Letter to our 2 year 3 month old

Dear William,

On March 8, 2014, you turned 27 months old. You are 38.5 inches tall and weigh 36 pounds. For the first time, you stood on the scale vs. sitting on the baby scale. Always before you’ve wanted to sit on the scale. You are in 3T sizes for shirts, pants and shorts, and 4T for footed sleepers. Your shoe size is 8.5 Wide.

NURSING/FOOD:
When nursing, you love to hum songs to me, usually starting your medley with Wheels on the Bus, and then go to Frosty the Snowman, then the Hello Song. Sometimes you’ll do Trol Old Joe or something else. You love to sing them in a higher pitch and I’ll affirm, “That’s Froggy singing.” If you go to a lower pitch, it’s Eeyore. You grin when I identify the character you’re humming as. I love nursing smiles and giggles.

This month marks 2 years that I’ve been pumping at work. Although experts say I don’t need to anymore, I still like to provide you with breastmilk that you can drink during the day, even if it’s only 3 ounces that my mom can mix with yogurt and fruit. You nurse as much as you want to when I’m home, but my brain still tells me that I’m preserving that relationship by keeping daytime pump sessions while I’m at work.

You have shocked me with your adventuresome spirit this month on the food front. You tried some lettuces from your father’s salad, some spinach from my salad, and you ate carrots and cabbage (as well as potatoes and spiced meat) at the annual St. Patrick’s dinner.  It’s progress, even if you do call them “leaves.”

SLEEP:
You average about 9 hours of sleep overnight.
Naps are hit and miss. You will usually take a 2 hour nap, but some days you are skipping them.
A couple nights you’ve had trouble falling asleep, or you wake in the middle of the night inconsolable. I don’t know if you’ve had a bad dream or if you’re too hot, but lying down with you usally soothes you. It’s hard to set aside my need for sleep or that I don’t seem to have enough time to do things (like prep my stuff for the next day), but once I make peace within myself, I’m then able savor holding you tight and stroking your head and back, for I know these times will pass before I know it.

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
2/8-2/9 – Mountain Cabin
02/17 – LegoLand with Mommy
02/22 – Ryan’s Birthday party
03/07 – Disneyland/California Adventure with mommy, Grandma D and Cousin Al
03/08 – Green Dinner (St. Patrick’s dinner) at daddy’s church

PLAYTIME AND CHILDREN INTERACTION:
Bathtime — loves painting and coloring and “washing the germs off” your bath toys
Playgrounds – you love all playgrounds and parks, even ones with only grass. You love to run.
Library Story Time -weekly
Music class – weekly
We did a trial gymnastics class this month

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

We went to Yogurtland one night, and the entire drive there, you were calling it Ice Cream Land and every flavor I pulled out were chocolate (according to you) and you wanted mine, even though yours was the same flavors. I just had yummy toppings, which I didn’t give you even if you wanted them. When we were leaving, there was a car parked out front with a dog in it. The dog was sitting in the driver’s seat like he was waiting for his passengers to come back. You started telling everyone who passed by that “The doggy is waiting for his mommy and daddy!”

One night, after we were done with your bath, we were playing the game of “What do you hear?” while I clipped your nails. You said you heard the cats. Then you heard the radio playing. Then you heard the nails clipping. You were resting your head on my chest and pulled away and said, “What’s that, mommy?” I told you it was my heart. You said, “Wanna hear your heart?” And so you went limp while you listened to my heart beating. When your daddy got home, you asked, “Wanna hear your heart, daddy?” Apparently, according to you, your father’s heart says, “Bom, chuck, dome!” I’m thinking he should get that checked out!

The other day you were trying to get your daddy’s attention, and “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” didn’t work. You then quietly said, “I go poopy.” That immediately got results and your father rushed rushed over and sniffed your butt. ha

You like to run away from us and shout, “Freedom!”

Not only are you obsessed with the Cars movie, but you’re obsessed with the music soundtrack for the movie which I keep in my car. When we went to LegoLand (1 hour drive each way), you wanted to listen to the soundtrack and at the end of each song, you’d turn to me and say, “What’s next? I don’t know! We’ll see!” Drawing out the word next, know and see for emphasis… and then when the new song came on, you’d tell me what it was about… “They’re up on the mountain… seeing the town” or “He’s learning to be nice” or “They’re dancing on new road.” You’re also quite passionate about the Tractor Tippin’ song, which is all instrumental… and you narrate it, “They’re sneaking up on tractors… honk! Vrroooom!” The music roars scary and you yell, “THAT’S FRANK!” And you cover your eyes and giggle. This fascination with music is great for entertainment during nasty traffic jams. Remarkably, within two notes of each song starting, you know which song it is, and you’ll excitedly proclaim, “That’s the No More Pie song!” Or “That’s the Sing Rue song!” Or if you’re looking for a specific song, you’ll say, “That’s not the railroad song!”
(Video of listening to the Tractor Tippin’ song)

I set up an old cell phone as an MP3 player and gave it to you. You handle that thing so gently and stare at it in wonderment. You love having your own tunes and being in control of your music.

You love to help pick out your clothes for the day. I’ll usually give you two options, this shirt or this shirt, and you’ll pick from those two items. For the first time this month, you wanted to wear your McQueen slippers. You’ve always treated them as toys. However, that was evened out a week later by your refusal to put your shoes on because you wanted to look at them instead.

A couple days ago, you were playing in your toy corner, sitting on your chair, rolling your trains around, You turned toward the shutters and said, “Want to open the neighborhood, mommy?” You wanted the shutters opened.

You like to get on your rocking motorcycle and start rocking. You tell us, “I’m going to Big Bear!” or “I’m going to Walmart!” or “I’m going to the post office!”

I love your imaginary play, it’s a great mirror of what we say to you… you roll your trains around and have them converse with each other, “That’s so cool! That’s so amazing! Oh, I can’t do that… you did it!” You also make your Cars toys say the lines from the movie, which boggles my mind.

You like to role play with your characters, “Hi! I’d like raisins and oranges and salad! That’s Froggy.” You’ll say. Then in a low deep voice, with your lips pursed you’ll say, “Hi mommy, want mommy to be Eeyore?” Any variation in the pitch of my voice immediately becomes Eeyore or Froggy talking, and same for you.

There’s a playground we go to at the Spectrum (local mall) and the kids tend to get pushy and shove past other kids when going up the stairs to the slide. If someone starts shoving you, you’ve taken to stopping entirely and turning to them and saying, “Excuse me… excuse me…” If they don’t respond, you tilt your head and get right up in their face to meet their eyes and repeat yourself, “Excuse me!” It’s kind of funny to watch, but I don’t trust those hooligans, so I’m right there to enforce your politeness. ha

There’s a sign just outside of the playground listing all the rules, like, you know, “no pushing.” You think it’s a menu and run up to it and order your dinner. “I want pancakes and yogurt and mac-n-cheese and grapes and chicken. Iced tea, please?” Then you run away to keep playing.

You love to say, “Want Tuggy to get on my lap, please?” And then instruct “Mommy, sit down please.” Then you crawl on my lap and pat your legs and say, “Come here, kitty kitty kitty.

At Denny’s last night, we finished our dinner and as we were leaving, you stopped at every occupied table and said, “Hi!” Once they said hi in return, you said, “How are you?” And they said, “Fine, how are you?” You replied, “I’m running away!” And then ran to the next table on the way and repeated the entire scenario. Thankfully, everyone thought you were cute and not intrusive.

In your music class, they sing the Hokey Pokey song. Now you try to get our cat to do the dance with you and you were seen talking to Tuggy through the stairwell gate and saying, “That’s my right leg. Tuggy put your right leg in.”

We went to Walmart the other night, and as we pulled into the parking lot, your father spotted the Walmart semi-truck driving to the back of the store. He broke all speed records driving through the parking lot (heart attack for me!) to get behind it so we could watch it back into the unloading dock. You were beyond thrilled. After we shopped there, we went across the street to Target and, behold, there was Target’s semi-truck who had arrived minutes before. Out of the darkness of the backseat, we heard you say, “I’m a lucky boy!”

At Disneyland, we had just finished eating some ice cream. You handed me a napkin, which I thanked you for. In response, you said, “I’m so sweet… I’m so precious.” We had a great time at Disneyland and California Adventure Land. You got to see your most favorite characters — Eeyore, Tow Mater and Lightning and, OH MY GOSH, RED! We were also surprised to see the snowman from the movie, Frozen, and got to ride the carousel and pet goats and dance with mice characters. In California Adventure, we rode the tractor ride twice and discovered a heretofore unknown to us ride, Luigi’s Tires. Such a fun time we had! My mom’s cousin, Al, is visiting, and our friend, Sonia, let us into the park (thank you, Sonia). You were obsessed with Al the entire time we were there, even when we split up, you wanted me to call Grandma so you could find out where Al was at.

My mom said the other day she went to the bathroom, when she came out, you were eating something. She asked you what you were eating and, around your mouthful of food you replied, “Grapes.”. Surprised, she said, “Where’d you get those?” You replied, nonchalantly, still eating, “Out of the bag.” In the kitchen, sure enough, there was a bag of grapes on the counter. She said you reminded her of a teenage boy helping himself to snacks. If you disappear into the kitchen and things get quiet, I know you’re probably digging in the fridge trying to help yourself to snacks. We make sure to latch the pantry door, because otherwise, you help yourself to anything within your reach in there, too.

We walked through the bra aisle at Target the other day… at first glance, you said, “Wow! Look at all those nah-nahs! That’s amazing!” Then you started calling it the “belly aisle” because of all the bellies in the pictures. And then you didn’t want to leave the belly aisle. I finally told you we were going to look at daddy bellies. A ruse, for sure, there’s no daddy belly aisles in Target. Now every time we go to Target, the first place you want to go is the belly aisle. Should I mention how you disappeared in your room over the weekend and closed the door? I figured you were in there reading books, so I went up to the door and knocked and gently opened it, since your books are right behind the door. Instead, you opened the door, no books were off the shelves and your shirt was askew. I asked you what you’d been doing and said, “I can see your belly!” You had this look on your face like you’d been caught doing something you shouldn’t and you pulled your shirt down. haha

You noticed that I was wearing glitter nail polish, asked me “What’s on your fingernails, mommy?” I said, “Glitter nail polish.” You held up your hands and looked at your fingernails and said, “William doesn’t have any glitter nail polish.”

We were driving one day, and you said, “Want mommy and daddy to kiss!” When we did, you said, “Want mommy to kiss William?” Then, “Want daddy to kiss William?” Then, “Mommy and daddy kiss again!”

At the Green Dinner event, you ate well and did a lot of running around. You watched the Irish dancers and then did your own version of what they were doing, up and down the side aisle for the entire time they were dancing. Everyone who saw you started laughing, you were definitely a side show for people to watch! (Video of William’s Irish dancing)

I had opened my vitamin sorters to do my vitamin project. I left them there (empty) and you found them and said, “I want to shut them!” You then spent the next five minutes entertained with shutting every single compartment on the sorter. No wonder I feel like I can never get anything done! haha

In response to something I said, your father jokingly said to me, “What do you want me to say? OH MY GOSH, YOU’RE A GODDESS?” I told him that would be a good start. We laughed and moved on in the conversation. About 10 minutes later, out of your mouth came, “Mommy? Oh my gosh, you’re a goddess!”

I tell you, I love you ten times a million. In response, you started saying, “I love you, ten times a William.” Indeed. In numerical sequences we have million, billion, zillion, trillian.  I like to imagine that in the far reaches of the mathematical universe is an undefined value called “William.” Because, yes, I love you ten times a William.

Love,

Mama