ALWAYS knows when we are near the Caltrain tracks. He even always knows which side of the road they are on. It's a sixth sense! Sometimes he is so insistent about seeing a train that we just go to the nearest train station and wait on a curb until we see a train go by. 

• He certainly has his moments, and he can be finicky about funny things (like sun in his eyes), but he is generally a pleasant, easygoing little guy. I would say that where Trenton's personality tends to shine more (and has more ups and downs to go with that), Chase is just generally pleasant. (I'll probably remove this when they're old enough to read, but for now, we'll leave it in. :)
• He will give hugs to almost anyone we tell him to. And he loves to dance.  

     

I love his eye color. They're dark enough that you might not notice them, but I admire them every day. They're a cross between deep gray and green.

BIG smiles like this are kind of hard to come by with this little guy, unless you're tickling him, so I was delighted to catch this one, even if it is a bit blury. That's a mint in his mouth, btw, not a overgrown tooth :)  

Trenton's update will be coming soon!