Figuring "stuff" out

Like most 2 year olds Griffin is figuring "stuff" out. Logistics: Milk is kept in the refrigerator to stay cold so if you ask for it in a car careening down the highway you won’t get it. Control: You don’t have to eat your peas especially now that you know french fries exist... Attention: If you scream really loud or better yet throw something, Mama will at least give you a dirty look. You get the picture. This “stuff” he is figuring out for all tense and purposes is a repertoire of streets smarts that every kid needs at this age needs in order to make his presence known at a mere 36 inches. And so… words too become a messiness of trial and error. What can I say to get my point across? he silently thinks. “Mama, I want milk!” For weeks and weeks and weeks, he says these four words playing around with a range of vocal tones and intonations. What works? Try it loud. Loud with tears. Loud, with tears AND flailing on the ground both fists pounding and then suddenly.. click.. he gets it. So the next time when I hand him a glass of water, a choice he clearly detests there are no tears, no pounding fists only the smug reply, "Mama I want milk INSTEAD of water.” Wow! the power of diction.
And then there is the string of words he puts together that become in all their simplicity poetry. His closet door creaks and Griffin says pensively, “ the door is crying Dada. He is sad.” I rush through the gate late to pick the bug up and he looks up, a small river of tears collecting in the sleeve of his jacket. “Griffin is crying Mama. Griffin is sad….Mama was the last one” and to a two year old that is a deal breaker making it hard to believe the promise that “Mamas always come back.”
With all this intense emotion, I find it hard to believe that middle school or even high school are the toughest years of our lives now that I am re-living life through my two year old’s frames. Isn’t it at this age that you have to start seriously grasping a bunch of arbitrary rules like…for instance…couches are meant to sit on not to slide down straddle and bounce on. And… it is not acceptable to wear your Pajamas all day long. I mean what would people think you haven’t done a thing. You also have to learn through trial and error when you absolutely HAVE TO hold mama’s hand. Well thank God there are times when it is obvious like when crossing the street, but then there are those times when it is not always clear like in the parking lot or when a weirdo walks by or an anxious dog gets too close or when it starts to rain. So for me when Griffin makes those big developmental milestones like crawling, walking and using a spoon on his own of course I am elated but the real rocket science in my eyes is all this "stuff" he figures out.