Allow me to indulge myself as I boast about how I have the most clever little boy in the world. We went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and Ian wanted to play in the playground. He wasn't able to make it up the steps by himself so I had to squeeze myself into the equipment to hoist him up each step. It was no easy task and I was getting a little claustrophobic. But he was so excited about the slide, I hated to tell him no. So after I helped him up twice, he figured out how to climb the steps himself. If he went over to the edge versus the middle, he could get his hands on the far side and help pull himself up. So suddenly I could just sit on the bench, drinking my iced tea and he was able to go up and down the slide a million times on his own.

It pleased me to no end to see how well he could communicate and how I could help him without even seeing him by tapping on parts of the equipment to direct him towards the slide (it's a rabbit warren up there, trust me). This part? This talking and problem solving and finding joy in accomplishing things? This part is the Terrific Twos.