35 months

Dear Tricky Devil,

I'm always thinking of instances that sum up "life with a two-almost-three-year old" and the best one recently is:  You demanding to go outside to play in the snow, getting out there all bundled up, taking your coat off because you are hot, then declaring it is too cold!  You will get into the cold car and cry out, 'Mommy turn off the cold!"  I wish little buddy!

You called yourself a "tricky devil" when you were throwing snow balls at me on a sunny crisp afternoon out on your playset.  You were so funny about not wanting to wipe your wet fingers off to warm them up.  You wanted them dry and you would shake and wipe them against the hard wooden bench, but you'd do anything to avoid getting your coat or pants wet or dirty.  You were not built for snow in your boots, oooh no, tricky devils do not like that!



You've decided that soap is called bubble sauce - You make me laugh when you call out from up on your stool, "Mom I need more bubble sauce!"  When you wash hands at the start of school, the shiny hand towel dispenser becomes your mirror to make funny faces.  Always a goof!



"Mommy, I think I'm going to burp soon!" You say these things that make me realize how old you really are and how much you understand.  You handled the dentist like a champion despite not taking a nap and falling asleep a bit in the car on the way over.  Triumph. Remarkably, I kid, but you are now going under the desk or table, to retrieve a toy etc,  and managing to avoid bumping your head.  Milestone.



You loooove playing the Pig Tails game where Mr. Wolfie likes to eat pink piggies the most.  You filled in the whole back story - "He moved from Michigan to Virginia to be a nice guy since he likes to cuddle and watch movies..."  You keep it interesting after hourrrrs of game play.  Although that games has you counting one, two, three on everything.



You don't like going out in the cold and you've grown a bit tired of our usual haunts (especially P B Jacks), but you're usually up for a new adventure.  If I tell you we are doing something new, you are all ears and questions.  You loved visiting my roommates' "coot baby" after a mini hour and half road trip to get up there.  You took a snooze on the way up there, were as well behaved as you could possibly be and charmed that baby and her folks.  You even avoided the dreaded late afternoon nap on the way home by singing along to all your favorite songs.



You are not sure about kids that you don't think are babies anymore that won't talk.  You think they are just pretending to talk like a baby.  Sometimes at restaurants you will pretend to talk to the waitress in a baby voice or if someone talks to you at the library you babble back at them and then laugh.  I think you think if someone calls you cute, you have to act like a goo goo gah gah baby.



We had so much fun on the nice long weekend with Aiden's old nanny and her son.  You were mostly a good cooperator with a few screamy shouty guy moments.  You are getting quicker at getting your act together.   You usually just want some extra loving to break the mood, like you loved when I tickled your ribs and told you that is what you were looking at on the dinosaur bones at the history museum.



You sometimes pull out jokes you've used before, like your "You're still here!"  Like one morning when we all work up, "Babecca, you guys are still here!"  You like to make people laugh.  When Aiden's teachers come out to drop him off in car, you like to talk to them.  You said, "Her my favorite character!" in reference to Aiden's friendly teacher at carpool.



You love "playing tools" on the little work bench.  You are getting good at getting the big wood nails out on your own and you are a pro at getting pieces as stuck as possible.   You like to play with the crochet blanket holes by making pretend "slices."  One of your favorite new things was the teenage mutant ninja turtle shell and mask you found at the senior citizen center flea market we stopped at after dropping your brother off at Little Oompas Saturday class.  You were so excited to show him when he got into the car at pick up time.  You even eventually shared it with him.



"You smell like mama cuddles! What do I smell like? Hmm, I think I smell like rocket ship crackers!"  You sometimes talk fast and have a whole conversation with yourself.  "Ooh daddy that does smell like breath!"  You are starting to get straight with using do, does, and doing.



You loved running around the real space ship at the Air and Space.  You were pretty funny about finding computer panels to do your "work" while we stomped around.  You found three overlapping holes drilled in a solar panel that you were convinced looked like Mickey ears.   You are going to be ready for the ears hunt when we visit Disney World in May.



You insist on carrying your own umbrella, and at the zoo I found a mini one that seemed fairly durable.  The other kiddie one we had wasn't going to last.  You carried it out of the zoo attempting to destroy it by accidentally stomping on it and dragging it along.  But I think it might actually survive your destructo mode.



You say some of the simplest things, so matter of factly that really make me laugh:
"Mom why do they call it the Home Depot when it's not home!"
"Yesterday I got my shoes on and went to school and did not poo in the potty"
"I spy with my little eye something that begins with orange!"



You insist that there is a song called dust busters (aka ghost busters).  You can play the "name that song humming game" with your brother waaaay better than I can.  Sometimes if you forget the name of the song you try to describe it - "That's that christmas song with the flying guys!"  You can truly sing along to most of your favorite songs.  Riding in the car requires a good play list of kiddie songs.



You are getting the hang of sharing.  You are sometimes just feeling ornery about it, like when you asked your brother to look at your book and then squawked at him you "weren't sharing right now" when he did look.  You will make trades: "Share me! I will share you dis guy!?"  With hands on your hips, "Aiden, listen, I'm already a very cool brother and now I'm going to share!"


You are so funny out on the open tennis courts.  You run around avoiding the puddles at first because you generally don't like being wet, but eventually they tempt you too much.  You stomp in them and then to solve the "wet problem" you shed your pants before anyone notices and you are off running in as many puddles as possible.  You pretty much don't care if your skin is wet, but it's the wet clothing that is the problem. You would think this attitude would help with the potty training, but it hasn't fully clicked yet.

You fell in love with this stuffed fabric house and bears at school that was meant to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  You insist that the opposite of hard is broken now thanks to that story.  You also like to leave out the mama bear's soft chair to get to the broken chair punch line as fast as possible.

We've spent a good amount of time on our new playset out back already.  I can stand up in the upper play house but you prefer that I get down on your level so that the "sock and glove eating sharks" don't see me from down below.  We added your special request telescope so we can see those sharks from far away and drive away from them as fast as the steering wheel can turn.

Sometimes I can get you to "use your words" and calm down with the power of the backwards camera on my cell phone.  You are always up for a good cuddle selfie and you like to smile at your self so it's a good mood changer.  In the mornings while I adjust to the early morning, I can hold the reversed video camera out, and you will pretend to do a little lego man show.  The giggles are a good way to start the morning.

Aiden had a story he wanted to add:  "Daddy was pretending to blow his hand up in the air and I was doing it too. We were pretending that we could lift them with our breath.  And then Keaton came over and sat on my head and wanted me to blow him up!"

When you are happy about "winning" you like to show your muscles and swing your elbows with your hands on your hips.  It's a sweet little giddy guy dance that I hope sticks around for a while.  You are always in on our games and like to hold your own Uno or Apples to Apples cards that you "play during your turn."  It's fun that there are a few games you can actually play with your brother, but you'd love to be able to play them all.


You argued with your dad the other day that you are a big baby, but he says that the fact that you can discuss that means you are a little boy.  You can still barely fit in the baby swings, although even your dad has trouble getting you out.  You can ride the big swings at school like a champ, but still prefer for someone to push you until their arm is ready to fall off.  You fall and get scratches and bumps like a very big boy.  I dunno, the list could go on, but I'll let you be a big baby if you say so...

Love you,
Mr. mommy gookey