It had to happen. You could only go on being an Almost Two Year Old for so long. Here it is, your two year old birthday. 2005 seems like it was only a blink ago, and now here you are, running and jumping, building things, laughing and teasing. You bring so much joy into our lives. Even when you are being so bad, your father and I can't help but look at each other to maintain our firmness with you.
Your newest bit of rebellious behavior has come in the form of putting your whole hand out when you want us to stop doing something. Maybe we've listened and danced to a little too much Diana Ross and the Supremes, but your face is not quite as happy as when we put our hands out and scream, "..in the name of love". You're usually smiling for that line. You do this for anything - getting dressed, putting away toys, when it's time to go inside, pretty much anything that doesn't suit your fancy at that exact moment.
The best was when we were in the country, and Daddy was across the gutter at the boat. You took off down the road to be with him. In the interest of your safety and to avoid your stepping on snakes, Grandy followed to get you in the golf cart. As soon as you realized what he was doing, you turned around, stuck your hand out and said, "No, no, no!" and kept walking. This happened about 3 or 4 times. We all just kept laughing harder and harder. It was like looking at that Chinese student facing off against the tanks in Tianamen Square, you know, without the evil communist overtones and humanitarian nightmares. Just you and your grandfather and a green golf cart.
Gams loves to see you get a little attitude. I think this is because maybe I might have given her a sometimes, but rarely, slightly less than perfect attitude myself. But I think it probably only happened once or twice. I was really the practically-perfect child. I'm sure she would agree. Truth be told, you are pretty precious when your face transforms from Happy Reeves to Why Are You Trying To Ruin My Life Reeves. Now that you have mastered the leaving the ground with both feet, you usually throw in a few jumps along with the tantrum. Frustrating as they are, we know they are just a part of your growing up, and occasionally, they bring us a few giggles. I am hesitant to write this because I am sure there will be repercussions, but you generally keep the major breakdowns for the privacy of home, and we really appreciate that.
We have said our prayers together everynight for as long as I can remember. Normally, I think you are just spending that time waiting for me to put you into bed, but now I know you have been paying attention. You now put your hands together for prayers, and when we are finished, you repeat "Amen" after I say it. Of course, true to your Gullah accent, you have somehow made it so that Amen has 3, sometimes 4, syllables and I think there is a breath in between the first and second. Last Saturday night, Daddy, you, and I had dinner with Pops and Phil. (Gams was out globe-trotting). We sat outside, said blessing over our fried shrimp and fish, then those of us not an Almost Two Year Old started to eat. Not you. You wanted to say another blessing. We did. Then you wanted Daddy to say a blessing, then Pops, then Phil, then Mommy. It was too cute. We all folded our hands and said Amen after each blessing. You then proceeded to entertain us by pointing out each roach that ran by as we were enjoying our dinner. Yeah, thanks for that. That's what outdoor dining in Charleston is.
I think you must know you are turning two and growing up because just in the last month, you have moved from Brown Bear, Brown Bear as your favorite book to The Children's Beginner Bible. This is a book with actual text and stories. We have always had it sitting beside the chair, but previous attempts to read it were met with a less than enthusiastic reaction on your part. Then one day, you pointed to it. I picked it up and started reading it to you. You put your hands behind your head, lay back, and loved it. Everynight since then, we read a few more pages.
Daddy and I are amazed. And it's a good thing for the whole family because while you are being introduced to these Bible stories we all grew up with, we are revisiting and remembering them. Now, if only we could do church as consistently as we do this.
Your speech is still slow, but it is getting a little bit better. Pretty much anything you associate with me is called Mama - keys, cars, minivans, cell phone, and, for some reason, large cranes. Whatever goes with Daddy is called Dada - trucks, coozies, shoes, anything to do with the boat, except for the boat, the pronunciation of which you have mastered.
Thank you, Amen, Ma'am round out your repertoire of intelligible words, and then there are the numerous words you have made up for things. They don't necessarily sound like the correct word, but you use them consistently, so we have learned. We still try to make you repeat the correct pronunciation. I must admit, I am a bit worried, but then I talk to so many people who say their children's vocabulary exploded after they turned two, or when they went to school, or some who didn't even really talk until they were three. And then, of course, there's Pops. Part of me thinks you'll start when Duece gets here, but since that will most likely coincide with your first day of school, I guess we'll never know the catalyst.
Speaking of Duece, you love to lay your head on my belly. You pat it all the time. You are always pointing out babies when we're out. (Oh, I forgot about that word! Add it to your list!) I had wanted to have you moved into your big boy room by your birthday, but that's not happening. I still have to redo your bed and move your clothes. I can't believe you are so close to being out of your crib. We are trying to relish these last few nights of easy slumber. I hope you sleep as well in the new room as you have in your nursery. And I hope you and Duece don't continuously wake each other up. I must admit, that is my greatest fear right now.
I don't know how to end this post. I don't know that I want to. Somehow, hitting PUBLISH on this post is making it real. I can't believe our Cinderella Man is already two. I say it everytime I write one of these, but it only gets more and more true. You have brought so much happiness to our lives. I can't imagine life without you. I can hardly remember what it was like. Watching you grow and helping to mold you into a good, Christian man is our greatest duty and highest honor. I know this will mean some bumps along the road, but when you come to me and put your head on my shoulder and your arms around me, I know you appreciate what we do for you. When you take my face in your soft little hands and look me in the eye, I melt and realize that you are the reason I was put on this earth. We love you so much!
Happy Second Birthday, Boo!
We had our second ultrasound for Deuce today. Apparently there was some concern that the baby was a little...little. I'm glad we didn't know. Well, all worries have been put to rest. Deuce is 4 1/2 pounds - 58th percentile. Perfectly on track according to the tech and the doctor. Heartrate was 148 today. Up considerably from what it had been in recent visits - generally upper 130's, lower 140's. All the measurable bits look good. Amniotic fluid is quite plentiful. Interestingly, we can't see any sign of the fibroid that I had with Reeves. I wasn't too worried about it, but it's nice to know it's not there now. They're all hormone related. I just knew I was much more pleasant with this pregnancy than with the last one! (Right, B?) And there was no sign of the "telltale bits", at least not to Bryant and me, but, since we had a different tech today, I do have to now live with the knowledge that someone else out there knows what I'm having!! There was one bit of news that we found out that we didn't know before....
Last night, I was lying in bed, B was at the computer. Deuce was moving all over the place, as is our routine whenever I stop moving. I have recently been feeling movement quite low on my belly. I mentioned to him that I wouldn't be surprised if we went in tomorrow and found out that this child was breech. Well, call it mother's intuition or a keen interuterine sense of space and movement or whatever, sure enough, Deuce's head is right up by my left ribs. I guess this is the child that will always be trying to be closest to my heart. No one is worried about it at the moment. Becky said babies often will turn themselves around. We will check again at the next appointment and the one after that. If towards the end, Deuce is still breech, we have two options. First, we can try to turn it from the outside. That is, we would go into the hospital, get on the monitors, and she would see what she can do to turn the baby. I'm not so sure about this since, in the office today, she showed me just a little bit of what she would have to do, and it nearly made me jump off the table. Not so sure I want to go through that - intensified and for even longer. But I do feel like I would want to endure that as opposed to the second option which is a C-Section. I haven't really thought about a C too much. I mean, I knew I didn't want one with Reeves, and since he came out fine (and I use that term loosely), the possibility of having one with Deuce hasn't even ever really entered my mind. But now, now that that outcome is a very real possibility, I am surprised by the way I am feeling about it. I really don't want one, but I would never put Deuce's health in the way of my not wanting a scar or not wanting the difficult recovery time post-partum. So, for the next 8 weeks, we'll be doing a lot of praying that Deuce flips over and decides that head down is quite a comfortable position. Well, that and trying out Becky's answer to my question of "Is there anything I can do myself to try to get it to flip?" That answer was to stand on my head - seriously. She said that doing that sometimes encourages them to turn over. Who am I to question? This is only my second baby. She's delivered hundreds, probably thousands, and had four of her own. I'll take her advice, maybe it will even help relieve some of that pressure on the underside of my belly. But just in case, please pray that this baby turns itself head down on its own.
After feeling it out for a bit, Spencer asked Pops if he could be lifeguard of it. Of course, since he is one of the oldest, Pops agreed, and you could tell that from that moment on, Spencer was quite mindful to watch out for all of the little ones on the slide. 
True to form, Harris showed absolutely no fear in the face of this beast. 
He was up and down it just as many times as the big kids, and often in the middle of them. 
Jackson and Spencer were, early on, the rulers of the slide, what with their mad climbing skills and slippery suits. I can't even count the number of times they went down. 
And it wasn't long before the climbing wall in the back didn't pose enough of a challenge and they had to climb back up the slide from the front - much to the surprise of the little ones who were being tossed up their by parents from the back. Hello!
Henry was just as happy to mount the slide from the ladder as he was for David to just toss him up there and let him come down however gravity chose to work it, arms and legs flailing. 
Reeves was still a bit hesitant on the slide, still needing to hold a hand as he took off from the summit. I know it won't be long before he is out there like a daredevil himself. 
Being the little waterbug that he is, Davis took to the slide like, well, like a duck takes to water. 
It only took showing him the foot holes one time before he had mastered climbing up the back and then decending any way he wanted. I wish I had pictures of all the little ones on the slide. They all loved it. Fordham only needed help to get up the back, then he was ready to go. Bryce, Caulder, and MK loved it as well. Of course, not all the girls were so into it...
Despite all the super-last-minute planning, Reeves' birthday party came off without a hitch. Truth be told, there wasn't really much chance of messing anything up given the ingredients - The Ark, pools, sprinkler, waterslide, beautiful weather, good friends, and lots of precious children. 
I may be able to mess up a box cake, but even I couldn't screw this up. Reeves was excited for days about the party, which was a good thing because I really think that was his only motivation for taking a nap Saturday afternoon. Who wants to sleep when there are pools, slides, and CapriSuns in your yard? The timing of his nap was perfect. As I went to wake him up at 4:00, he was already sitting up, rubbing his eyes. This was a good thing because sometimes it can take a while for Pleasant Reeves to appear after waking up. So in no time at all, he was downstairs romping and having fun with all his friends. And five minutes later, shivering because he has absolutely no fat on his body (show-off). But once we put his shirt on him, his core body temperature went up to at least 95.7.
I really don't even know where to start with all the fun that was had. Everywhere I looked, children were laughing and screaching and running and jumping. Parents were helping as much as the little ones would let them, but for the most part, they just wanted to be left alone to splash as they wanted. We brought down the cake and ice cream aroud 5:30, and were actually able to distract the children from the aquatics long enough to tear into them, but it certainly wasn't 30 minutes before they were all back in the water. 
I must say, Reeves' homemade cake turned out better this time than it did on his actual birthday. Now I know - make the cake one day, two days later, ice it. Well, that and cook it for nearly twice as long as the recipe calls for. 
In reality, judging by Reeves' interest in it, I could just pile a bunch of icing on a plate because that seems to be all he is interested in.
Guerin was quite a hit with the ladies. As you can see, almost half of them who were there wanted to be near him. Yes, in a crowd of so many children, there were only 5 little girls there. Maybe Duece will help tip the scales in our direction. Who knew estrogen would ever be so hard to come by?
I don't know how to thank everyone enough for coming. It was such a special day for our family. We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful friends and family. Thanks for helping make Reeves' second birthday party a day we will always remember! And thanks especially to Gams and Pops, without whose help this party would not have been possible. From the manual labor to providing the house, we appreciate all you did to help.
While oak leaves blow or rake neatly into piles which can then easily be bagged or vacuumed, the magnolia leaf defies almost every attempt at corralling it. Trying to blow them is frustrating as some of them have the ability to cling to the concrete and laugh at you when you try to move them. Raking them into a pile is initially encouraging as you can be quite successful at this, but your happiness will end there. You cannot vacuum these tablets of fauna because they are too big and clog and burn up the motor. Using your rake and hand to bag is a possibility, but when you're 7 months pregnant, the thought of bending over that many times is enough to make you give up before you even begin. So you pull out the pitchfork. Why not? It works great with everything else, and it actually works OK with the magnolia leaves, but you spend half your time sweeping the leaves off of the forks because you pierce them and you then can't pick up any other leaves like that with the pitchfork full of pierced leaves. So nearly every other time, you are pushing those leaves off, and invariably, it is not the fresh leaves that get stuck, but the nasty, moist ones that have been sitting at the bottom of the pile, and, of course, you have most likely forgotten to put on your gloves, so you have to touch this stuff. And then you think there must be a dead animal in there or something because the smell is just wretched, but then you realize that you're standing beside your garbage can, and that dead animal smells remarkably similar to your son's poopy diaper, and you relax just a bit after that. But you continue silently cussing the damn magnolia leaves because you just hate them that much. And then, when the bag you are filling comes off the frame just as you are about to drop a big pitchforkful of leaves into it, you actually scream, "Damnit!" out loud because you can no longer control the anger inside you, and you convince yourself that it's OK if the neighbors know because they have magnolia trees in their yards, so surely they will understand, even though they are all very old. But you perservere. You get your bags filled, and your yard looks great. Despite your anal retentiveness, you are able to look past the five or ten leaves left on the driveway because you have removed 99.99% of the rest, and sometimes that just has to be good enough. You feel good about yourself. You have accomplished something and can rest well that evening. 
He and Reeves parked at Babe's to watch. He had the camera with him and got some good shots. The whole time this was going on, I was thinking that was a nice little bonding time for them. 
Reeves loves to watch a big fire burn, and Bryant said he was jumping with excitement. Maybe it's hereditary. Mom said Grandmother and Poppa had taken her down to watch St. Matthews Lutheran burn when it went up in flames all those years ago. There's just something mesmerizing about a fire. No harm, no foul, I thought. It's just a warehouse fire. It stinks that all that inventory is lost, but everyone's OK, so let's just watch it burn and enjoy the show.
Then they got home. Reeves went down, and we turned on the TV and saw the news ticker. The fire didn't seem so nonlethal then. There were firefighters missing. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before that this was a distinct possibility. I suppose I just thought that since it was a warehouse, there was no one inside to save, so why not just let it burn. I didn't see that there was any reason for a firefighter to go inside. 
But there were two employees in there. And these guys were firefighters. And that's what they do. They fight fires and save lives. And that's what they did. And tragically, nine of them lost their own lives doing just that. I am so emotional over this today. When we turned on the news this morning and saw that nine brave men had died in that fire overnight, tears began streaming down my face. I can't begin to imagine what their families are going through. I hope I never have to.
I think we're all hugging our husbands and children just a little bit tighter and a little bit longer today. We're all saying our prayers with heavier hearts today. It's a tragic and terrible event. And it's something you always know can happen, but it still shocks you, particularly when it happens in your own backyard. God bless all those who give their lives to save ours. 
They are truly heroes.
This was my first layer. Thank heavens for left over batter. This layer got tossed. It was like trying to ice a bucket of dirt, without the bucket. The rest was baked in a variety of not-intended-for-baking-a-cake dishes. A Corian small dish, a Pyrex bowl, and a small creme brulee ramekin. What a mess! The icing of these layers was only slightly more successful than the first horrific showing, but this was all I had, so it had to work. 
Luckily, I have an icing bag, so I just filled that up and covered the cake as well as I could. Reeves seemed to like it OK, but, of course, he's only 2! Like I said, "Poor Reeves!"
Maybe that's why we don't really remember much when we're very young. Or maybe that's just why there aren't any pictures of my birthday cakes from that age. Could it be that practice truly does make perfect? That maybe my mother started out with poorly decorated cakes for me, and by the time Reeves is old enough to remember these cakes, they'll actually be something worthy of sharing with anyone other than family? I can only hope. In the meantime, I'll just pray that he outgrows his allergies and learns to focus more on taste than presentation. 
We headed to Sandy Point - first time we'd been there. It's really a neat beach, right at the end of Kiawah. Putting much more faith in our depth finder that I, B pointed out that the drop off off the beach was like 53 feet. I have trouble believing that. 
Luckily, the tide was coming in, and the dangerously deep drop off kept getting farther and farther away from our play area, so we were all happy and relieved. Haha! It amazes me that these children don't seem to mind having their life jackets on. I remember hating it and wanting nothing more than to free myself of its hot, itchy confines. But, as Nancy and Aileen pointed out, we were also allowed to crawl freely through the car while it was in motion and ride in strollers without straps. These children are used to being strapped in, and at least they could move around with the life jackets. These are also the children who already know to look on the back of the camera the instant a picture is taken rather than waiting a couple of weeks to get the prints back, so I shouldn't be surprised. We all tried for some family portraits, but between the life jackets riding up, the sun, and the numerous distractions, it wasn't an easy task. It's a good thing the subjects are all so cute!
Not sure why, but the term, herding cats kept coming to mind - at least for those with more than one to wrangle. I could pretty much get Duece to do what I wanted.
We stopped briefly to eat lunch, and I put this in only to mention (brag) that I was so proud of Reeves. He actually ate his bologna sandwich like a sandwich, rather than as two independent peices of bread and two pieces of bologna. For some reason, this really made me realize just how fast he's growing up. Do I really need to chop up his food anymore if he can handle a sandwich like this? I think he was even proud of himself as he was more than happy to show it to Daddy when he took this picture.
Big DuBose entertained the now fed and life-jacketless children with super tall drip castles. They loved it. I think Eliza here is reminding the boys that she is in charge of this beach, thank you very much.
I love this picture only because Mills stood like this, with two fistfuls of mud high above his head, waiting for me to take the shot, the action shot. He would not drop them until he saw the flash. It was too funny. Nancy, you've trained him well! He poses like a pro!
Reeves fell sound asleep only minutes into the ride back, so we cruised the Abbapoola. It was nice and relaxing, and the perfect cap to a wonderful Boat Day!! Thanks for putting this together. We can't wait to do it again!
