It starts!

Tonight, at dinner, when Quint said "All done" for the eighth time, I took a firm stand. I told him that he would get no cookies or crackers tonight unless he ate more of his supper. Hubby said he could enforce that. Hubby repeated and clarified. Small pause. "You funny," said Quint with an adorable smile. My mom immediately hid behind her drink and tried her best not to laugh. I looked down at my plate and thought, "oh crap". Hubby said, "did he really just say 'you funny'?" This does not bode well for the terrible twos.

Earlier today, I was trying to explain to Quint why he couldn't jerk blankets away from his brother when they were holding up his wobbly head. Then I was trying to explain why he couldn't put his 27 lbs self in the bouncy seat ever (those things should have a toddler understandable weight limit printed right on the back!) while he was laying his head pitifully in the seat of the bouncy. As he got up to inch around me, he clearly said several times, "mean Mama, mean Mama." Talk about rip your heart out! I tried to cuddle him and explain how the bouncy was Deuce's and not Quint's while Quint's special blanket is just his and will never be Deuce's. Nothing could fix it.

Thankfully, after a nap, a meal and a trip to the grocery where Quint was within 3 feet of me for 40 minutes while I loaded his favorite foods into the cart and fed him cookies, I could do no wrong. He would walk by and grin and pat me. He would laugh in my arms and do all the sweet things he does. I felt forgiven. For refusing to let him break his brother's bouncy seat.

Deuce is a very different baby than Quint. And so far that's nice. He sleeps for larger chunks in the night, sometimes up to 4.5 hours between feedings. He hardly ever really cries! He'll get fussy and work himself into a snit, let out 2 or 3 big "waaaa"s and then wait a full minute for me to react. If those cries didn't net any results, we get another dose. It's like a snooze button. The snooze isn't long enough to complete going to the bathroom, but two snoozes usually will do it.

Deuce also perpetually has a dirty diaper. No matter when you change it, he will make a new, tiny, stinky deposit within the next 3 minutes. And it doesn't work to let him have more time. And if you change that one, he will just make another deposit in another three minutes. But once he makes a small deposit, he will feel at home there - until you decide that it's been long enough and you change it again. Surprisingly, there has been no hint of diaper rash with this phenomenon. I've started hitting him with desetin on occasion anyway.

Deuce makes the most hysterical faces. And makes the weirdest noises. On occasion, he will whistle like a teapot, bleat like a sheep, meow, squek and lots of other noises.

Here his is on the day we came home.

Here's the cat trying to get a little lovin' while
Nannie is enamored with Deuce.

Quint admiring Deuce.