Dear Keaton,
On a good morning, you spontaneously were running around yelling, "I love this whole family!" as we all rubbed our eyes trying to wake up. You are full speed ahead, and sometimes we are just making our best effort to keeping up.
One of my favorites: waking up to a little face right in front of mine saying, "You're so coot mama, I think I smell some cuddles!"
You were very excited to see the Easter bunny again this year. We waited in the tiny line of other early birds, but you wanted to be first in line. You were very excited to see that fuzzy guy, and also very concerned that he was hot in that big fuzzy suit.” You asked him and he mimed back to you that he was A-Okay, but I’m not sure you were buying it.
We kicked off your birthday celebrations with a visit to the Build-a-Bear mini superhero station. They had Captain America and you were sold. It was serious business for you to add the fluff by pressing the pedal and putting the heart in your new teddy Captain Abearica!
Not excited when your shirtsleeves get wet or when anything gets wet for that matter. For instance, while driving along in some light rain, “Mom, in this raaaain the whole car got wet!” When you cry, you ask sweetly, “Mommy, will you help wipe my drippy bits away?”
You are very good at copying your brother’s big boy moves. You picked out a giant 300-page chapter book at the library the other day and insisted on checking it out because you are ready to read. You poured over the pages for a bunch of car ride time and then as we got out asked for bookmark.
You consistently do the floppy coats move to get your own coat on just I'm time for spring and hopefully no coat weather. It’s funny how quickly you pick up that kind of thing. You weren’t always that excited to wear your coat. Aiden would ask you what the consequence was if you didn’t wear it? "The consequence of not wearing my coat is not big!" You really want to control whether other people are wearing coats, “All warm now, take off that coat Mama!”
You love helping with the silverware when I empty the dish washer. You love to be helpful with that kind of thing, and you are really excited when I ask you. I’ll take it while it lasts. Some funny friendly guy moments: “I share with you! Now you like me!” “Did you just Hi me!? I’ll Hi you!”
You love riding scooters on your tummy while holding the hula hoop that mommy pulls around the room in movement class. It must be something that you picked up at school, but everything became “safety first!” You would want to take a “pause break” to get rearranged to stay stable.
You love to be a friendly guy and introduce yourself with a handshake (and oh boy, if they ignore that little hand out in the air it’s not too fun). You still love a good high five. The
Mickey Pictionary arms with the suction cups have survived a lot of good high fives. Although you seem to save your best high ones for guys like the Easter bunny.
You are funny without even intending to be sometimes. Like when PopPop had a cold, and you said, “Well, oh no, this guy is sick, we better get a new PopPop!” I’ve been wearing makeup and occasionally been getting a little dressed up to go to train for my new job. You literally asked me the other day, “Mommy did you switch heads?
It looks like you put paint on your lips?”
You think it’s funny to call yourself the “Wild Weasel!” And that sometimes fits you really well, although it’s mostly an act of a goofball that just likes to have fun, just sometimes a little too much. If you get upset when we are telling you to do something, especially when Aiden is there, you will announce “Stop talking to Aiden's brother! Got it?!” We know you’re mad when you talk in the third person and imitate my probably overused “got it.”
You sometimes do little things that seem so smart. Like we read to you on the kid’s menu that it said to draw a line to get the bear to his friend, and you will skip the maze part all together, drawing a line around the outside, and then say “look it’s the easy way!” Or the one time you really wanted the giant bag of M&Ms and I said we will get some of those giant M&Ms for daddy's birthday. Your reply, “Happy birthday to daddy today then?!”
You had a certain window of time where you referred to every plant is ivy. Just recently you’ve wanted to be tell you the type of flower, so if you ask what’s that and I just say flower you want me to be more specific. The hardy daffodils that are surviving our up and down weather (snow on March 24 and 30!) seem to be your current favorite. We will see once the other’s blossom. You have the cutest way of saying pussy willows: Pizzy Wizzos!
One of your xmas present imaginext transporter borg booyah boppity bops or whatever they are called broke the other day and you said – “Oh no, it’s busted! New one please.” I actually managed to get them to send us a voucher for a new toy. That mula combined with the gift card from your grand parents went towards a bounty of new Imaginext toys from ToysRUs. Oh boy you were excited for the new dragon, walking dinosaur with the castle. Then we discovered that they all talk to each other through tiny little sensors! Pretty cool stuff.
Whenever I’m cleaning up or using the dust buster you’ve taken to pointing at a smidge spot and calling it barf. You think that word is hilarious and I’m not even sure where you learned it. You are quick at picking up the words that would make your teachers wonder. Sometimes I think they must think you are funny too. Like when you say things like “Ooh, I got a sparky on my hand” aka. static shock
You love watching for things out the window. You are pretty observant if an animal makes its way into our yard. You saw a deer hopping the fences, and you said “Quick love, there is a kangaroo moose in the backyard!”
Your school friends and teachers really help make your playtime imagination extra fun. The other day you were making pretend ice pops for your picnic party and putting them in the "freezer" aka toy ottoman. Then you pretended that Minnie said she didn’t like them and you acted outraged that anyone would refuse a popsicle.
There are certain games that you like to play where you will laugh and laugh and repeat and repeat. Like playing “slippery fingers” which is you pulling as hard as you can on one finger until you slip and tumble backwards. Usually falling with a big flourish and a roll.
You really want to get the attention of other adults you’re your dad or I are talking to. You were trying to charm the piano sales guy, but his attention was pretty divided between the two paying customers. But he was very willing to give you freedom to try out the goods. Your dad had a buddy over to jam and you were laying the ukulele along with them. Your song repertoire included Summertime, Let It Go, Yellow Submarine, “Rudolph you know with the red nose?!”
You love wearing your Captain Handsome jammies and announcing it to everyone who will listen. You love the song
Cakenstein and repeating your favorite lyrics –“ too screamy shouty - I cakey!” Listening to the Story Pirates and Absolutely Mindy are really fun for you. When Mindy plays music and stops talking you sometimes get fussy. Although most of the songs you like to pretend to sing along or lately lip sync with pretty good accuracy.
You’re a little problem solver. If the computer is off you will declare, “The computer needs new batteries!” When you found a crack in the plastic chess board at Mosaic, you said, “Call daddy to come fix this broken bit!” You’ve moved on from being almost exclusively a lego destructor, to making some of your own little structures and vehicles. You even made a food court the other day because I think you must have been hungry.
You are a curious guy. Always looking at things very carefully and sometimes really up close. You sometimes make up words or phrases if you don’t know what something is called, like: “Mom, are you using your pointy point pointy thing” meaning my sewing machine. Or "Um, guys, I'm waiting for my pancakes to grow!" as you somewhat patiently wait for your dad to finish making them for you. Or “Mommy you have a worm in your mouth!” which is actually my tongue. Sometimes I think you know the word you just like making up some funny way to say it.
“Don't do that it scares me out!” was a funny expression I heard you say a bunch of times this month. You would sometimes mean that it just rattled you or sometimes made you sad or sometimes even you didn’t want it to stop. I would like to say, stop getting older so quickly, it scares me out! You are my little buddy (that officially refuses to be called little baby buddy) and I’m scared and overjoyed to wish you a happy third birthday!
I love you, Mommy
