Mr. Personality

     This morning, Marcus woke up in such a funny mood!  He kept talking about some dog and asking where it was.  After breakfast, he picked up his dinosaur backpack and said, "bye bye" as he headed towards the door.  Even though it was only 8am, I put some shoes on him and let him go out on the porch (his new favorite place) in search of this dog.  Well, sure enough, he starts screaming, "dog!" when I hear Lucinda's voice.  Lucinda is our next door neighbor who owns a small dog that Marcus adores.  Luckily, she just got back from taking him on his morning walk when Marcus appeared on the porch.  This not only made his morning, but Lucinda's as well, since she adores Marcus.
     Another funny thing about Marcus lately is the faces he makes.  He recently started squinting his eyes when he smiles and he looks like a blonde Chinese baby.  It's SO FUNNY!  The harder we laugh, the more he does it, and sometimes he even sticks out his tongue for an added effect.  And even when he's not trying to be funny, he can be.  Like when he pulls his couch out onto the porch to watch the neighbors.  He's our cute little redneck!  The funny side of his personality emerges daily as both Mark and I get a kick out of him. 
     Finally, he's quite the climber and opener nowadays.  He's tall enough to reach a standard counter top and if something is on or near the edge, he can get it (including a knife! - I learned the hard way).  He can climb onto our bench and then all the way onto the kitchen table with no assistance, if we let him, and only one parent, eh hmm, lets him. ;)  Marcus likes to climb onto the couch and look over the back of it to see what's behind it and while there, he tries to stand on the end tables to see our reaction.  Needless to say, this sweet one keeps me on my toes! 
     He (just this week) learned to walk up stairs without crawling or holding our hands, and going down is MUCH more stable.  He still holds our hands, but before, he'd just dangle , knowing we wouldn't let him fall.  The child is FEARLESS and knows no boundaries, yet.  That's why I'm so thankful for the gate on our porch.  Even though he knows how to open and close it, it keeps him "contained" while he plays outside.  He loves his slide and sing and thinks it's the greatest thing in the world to throw his toys over the railings.  Mark and I were talking about it last night.  If we knew it'd be this good and we'd love him this much, we would've gotten started having children much sooner. :)

Standing on the bench beside the table.  His shirt says, "handsome just like daddy."

Climbing onto the couch with ease.

Looking back at me before he attempts standing on the end table.  He knows better.

Helping Daddy take out the recycling.

Bringing in the recycling last night, he demanded Mark take off his crocs so he could play in the mud puddles.  Here, he was telling me that he dropped his rock in the bin.

This child LOVES the water.  Can't wait to take him to the beach this summer.

Here's the video from this morning that got this blog started.  This kid cracks us up!