I write this tonight from my new laptop. This may not seem that exciting, but I have to tell you it has rocked my world today.

It has been ages since I have posted an update of what T has been up to. The past few weeks I have been working on his scrapbook and I can't believe how thankful I am that I blogged about what he was up to the first year of his life. Everyone tells you that you blink, then they are gone, but going back and looking over the blog posts and pictures I realized how many blinks have already gone by.

T has grown so big and independent lately. Even in just the last couple of days he has really surprised me with his new tricks.

He is such a boy. It is so funny to me that T's first words were truck and combine, and even still, "combine" is one of the clearest words he says. He begs me every day to go see Daddy (another adorable new word...used to be Dat) at work and drive the combines.

"Mommy" is another new thing for T to say. It melts my heart like I never could have imagined.

Here are a few other word's T is saying now.
"KaChow" - Lightning McQueen
"Yeehaw" - Woody from Toy Story
"Welcome" - Thank You
Lawn mower
vacuum
"skootch" - move over
Every morning he wakes me up with a sweet little "youhooooo. Mommy."
Burrr - accompanied by shaking all over and big grins.

He is extremely mechanical. He is able to open all kinds of things that are generally referred to as child proof.

He loves being outside. In fact, I really have to watch him or he will escape on his own. Over Easter weekend we went up to Milton and Sharon's. T was sleeping in the other room and around 2 am I heard a tiny, "Mom." Like every mom, I sat straight up in bed out of a deep sleep. I got up to check on T but it was really dark and I didn't see him in his room. I went back out into the hall to see if he was in Grandma and Grandpa's room, then into our room, then back into his room. I didn't see him anywhere and didn't hear him either. I decided to go downstairs and check on him, and as I got to the bottom of the staircase I saw the front door open. I knew for sure that I had locked it before going to bed, but he is able to get them unlocked and opened. I started to panic. It was a really cold night and I had already been looking upstairs for a few minutes. I had no idea where he would head. In that split second I was debating if I should just run out and start looking, or go get Anthony up. Right then a light turned on in the kitchen and that tiny little voice said, "Gram." Needless to say, it took me quite a while to get back to sleep after that adrenalin rush!

He surprises me at how well he is able to ride his scooter... he's 2!

He loves to push around his bikes, even though he isn't big enough to reach the pedals. It is just a matter of time until he takes off though. He is growing like crazy lately.

His favorite book is "The Spooky Old Tree" by Stan and Jan Berenstein. He loves the part when the little bears 'shiver'. He makes fists and pulls his arms up to his chest and wiggles his whole body.

The past few days have felt a bit like a milestone. T has been doing great with potty training for several months, but in the early days it was mostly me that was potty trained... I just learned to recognize the signs and take him frequently, and he learned to hold it a bit better. The last few days he has actually been going BY HIMSELF! I cannot tell you how nice that feels.

He is incredibly independent.

He is such a tease.

He loves to put on my oven mits and pretend they are monsters. He runs around the house yelling "rar, rar, rar" and chasing Anthony and I.

He loves to hide then pop out and say some variation of the word Peek a Boo.

One of my favorite things is watching how much his imagination has developed. He has a little "Woody" figurine from his cousin. Even though he has had it for a couple of years, all of the sudden T has become so interested in him. He takes Woody (YeeHaw) with him everywhere and plays with him just like Andy on Toy Story. It cracks me up!

The other day I picked up a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car on a garage sale. T was playing with it, then went and got his Daddy. Even though his vocabulary is limited he said "Hand. Help. Broke." Then he took his Daddy by the hand and they both slid their heads underneath the little car to fix it. It was absolutely precious. (I'll upload pictures soon eventually :-)

These are the moments I never want to forget.