This was such a fun season to celebrate with you! Most of the photos I have you are wearing your favorite stripey matching jammies with some sort of noise maker hanging out of your mouth. I can still hear you repeat 'open, open pease' after you unwrapped every present. You were so excited by some christmas gifts that you wanted to body surf on top of them. At the beginning of the month, anything Christmas related was described as HoHo. For instance, Santa=HoHo guy, the Christmas tree=HoHo tree. By the end of the month, you could clearly say "Hey, dare's Sanda!"
You are a jokester. You love playing high five and saying "too slow" with a giggle when you move your hand away. You tell the same nonsensical knock knock jokes - Who's there? Santa - Santa who? Ho Ho One of your favorites: Knock knock - who's there? - Dada - Dada who? = Dada Mama! Then you laugh like an old man with a cough.
You are so sweet with your brother and if you bump into him you will say "Sodrry!" and look at him with those puppy dog eyes for a huggie - you might even try to bump into him again for a some more attention. If you are wrestling in the pillows together it just sounds like a chorus of "Sorrrries!"
You seem to have the little pleaser polite guy gene that your brother seemed to have at this age too. You moved from saying 'thanks daddy/mommy' not just with a signs. When you say thank you, you expect to hear a cheerful you're welcome... or you might ask for it. If you are holding a book that closes on your finger, you will ask it to "Stop it!" sometimes kinda fiercely. If I ask you to use your gentle words, you will screech "Stop peeeease!" You like to say "all det" (set) instead of no thanks... which I can tell is you imitating me.
You are a copy cat kid. There are certain phrases you pick up quicker than others like a really quick one was, "M&Mie pease daddy?!" When you try to feed me a bite of your food you ask "Isd it good Mama?" Then you take a bite and prompt me to ask you also. You like to put on your coat only if others are - "Coat, coat, me too!" When you are playing outside you like to copy what you're brother is up to... a favorite is stomping around in the bushes yelling "I'm going to get you!" You will remember that your brother said giddy up with his horsey and repeat it when he is a away. You sometimes copy exactly what your brother just said with "bored!" being the most memorable, clearly pronounced new word.
You keep up with your brother's games. Your brother pretending you are a bull trying to poke him shouting "Ole!" Then you charge at him yelling "Poke!" You realize that your head is your biggest 'weapon' and you will cram it against your brother to move him out of your way. You are lucky that he still thinks you have an infant head and is pretty careful around your "soft skull" (I'm just going to let him believe you are fragile for as long as possible.)
I imagine one of my favorite memories of your and your brother's childhoods will be picnicking with your hippo friends. When you say Hippo for some reason it sounds like you are saying Apples! You love helping put out the plates and organizing the food, which means kicking it across the blanket at whoever "needs moore!"
You are becoming more and more of a crafty guy. You helped make a bunch of baking soda ornaments and you actually stuck buttons and beads into the dough pretty carefully. You and your brother love tracing your bodies onto extra packing paper and the roll under the easel. Your careful line drawing with chalk and marker on that easel is constant. You even wrote your own santa letter with a bunch of those careful strokes covering the whole page.
You still love sweeping and vacuuming. The recent helpful guy routine is trying to help with the laundry by wanting to put everything on at once. Anything you recognize as yours, you wanted to put on immediately. It's like you're in some Double Dare (that old tv game show) skit and you want to see how many articles of clothing you can wear at once.
You were doing well with your Ralphie (from the Christmas Story movie) imitation all bundled up with layers and snow pants in the Ohio blizzard snow. You know the difference between "uppie and downy" and you wanted everyone to throw you up in the air while your tongue hung out trying to catch snowflakes. Then you wanted to timber straight into the snow to get a few munches of the white stuff. Then you would ask for help up.
You were such a big boy watching your brother's entire choir concert. Your dad had a water bottle and crackers on hand to keep that muncher busy. You could sometimes not hold back your excitement and at the end of one song you belted out an extra loud Yay! The conductor gave you a special smile and wave.
Your dad jokes about when you grow up and open your own mint making business named Spicies! You had trouble not constantly asking for mints during our long drive to/from Ohio. You even got a special wrapped tin of your favorite Spicies! from your great aunt ;) You love strong flavors. You can't get enough tomato soup especially when you can dip your bread in it.
You are more and more aware of characters. You especially love Mickey Mouse whenever you see him in a book. I think it started with this Mouseketool book we have that has doctor's tools attached that make noise. You see Mickey everywhere now. Your brother drew you a picture with the iconic three circles and you immediately cheered, "My Mickey!" We are hoping to find you a mickey blanket or something for you to cuddle up to at night with Mickey on it.
You like to sit and read books and point at what you see. You learned the difference between puppy versus doggie from Aiden showing you. You like to count socks as you watch other's put them on, "one, two!" If you count higher you skip around to five and back to two. Two is definitely your favorite. You are continuing your habit of telling everyone you are two years old.
You went through a growth spurt and all your pants were too short or too saggy. The growth spurt I think also meant that there were some growing pains. Those growing muscles were calmed with a good bath. You would take a bath after every meal and possibly all day if you could. You sometimes float on your belly like such a big boy. I suppose we need to get you back to swim class.
You are so funny when you are running with your oversized hand me down buzz jammies on with your wings out arms extended out to the back. I got your brother a new bigger pair and you were ecstatic to inherit his beloved jammies. You don't care that they are faded a bit, you think those jammies have super powers! You love to borrow Aiden's "real teddy bear fur hat" which is even big on his head. Oversized hats are too darn cute.
Whenever we say I love you, you almost immediately throw kisses with your good throwing arm. You are prompted every time you see the camera pointed your way to run at me to see the photo right away, sometimes before I've even managed to take a picture. Crimping my photojournalistic style, kid! I guess I shouldn't be too worried about the number of photos we are capturing ;)
It's so refreshing to have you point out exactly what you notice. I feel like you are moving past toddler now that you concentrate on more than just toddling and moving around. It's such a fun transition and I'm so grateful to witness every new interest. You have a habit of pointing out the moon everywhere you see it, in a poster at Barnes and Noble bookstore, high up in the sky, in a video, or in your brother's big kid books. I hope you know I mean it when I tell you I love you from here to the moon! I think you get it, since you giggle and run at me with huggie arms.... must be the reason you look for those moons everywhere.
I love you to the moon, Mommy
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