Livin' La Vida Paxton

I am sure I had lots of fun as a child, but it was most likely had in the privacy of my own backyard with my brother and our neighbor, Tommy, who would drop his gum in the dirt and then put it back in his mouth. Perhaps in the mid-70's, the stay-at-home-mother gig wasn't the finely-oiled social machine that it is today. That was before the internet was around to advertise playdates on meetup.com and facebook let you keep in constant contact with your social network of fellow mommies. I often feel like I'm Paxton's social secretary. "Good morning, Master Paxton. It's Monday today, so after breakfast and dressing, we'll hie to your music class with Miss Petra. Then we can't waste a moment, because we must arrive at the library for Toddler Time by 10:30." He exists in a whirlwind of puppet shows, story time, playground dates, visits from friends, swimming, and, as of last week, playnastics. I didn't anticipate being the mom who overscheduled every second of her child's life, and I still wouldn't categorize myself as such, but I'm foreseeing a fair amount of extracurricular fun throughout this kiddo's life.

We have enough toys in our house to entertain an army of toddlers. Just from where I'm sitting, 50% of everything in my view is designed specifically to achieve momentary childhood bliss. And then there are the things that were once toys for grown-ups that Paxton has adopted as his own. The big blue exercise ball. The singing and talking Homer Simpson. The spray bottle of water. The rolling pin and onion-keeper. The dog, for goodness sakes. This is Paxton's world and we just live in it. And work for him.

He's rolling up on the 20-month mark. His vocabulary is astonishing. He recognizes numbers (2, 4, and 8 are his favorites) and can count to five. He can swim like a fish, providing someone slip the water wings on his arms first. He can differentiate and name (over and over and over) cars, trucks, motorcycles ("Bi-CLE!!") and SUVs. He can point out a guitar playing in music he hears. He air drums. He knows all of the pets' names (no small feat, since we have four cats, two dogs and a parrot). He knows at least 30 signs (like "dog", "cat", "eat", "yellow", "red", "blue", "train", "car", "rain", "cheese", "cracker", "mama", "cookie", "more", "finished", and "milk") and even made up his own very humorous and very effective sign for "nursing"--he points to his chest, one finger on each pec. He astonishes and amazes us every single day. His capacity for learning and his curiousity about the world seemingly know no limits. And he has a wicked sense of humor. What more could a mom ask for? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm in love.