Crying over spilled milk

I always thought that the saying "there is no use crying over spilled milk" was just a cliche, but after having Emmett completely break down crying over spilled milk not once, but twice today, I have realized that the cliche was invented by a parent of a two-year-old. There is some switch that has flipped with this kid in the last few days where the strangest things really get the waters flowing from his eyes. He also cried over a spilled cup of water in the hall the other day and cried on the bike ride home on Thursday because he was eating raisins from a big cup of raisins and he held one between his fingers and it dropped to the ground. At first he just said "uh oh", but then he started to cry when he realized that I wasn't going to go back and pick it up from the road.

Another incident was on Wednesday when he and I were playing on the beach next to a stream. The sand next to the stream was littered with small sticks. Emmett picked one up, threw it into the stream, and it rushed off into the bay. Emmett was not happy and cried as if that was his special, most favorite stick even though there were literally hundreds all around. I don't get this stage at all.

I don't think that I have posted since Emmett's birthday. The big day was a relatively mild affair with Uncle Darin coming into town and then a number of friends coming over. Emmett was pretty excited about his gifts (highlights included a train set, dump truck, and a bicycle), and was actually able to blow out his two candles. The night before the big day, Andrea had talked up with Emmett the fact that it was going to be his birthday, that he was going to be two, etc. He had a pretty good idea of what a birthday entailed, I think, as he had attended two second-birthday parties in the previous week. I was in the room as he awoke. I could hear him stirring but he didn't know that I was awake. There was a minute or so that he was sitting there and then he started saying "two! two!"

Emmett is definitely remembering things in a much different way than he was a while ago. When we tell him things that we will be doing after a nap or bedtime, he will wake up and remind us that we are going to be doing those things. Also, he remembers places that things have happened and will point them out and say whatever the things are (examples: seeing a train set, going to a music performance, etc.). The days of his seeing something, wanting it, and us being able to hide it from him and distract him so he forgets are definitely far gone.

I guess we are officially into the "terrible twos". The biggest, and perhaps worst, change I have noticed is that all of the sudden he is much more protective of his things at the playground. Up until a month ago or so, we could have a collection of sand toys at the park and if another kid showed up to play with them, Emmett could always be coaxed into letting them play. Now, it is often the case that he will be playing and a kid a few yards away will look at his toys and he will pull them into his arms to prevent them being played with. We can still get him to allow others to play as well, but it definitely takes a bit more effort on our part.

I am not on our computer with the pictures, so I will have to add some later.

Oh, one other thing which I don't think I have mentioned here before. A month or so ago Andrea and I were putting Emmett down and one of us asked Emmett if he wanted a pillow. He said yes and we gave him a full-size, adult pillow. He was very excited and since the pillow's addition, he only sleeps only with his head on it (maybe we are bad people and should have given him one sooner). On Wednesday night Emmett woke around midnight saying "pillow, pillow" (which sounds like a number of other words) and it was lucky that I had happened to be looking at the monitor when he woke and had noticed that he wasn't sleeping on the pillow. Once we knew the problem, Andrea was able to direct him back to the normal sleeping location and he fell right back to sleep.