Landis is cracking me up lately with his quirky little mannerisms and figures of speech. He is such a funny talking boy!

He is always curious about our destination whether we travel by car, bike, or walk. He announces our arrival with a cheerful "Made it! We made it!" C'mon Landis, it's not that scary riding with your Monnie. You don't have to act so relieved.

His new favorite phrase is "I don't like it." I'm hoping this isn't his favorite for too long, but it's a definite improvement from "NO!" It's sometimes quite funny. Tonight at dinner, he had his first taste of brussel sprouts. We went to the grocery store earlier this afternoon and he helped me put the brussel sprouts in the produce bag, counting as we went. I told him we would eat them for dinner, and played up how yummy they are. However, his reaction was what you might expect from a 2 year old. He took a bite, chewed once or twice and deposited it directly back on his plate. His commentary: "No more. I don't like it!" He had the most serious look on his face, and it was all we could do not to laugh. Other times it's not quite so endearing, as the phrase seems to accompany all of his temper tantrums and fits.

He's recently learned the word "something." When he has a mystery object in his mouth, he's learned that answering "something" to our queries about the nature of the object elicits quite the entertaining response, even if he's only chewing a grape or a piece of cheese. One evening recently he came up to me, pulled on his left earlobe and announced that he had "put something in ear." Goat and I rushed about, finding a flashlight, shining it down his ear canal trying to get a glipse of "something" and debating whether we should take him to the ER to have "something" extracted. He finally confessed, to our relief, that "something" was the tip of his pointer finger. Little stinker!

One of the interesting things about venturing out in public with a potty training, verbal child is the inevitable conversations in public bathrooms. Landis has learned that a proper conversation has 2 sides, and waits politely for a response after he makes a statement. If a response is not forthcoming, he assumes he wasn't heard the first time and repeats his statement louder. So, there are 2 possible types of bathroom conversations. Either we carry on a 2 sided conversation about our various bodily functions, or Landis carries on a 1 sided conversation at an increasingly loud volume. I usually choose option 1 - it's better that the conversation only carries to the adjoining stalls!

It's so much fun watching my little boy grow and learn, and there is never a single dull moment!