2.5 years!

Dear my two and half year old KC,

It can hardly believe that you are 2.5 years old!?  This month you begged for a big boy haircut and it transformed you into such a big kid in minutes.  I said, "I can't believe it!" the other day and you responded with "Believe it!"  It made me laugh, and made it even harder to believe that you were just a wiggly worm in my arms 2.5 years ago!

Baa baa black sheep is your favorite song.  You hum it to yourself especially as you are falling asleep.  I can hear you from behind me in your car seat slowly fading away with a baa baa here, there a baaaaaa...  You loved heading back to your favorite big room in the Rec Center for your fall music class.  The parachute time is by far your favorite and you love to sing along underneath it.

"I had a purple dragon bunny rabbit!"  This new habit of saying lotsa names I think comes from one of your favorite books, Hoppameleon.  Your other favorite potty time book was a randomly chosen: Toad Makes a Road book.  You like to see that truck full of friends come up the road at the end.  There was a froggie theme in your favorites lately.

You love reading books, but you are in charge of the pages.  You say, "No, I do reading pease!"  There are many times when you skip some pages and then want to go back to hear them later.

You had a fun time with your dad and brother on a boy's weekend while I jetted to Ohio to photograph a wedding.  There was a whole new collection of Super Friends Imaginext when I returned and many kudos to fun Target visits.  The only glitch was an attempt to eat out that you weren't feeling, but you did make it back the next day.  

When daddy headed to work one time you said, "Bye dad and have fun at Monster University!"  You think he works at a place just like the movie.  We went down to the Georgetown waterfront again this month for the pirate cruise.  So I think you think daddy works at a really fun place full of monsters, fountains, cupcakes, and shopping.

You are fairly clear in your speech, but there are few tricks that you like to throw in the mix.  You like adding -y or -ies - these are my lippies!  You also slow words down and break them into parts.  Like if you declare, I need some binoculars = knock ee lures - You are always excited when I figure out what you mean.

Thanks to your bath tub games and just general little brother behavior, the sound track to my life sounds a lot like rockets blasting - shhhswooshboom! There is always some sort of sound effect.  You like to cuddle close and make zurberts on my neck - especially when I'm trying to have a conversation.  Then when the zurbert makes a funny noise, you say, "Mommy, excuse you!"

I still wonder where you get some expressions.  Like when you were getting help climbing the wall at the playground - "It's burning! My muscles burning!" You like to try to mimic the big kids and really climb all the way to the top with help.  Now if I could figure out how to get you down easily - go, go, gadget arms Mommy!

You seem to get that Aiden was around in our family before you were born.  You even explained to Aiden, "you've been to Arizona before KC?!"  You are looking forward to our trip this month.  Or we will go to a place we haven't been for a while and you will say, "OYa, we here when I was a little guy!?"

You got a hand me down lobster costume to add to the dress up big.  The minute you saw it you wanted to head to PB Jacks because of the ocean rug.  You knew that you'd fit right in with the octopus, whale, and crabs.  There was another kid that called you a crab, and you declared,  "I'm not a crab cake!"

You have a "pine cone friend" hanging right outside the window of our second floor family room.  You wave at him and ask when he wants to come "downstairs" off the tree.  You saw a sneaky squirrely friend headed towards your pine cone and you tried to shoo him away.

You've started playing more games on your own.  You're also a good teammate.  You love playing Break the Ice and it lasts more than one round - since you used to just smash it all at once.  You sorta play Toot and Otto (essentially you think putting them in the slot is how you play) and giggling when a letter T is upside down.  You love this fun doggie bingo game where when you get three in a row you yell woof and grab the doggie friend.

You make my laugh when you ask for privacy - "pie-vi-cee" - on the potty.  You like to insist on taking a bath, so I've even let you water play clothed in the bathtub to appease you.  You love to wear the big boy elbow and knee pads and your bike helmet.  It think sometimes riding a bike is just an excuse to wear your helmet.

"Surprise! Here is my dot art!"  As you are making your dots you are yelping out "surprise!" with a certain kind of joy bug expression.  Then when you get the blue paint on your fingers (probably mostly on purpose since you are usually pretty careful when you want to be), you put up your blue pointer finger and say "I have an idea!"  

You loved running the Honey Lemonade stand with your brother.  You stuck with it for the entire two hours.  You sported a dragon costume to try to attract customer's attention and made your little lines and dots all over the chalkboard sign.  You love to run around the house picking things up and saying, "that will be fifty dollars!"  Sometimes you will try to measure things with a ruler and say that those are fifty dollars long.

Jumping up after you finish your frozen yogurt to help the other people that just walked in, mainly because you are hoping to mooch more gummy bears off them.  You love groovin to the tunes in the yogurt shop after you finish your cup and your brother still has a giant bit to eat.  You know all the Beatles songs and if one of those comes on you are especially excited.

You understand that "medicine makes me better" which I realized when you had slight fever on the first day of school.  You even know to ask for a puff if your chest feels heavy after just a few weeks of this asthma control.  You have allergic asthma and you were so brave for the scratch test to figure out what your triggers are.  You had one of the strongest reactions the allergist sees to dust mites, and two more reactions to cats and mold.  Luckily all the outdoor allergens you were clear on, but it's still a bummer.  They did a followup chest X-ray and the tech said you should be called Mr. Cooperative the super kid! She said you were the happiest and most cooperative two year old in her career.

We went to your new music class and you nearly lost your mind at the giant bin full of monkeys she brought.  You helped your monkey play the cymbals while marching around.  You like to point out the "little cute ants marching just like me" across the patio.  

You visited your new school for the first time for your new Step into Preschool one day a week class.  You can start now that you are officially 2 and a half (according to the fire marshall's rules they can only have so many children under 2.5).  You came home and told your dad you teacher's name in the cutest voice - My teacher "Mrs. Kig-lee" (Quig ley)  You loved meeting the class caterpillars and "sharks" (actually little goldfish) and you announced that they were growing.  I think it's going to be a great opportunity for you and I look forward to spending a lot of time in your classroom as a coop parent.

This was a good month to settle into a good routine, and this upcoming month we plan to mix it up a bit with some fun trips and a new school for you.  I am really looking forward to a fun month ahead...thanks for sharing those smiles and surprises with me!  
Love, Mommy