The Essence of "two"

Luke, though fast approaching 3, is still just 2. :o) I really think he started his 2-ness somewhere around 18 or 20 months. He seemed to do everything earlier than Joshua did. Joshua didn't enter the terrible twos until his second birthday. Luke hit it early, but mostly in the boundless energy kind of way. Overall, Luke's "2" year has been mild compared to what we remember of Joshua's "2". Maybe it's because Joshua was the first 2 year old that we ever actually had to live with, much less raise. Or maybe it's because now Joshua is 4 and we also have Micah. Whatever the difference, Luke's "2" hasn't seemed that bad. Granted, "3" is on its way and that was even more difficult with Joshua, but we'll save that for a different post. For now, let's just talk about the ways Luke does exhibit the fact that he is still 2. Sometimes he just more energy than his little body can contain. He wakes up before any of the brothers and just can't wait to start the day. From the time he could run he has, at times, just run up and down the hallway yelling. FOR NO REASON. He just has that much energy and feels the need to release it. Today was one of those days. You know, when you compare your child to the ball in a pinball machine, just bouncing off the walls (at 7:30 a.m., mind you). And I mean literally bouncing off the walls or Mommy or his brothers or whatever else happens to be in his direct path. Does the term "tasmanian devil" bring a picture to your mind? He's not being bad or disobedient, he just literally can't contain himself. Thankfully he's not always like this. Sometimes, especially as of late, he displays his 2-ness by being overly emotional. I just feel sorry for him in those times, poor guy. At times the smallest thing can set him off and he will just start sobbing. We ask him what's wrong and he just says, "I don't know." When Joshua did this we were always trying to figure out why he was crying, what the problem was. We finally figured out that it was normal for him to do that. With Luke, when he just has more emotion than he knows what to do with we comfort him, love on him, then distract him. It usually doesn't last more than two minutes and he's back to pinball mode anyway. I can only imagine this is magnified with a little girl. Wow.