Progress With Accuracy

We've been making progress in several areas lately, and first and foremost it has been in the realm of age. Ash is two, he is so definitely two. And if it's not too redundant I'll say it again, he's two, a two year old, a two year old boy. Let me just say this - there is not a single doubt in my mind that the birth date on his Ethiopian Birth Certificate is 100% accurate. According to that document Ash turned two on May 5th, which just happens to be around the exact time he began behaving like a two year old. Age and birth dates are big questions for many adoptive parents, because many times the dates are unknown completely and even in the cases where they're known they can be misinterpreted (Ethiopia runs on a different calendar than the US). Given Ash's recent behavioral developments I'd say the date is right on, he is very very two. We no longer have any question of the accuracy of his birth date.

Progress is also being made with the playset, it's been stained and the garden area prepped for it's arrival. This means that (0ne) of the last steps in this process, the most exciting if you ask me, is ready to happen, the assembly! Sure we have a few sides that remain in need of stain because they were facing down while staining the rest of the sides, but those will be easy enough to complete once everything is up and put together. And sure, we'll need to add some nice trimming and wood chips to the ground and touch up some other aesthetics, but again I say - the most exciting part is ready to happen, the assembly! We might be able to pull together enough strong arms in the AM tomorrow but the higher likelihood is that this will all come together on Friday sometime, which means there's likely to be a few leftover to-do's on Saturday, but in the scheme of things we can handle that.

Our two year old will have a jungle gym of his own to climb, jump, swing, and hang off of at his leisure. Which hopefully he'll have time to do inbetween shouting his newest favorite phrases:

"SHHHH, Mommy NOOOO!"
"Ashton FUNNYYY?"
"NO, Daddy, that's ASHTON'S bike!"

And then there's the pouty face which we're quickly putting an end to... let's just say he was in his jammies and in bed at 7:10 tonight (an hour before normal bedtime) and then FINALLY agreed to eat the required 4 pieces of chicken that sent him to bed early in the first place. Our tactics seem to be working, but Holy Hell is two a lot of work.