Dear William,
On August 8, 2014, you turned 32 months old. You are 40 1/4 inches tall and weigh 38.3 pounds. You are currently in size 4T tops and 3T bottoms. For pajamas you are in 5T. I’m buying size 5T in tops for you these days, because they’re really not all THAT big on you. I finally realized that, uh, you’ve outgrown your size 9 shoes, since your toe is hanging out the front of your sandals. We’ve now moved you up to size 10.
Language Development:
You are playing with the English language… for example, we were joking around and I said, “Do you want some grapes?” You replied, “Yes! That would be grape!” And then you laughed uproarously at your pun.
You say “chocwate” for chocolate.
You say “alrus” for walrus.
You say “grirl” for girl.
Food and Nursing:
I keep forgetting to mention, you are in the midst of the toddler rite of passage — dipping into condiments phase, particularly ketchup. You ask to dip anything and everything in ketchup, the “normal” things, like french fries or chicken, but also pancakes, dried mango, fruit. This past month, while eating a salad from El Pollo Loco, you wanted “leaves with dressing” and you proceeded to unapologetically dip things into my favorite cilantro dressing, too. You like to have a lot of ketchup and bit of mustard, too. You haven’t acquired the taste for mustard yet, but you like to have the option… so your father just puts the tiniest bit of mustard next to the huge blob of ketchup, and then we both sit there and laugh about it.
Nursing is going well… it continues to be a pleasant thing for both of us. You find it soothing, and I find it a wonderful way to reconnect with you after a day away from you. One of the funny things you’ve started doing, you will lay down on the floor and bonk your head ever so gently. Then you fake cry and say you bumped your head and ask to nurse.
Sleep:
This month has seen some interesting changes in your sleep. For naps and bedtimes when I’m home, you will nurse until you’re almost asleep and I will either tell you “all done” and you’ll unlatch, or you’ll unlatch yourself, sigh, and in your bed you go. You immediately flip to your tummy and go on to sleep. The last week and a half you have decided that you will go back to sleep after I nurse you in the morning before I leave for work. I’m beyond pleased that you have taken this step, as you are ensuring that you get the amount of sleep you need.
One morning last week, I put you back in your bed and you said, “Mommy lie down with me.” I said, “I can’t, it’s not Saturday.” You replied, “Get in here.” I laughed at that and said, “Are you going back to sleep?” You said, “Uh huh… mommy, leave the door open?” You did indeed go back to sleep.
Things we did:
07/12 – a friend’s birthday party at Pump it Up
07/12 – Lego Movie at the OC Great Park with food trucks!
07/13 – mass with daddy, visit to your Grandma and Grandpa’s house
07/14 – swim time in the evening
07/16 – Sign Language Library Story Time (Tustin)
07/17 – Beach
07/21 – Library with Miss Mary (El Toro)
07/22 – 07/25 VBS at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
07/24 – Beach
07/26 – FIRST CIRCUS! Took a nap there. ha
07/27 – Church/Pancake Breakfast/Family time … painted a birdhouse
07/29 – Library, fireman visitor/speaker
07/31 – Beach
08/02 – FIRST MOVIE – Planes 2
08/07 – Beach
Things I want to remember:
The amazing hugs you give, and how good it feels to have you wrap your arms around my neck and squeeze with all your might.
How you randomly will tell me, “I love you, mommy.” Usually as you’re hugging my leg while I wipe your butt. ha
How you love our fairy garden, and the one fairy house, looks like a tree stump, you call it “the treeschoolers.” (From Rachael and the TreeSchoolers) First thing in the morning, you like to get up and go downstairs and check on the fairy garden.
Driving to the OC Great Park, in your car seat, you were looking for your Kellogg’s Corn Flakes car. I asked you, jokingly, if it was up your butt. You said, “Yes.” Surprised, I said, “You’re sitting on it?” You replied, “Yes.” Sure enough, I dug under you and there it was. I guess I need to check your car seat better before putting you into it.
I was detailing my car and you wanted to hang out with me. So you climbed into your car seat and sat there, playing with your car Cars and eating your car snack mix. At one point, you asked if we were going anywhere, I replied that we weren’t, that I was cleaning my car. You hung out in there for about a half an hour.
After we’d been out for the evening, we pulled up next to your grandma’s car. She got out and you said “Goodnight, Grandma! I love you!” Then, with an ear-to-ear grin said in an undertone, “Go home.”
How you wanted to touch the food trucks at the OC Great Park. The back of one was hot (their cooking stuff was there) and the red one was cold (it was the engine area). I would never have thought to touch them if you hadn’t been there, and was surprised to learn their temperatures.
You wanted to help push the wheelbarrow at Grandma and Grandpa H.’s house.
At Pump it Up, you were so excited to get to eat cake. The guy had stuck the fork firmly in the cake, you just lifted the whole thing and said, “Look mommy, I got cake!!!” And proceeded to eat the big piece of cake like it was a popsicle. Also, you were the only boy amidst 10 girls at the birthday party… totally awesome!
At the circus, the motorcycle on a wire came out right above us. You jumped and then asked, “What the heck are they doing up there??”
Fascinated by traffic, you were counting the cars around you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleventeen.
When I put your new shoes on you, I asked you, “Aren’t your new shoes fun?” You replied, “No. Legoland is fun. Disneyland is fun. The waterpark is fun.”
How brave you’ve been getting at the park. You now climb up (carefully) the rope climbing ladder and will go up the ladder to the big tube slide. You also slide down the enormous tube slide all by yourself.
Our local Walmart has stopped giving free cookie samples, which is the saddest thing for you. You informed grandma that, “Cookies are much better than a big ol’ chicken.”
At 5:45pm, I asked you when you had last gone potty. You replied, “At six thirty, mommy.”
In the craft store, I wondered aloud if the Christmas stuff would be out. You replied, “Nooooo, mommy, it’s still July!”
How I had you in a back carry in the Tula. You were driving your car on my neck and I asked you if you were driving your cars on my back. You replied, “No, they’re driving into the cactus.” This as they go through my hair.
We use a timer to transition you through the stages of the evening… upstairs playtime, potty, bath time… one evening the timer went off for the end of your bath, and I came around the corner and you’d put all your bath toys out of the water onto the side of the tub, and you grinned, and said, “Mommy! I cleaned up my toys!” I was so very surprised, and told you how surprised I was. Every evening since then, you want to clean up your toys and surprise me… multiple times. So, I let you surprise me, a few times at least.
How, when grandma leaves for the day, you tell her, “Thank you for taking care of me. I love you. Thank you for stopping by.”
Each week when we go to the ocean, you remind us, “We’re going to get grandma?” And when we get there and can see the ocean from the road, you exclaim, every single time, “THERE’S THE WATER!”
How when I jokingly tell you we’ll be playing the quiet game while driving around, you’ll respond, “No, I want to talk!” And then just last night, you asked to hear a specific song and it was playing. Your father and I were talking and you said, “Be quiet, please. I’m trying to hear my song.”
You are such a joy and we love your sense of humor, imagination, thoughtfulness and kindness. If I could have custom ordered a little boy, I don’t think I would have been able to do so half as good as what we have in you.
Love, Momma
Jammie J's Quest 