Joey at 2 and three-quarters (holding onto 2 as long as I can)

You always hear the term "terrible twos", but I love this age on Joey. He continues to delight and amaze me with his growing vocabulary, in that chirpy little voice. He has us all eating out of his hand. The challenge right now is not spoiling him because we love him so.

The other day I was getting really irritated at all the noise, fighting and messiness in our house. I walked into the room and said, "I'm not happy with you guys right now." Joey piped up in his chirpy little voice: "But Mama, are you happy wif me?" I grudgingly said, "Yes, Joey, I'm happy with you -- for now." He replied, "Oh! Then you're not happy wif da kids?" I couldn't help laughing at this little squirt who doesn't think he's 'one of the kids'.

The boys got a haircut from one of Tim's old Marine buddies while we were evacuated to Winston-Salem. I love this picture because it captures Joey's sweet, sociable personality.

His preschool has started back up since the hurricane, even as we're headed into the third full week of cancelled school for his siblings. They've tacked another half hour onto the school days to try to make up for lost time, so now he goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9 to 12:30. He's always super excited to go, and all the way home in the car he talks about it. His favorite part, of course, is playing with the cars and trucks. Later in October he'll be doing school pictures and a farm field trip. I really like his teacher. She seems crazy about the kids and I often get a text and/or a picture telling me about how he did that day.

Here he is the first day of school.

Here's one of the pictures his teacher sent.

I never want to forget how he uses "my" in the place of "I" in sentences, or still calls a motorcycle a "ga-go". He also calls his prized new ambulance that Annie got him a few days ago an "ajh-wents". I might be encouraging his mispronunciations by using them myself. I've always been guilty of that with my little kids, and somehow they still have always managed to learn the correct way to say things.

He's been a solid sleeper these last few months -- finally, just in time to get a puppy.🤣 They've all been going to bed at 8-ish, and I read him two stories before I turn out the light. He may or may not be listening because he and his brother are busy jumping on the bed.

These next two photos sum up the relationship between him and our three-month-old puppy, Willow, whom we've now had with us for three weeks. He's pretty wary of her still, and she knows he's an easy target for tormenting.

We haven't started potty training yet. I guess I'm holding onto diapers as long as I can too, because they're convenient. But it's right around the corner. He's been showing signs of readiness these past couple months; for example, removing his own clothes and letting us know he's going to poop. He hates being wiped, and not having a messy diaper will solve that problem for him really fast. I had planned to wait till December to start potty training, but I'm thinking I should give it a whirl maybe as soon as next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

Joey has not been a 'terrible two' by any stretch, but he does get in trouble sometimes. Usually it's just a time-out for hitting or being disobedient. He still lets out an earsplitting screech when he doesn't get his way, and he clashes with Timmy all the time. He hasn't been a sneaky troublemaker who flushes things down the toilet and makes big messes. It might be because I typically don't afford him the opportunity because anytime I know he's somewhere by himself being quiet, I send someone to check on him. But there was that one time he slipped through the cracks for a few minutes..

That was about $30 worth of nail polish, and it's a good thing I never had much of a collection. I was mad at Annie because he'd found it all on her bed, and all the while I thought my nail polish was safe and sound on the high shelf of a closet where I keep it. And go figure, the girls had just put a cover on their doorknob with the intent of keeping him out of their room when they weren't in it; and then left the door wide open. Joey was not in trouble for this. And do you want to know how to get nail polish off of skin and blankets? You don't. First you lose your mind frantically texting your mom and sisters, and scrubbing at it in the bathtub until the kid will take no more. Then you put long sleeves and pants on him, and wait for it to come off on its own (every last trace was gone after a few days; every speck came off his hands within the first 24 hours). You wash and dry the plush Pottery Barn blanket and tell yourself you can't really see it anyway. You throw away the quilt, telling yourself you planned on replacing it within a year anyway.

That's all I've got for now. If anyone figures out a way to get him to stop growing up so fast, let me know.