Team Schuurman: Our Precious Two Year Old

     Well, as you already know, Marcus turned two this past Tuesday, September 18th. People say it every day, so I might as well, too - but I can't get over how quickly time passes. The quote, "The days are long, but the years are short," make such great sense to this stay-at-home-mama. In some ways, Marcus is quite the typical little man, while he excels in other areas, making him a little different. Just like other boys his age, he loves all types of sports, construction equipment, cars, animals, and being outside. He has mastered the art of getting dirty and went through three four pairs of shorts/pants today alone. He loves to wrestle with his daddy, cuddle with his mama, and tug at both our heart strings on a daily basis. He loves to sing songs, be silly, read books, and probably his favorite thing of all time is hitting baseballs with his daddy either in the basement or outside.
     His size makes him quite different from most other two year olds. He's 36 1/2 inches tall, 32 lbs, and has the verbal skills of many three and four year olds. I was concerned when our doctor told me that he was in the 95th percentile in weight (he's 95th in height, too), but he said not to be worried because Marcus was just a "big block of a kid." Dr. Love informed us that for his height, he was just fine, so I was relieved to hear that. When filling out the questionnaire about two year olds, I laughed when it said, "Does your child speak in two or three word sentences like, 'I sit down.' ?" Seriously?? The other night, our big boy climbed out of his crib, came into the living room cheesing, and said, "Mommy, I climbed out of my crib." Yes, we have the two and three word sentences down.
     So speaking of his bed, we definitely need to transition his crib into a toddler bed soon. He climbs out of it almost nightly, when we first put him down, and then has gotten up once in the morning, when he first woke up. It's definitely time. We will transition him into that sometime in the next few weeks, but the good part about it is that he's not falling out, it's a legitimate climbing/sliding down and landing softly on his feet.
     Finally, we had a small get-together today for Marcus' birthday. Mark's parents were still in town but had to leave halfway through while my mom, her husband John, and my sister came up as well. We were surrounded by a small number of church family and friends and the weather couldn't have been better. We had a construction theme with black and yellow balloons (Ti-Cat colors), there were diggers and bulldozers everywhere, and my sister made him the most amazing cake - AGAIN! She made his cake last year and it was lovely, and she just gets better and better at it.
     So we hope you enjoy the pictures, and the blog about Marcus' growing up. I use this word a lot, but he's absolutely precious to us. We just continue to pray that the Lord will bless us with another precious one... one day. :)