Category Archives: Our Kid is Cute

Dear William,

On 11/08/2014 you turned 35 months old. Or, put another way, one more month and you’ll be three. Like 1, 2, 3. In one month, you will have been on this planet, as your own independent little being, for three whole years. For some reason, this is hitting me harder than your two year birthday. I’ve been thinking back to three years ago and how impatient I was at this point in my pregnancy to meet you, and yet how badly I wanted to savor the last bits of my pregnancy with you because I knew it would likely be my only pregnancy.

Stats and Developments:
Weight: 40.5 pounds
Height: 41″ tall
Size clothing: 4T in pants, 4T in shorts; 5T in pajamas (including footed sleepers); 5T in shirts.

You have really been into singing songs this month, and it was quite the surprise driving up to the mountains to hear you suddenly start singing “Joy to the World” and “Oh Tannenbaum.”

Something I’ve started doing different this month is the transition out of the bath tub.  Before, I was cleaning you up immediately when you got in the tub, then setting a timer and it would repeatedly go off and you would negotiate for more time.  I did it that way because I was afraid you would poop in the tub.  This month, I realized that the timer was causing us a great deal of stress and I was dreading bath time.

Since you go potty before you get in the tub, and will ask to get out of the tub if you need to go, I decided to implement a  change.  Now, I put you in and let you play while I get ready for bed.  Your father will go in and paint you and the tub walls with bath paints.  You play independently for awhile.  Then, I come in and clean you up, you put your toys away and stand up, and that is the determining factor of getting you out of the tub.  I have started using “character” wash cloths and you interact with them, and having “them” clean  you up takes the stress off of me.  We had one night early on where you tried to negotiate for more play time and I stayed firm, and it hasn’t been an issue since. Bath time is now a fun time for both of us.  I’m so, so glad that we’ve implemented this change!

Things we did this month:
10/11 – Spooktacular Halloween event at The Great OC Park (picked pumpkin, trick-or-treated vendors & rode in the Big Pumpkin Balloon
10/12 – professional photo shoot
10/18 – spaghetti dinner at church
10/25 – Miracle Babies Reunion with Dr. Werlin
10/31 – Halloween, trick-or-treated your daddy’s work and our neighborhood. You were Spiderman, costume chosen by you
11/1 – Big Bear weekend for my birthday
11/8 – Day Out With Thomas at the Railroad Museum in Perris, CA

Recurring events:
Gymnastics class: Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays
Library Story time: Mondays and Wednesdays

Sleep:
You’re back to inconsistent naps this month. About every third day you take a nap. If we’re out and about, then you skip it. I’m toying with the idea of just having you give up your nap because half the time, you fall asleep nursing at nap time, but if I dare to attempt to transfer you, you wake up and freak out. Soooo, it’s a whole lotta work to go through all the nap preparation just to have it fail. I’d rather just keep going about our day than to rush home for a failed nap routine.

Nourishment:
You’ve been eating well this past month, and we continue to nurse. This month, I’ve noticed a decrease in your nursing, though. You aren’t nursing for as long as you used to, and you’ve (sometimes) taken to outright declining to nurse if I offer. Your favorite nursing times appear to be when you first wake up, for your nap (or around lunch time), and before bed.

You love (what you call) banana treats (oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter, flaxseed, sandwiched between graham crackers and frozen).

You get two chocolate chips if you (1) take a nap, (2) nurse well when I get home, and (3) if you go potty at 5pm.

Favorite Books:
Mighty Dads
Thomas Books
Where is Baby’s Mommy
Belly Button book
Devotion book
Things I want to remember:
We bought you a bottle of Smart brand water, and it was the cutest thing to hear you requesting, “May I have my Smart water, please?”

You think saying “Your butt!” is hilarious. I take full blame for this, because whenever your father (or anyone, really) asks where something is, or where I would like something, I say, “Your butt!”

If we’re doing something or eating something, you’ll say, “I want to ______, too.” One night I was chewing some gum and you said, “I want chewing gum, too.” I said, “You can do that when you’re older.” You replied, “I’m older now!”

For a couple weeks at MyGym, you wanted to play tag with other kids, so you would randomly run up to them and touch them, turn around and run. Your Grandma D. was concerned about that behavior, but I figured it would be over with in a couple weeks, and it was. She says you appear to have stopped doing it.

One day, I asked you, “What are all your trains doing on my desk?”  You replied, “They’re carrying lemonade!”

One day you were putting all your trains in my printer and you informed me, “They’re in the elevator.”

If I ask you, “Are you making a mess?”  You’ll tell me, “It’s just a little bit of a mess.”

If I tell you it’s time to go upstairs for your bath, I never know what I’m going to get in response.  One night, you replied, “Oh, I can’t! I’m watching football right now.”  The next night, I heard, “I’m sitting on the couch reading my Cars book right now.”

Mindlessly singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to myself while putting laundry away, I heard you in the bath tub, “Excuse me, mommy? Ummm, mommy? Excuse me? Excuse me, mommy?”  I replied, “Yes, William?”  You said, “Mommy, were you… were you putting daddy to bed?”

Last couple months, if ask you, “Did you go potty?” Or anything about time, you’ll say, “Yes, at Eight-thirty!”

If I ask you how much something costs, you reply, “Twenty-five dollars!”

Wresting one morning, you said, “Boo!” I said, “Ahhh, I’m scared of you.” You took my face in your hands and said, “Don’t be scared of me, mommy. I’m just William.”

Anytime you pick your nose, you tell me, “I’m going to China!”

Running across the field, your father hollered, “Hey, where are you going?”  You replied, “I’m going over here to fart!”

While in line for something, you can be heard to say, “I’m not waiting…” even though you most definitely are waiting. What that means to me is that in your head you’re already there, and you are verbally rebelling against something you physically have to do.  Or, in other words, you’re saying,  “I don’t want to wait!”

Another morning while wrestling, I cautioned you to be careful that you don’t fall down and break your crown.  You said, “I want to break my crown.”  You fake fell down and then popped up and said, “Oh, mommy!  I don’t want to break my crown!”  I said, “I don’t want you to either!”  Curious to see what you’d say, I asked, “What happens if you break your crown?”  You replied, “I can’t do anything.”  I said, “That’s true.  What happens if you break your butt?”  You said, “Then I can’t poop!”  I said, “That’s right!  And what if you break your nose?”  You replied, “I can’t breathe!  And if I break my leg, then I can’t walk!” Probably not the most positive way of linking body parts to functions, but I was amazed that you knew all those things.

When we say we’re going to Chick-Fil-A, you have your order ready, you’ll say, “I want some little chicken sandwiches and a little cup of oil.”

At Dr. Werlin’s reunion, you got ahold of your father’s Caprison.  When he turned around and saw it, you had set it back on the table and exclaimed, “Mmmmmm, that was really good!”

You have regrettably discovered drinking out of the bathtub faucet… you used to just turn it on to give your toys a “car wash,” then one day last week you started drinking out of it. Your father told you it was OK. So now when I get in there, you look like an overfull water balloon.

I’ve been using Bath & Body Works vanilla bean lotion. One morning, you walked up to me and licked my arm and told me, “You smell like vanilla and taste like ice cream.”

At dinner the other night, we went to Chili’s. I took you to the bathroom and they had some really cool music playing in there. You were sitting there doing your business and “chair” dancing on the toilet. You danced your way through washing & drying your hands and when you were done, you said you didn’t want to leave. So we waited for the song to end and went back to the table. A new song came on, you got up and high-tailed it down the aisle. I followed you and asked you to stop and you said, “I wanna go in the bathroom and dance!”

Also, the baseball game was on the TV in the bar and everyone roared with excitement. You told them, “Hey, be quiet! We’re in a restaurant!”

The next day, driving in the car, you said, “Excuse me, I want you to turn some music on so I can dance!”

We attended Dr. Werlin’s reunion and grabbed a couple of extra snacks that were offered there for your snack bag. The next morning I offered you one and you said, “Yes! That’s from my special day!”

One morning, I told you I was being lazy and didn’t want to get up.  A bit later, you flopped yourself on the couch and asked me, “Now who’s being lazy?”  And then you answered your own question with, “William is!”

When we were in our mountain cabin, you were watching a Thomas DVD while your father was cleaning and scraping out the fireplace in preparation to leave.  It was quite loud, and you politely said, “Excuse me, daddy, I’m trying to watch Thomas.”

Your love for Cars has been taken to an extreme level this past month.  If you’re eating broccoli, you call it cactus.  If we change your clothes, you’re getting a new paint job. If you put your shoes on, we’re putting wheels on you. Your socks are shocks. If you drink water, it’s drinking oil. If we’re dressing you, Mater/Sally is working on Lightning. Brushing teeth, cleaning your grill. Putting lotion on, we’re waxing you.

Again with the Cars theme, you identify the colors on everything and will say, “The green fish is not pretty.. the blue and red fish are pretty.” Apparently, the green fish is Chick Hicks, and the red fish is Lightning and the blue fish is The King.

Something you started doing just this month is brushing my hair.  It is one of the sweetest things ever.  You spent 15-20 minutes doing that one morning.

How when you play hide-and-seek, we can call out, “Where is William?”  And you’ll reply, “I’m over here!”

One afternoon, I was cutting up chuck roast for a crockpot stew.  You came in the kitchen, looked at what I was doing and told me, “I want some watermelon, mommy.” I replied, “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t have any watermelon.”  Then I realized you must have thought the raw meat was watermelon… it was red and cubed.  So I added to my reply, “This isn’t watermelon, this is raw meat for tomorrow’s dinner.”  Without missing a beat, you innocently replied, “I want some raw meat, mommy.”  In the interest of educating you, I informed you, “We don’t eat raw meat. It could make you sick.”  Now, I *know* you know what being sick is, but that didn’t hinder you from saying, “I want to get sick, please?”

I smiled, ruffled your hair and said, “How about we get you a plum instead, or do you want to watch me cut up the meat?”  I wasn’t sure if you were hungry, or interested.  Apparently, you were both, because next thing I knew, you were munching on a plum and standing on a chair watching me.  These types of moments with you are the fun kinds of moments that I love about being your mommy.

I love your spontaneity and that I can never predict what you’re going to say or do.  Somewhere along the line of living my life, I started to find “surprises” stressful and overwhelming, instead of fun and interesting.  I love the way you surprise me every single day, and I love the impish look you get in your eyes when you’re coming up with something.

(Click to view this month’s pictures.)

Love you forever,

Momma

Dear William,

On October 8, 2014, you turned 34 months old (or 2 years 10 months).

Statistics & Developments:
You are 40.5 inches tall and weigh 40.1 pounds. You are wearing 3T in shorts and pants, although the 3T pants are borderline too short for you. You are wearing 5T in pajamas.

I’ve noticed over the last couple of months that you’re learning how to be compassionate. Now, more than ever, I’m paying attention to how I respond to people being hurt or sad, because it is apparent to me that you are mapping your brain. I likely wouldn’t even be aware of this development and would find it tedious, except that I had a friend who was in an accident years ago and had major brain damage.  As part of her rehabilitation, she had to relearn her sense of humor.  Often, she would laugh inappropriately at things and then ask, “Was that funny?” So to hear you ask the same question at your age after you laugh at something when no one else is, tells me that’s what you’re learning right now. Brain development is fascinating to me.

When we were traveling and the Southwest employees were being so insensitive, and I was upset and crying. I was wearing you in the Tula carrier, and you took your froggy lovey and wiped my tears away, while saying “Froggy will wipe your tears. Naaahhhh, mommy.” Your sweetness just made me cry more.

Sleep:
Your sleep has been pretty good this month. We traveled and while we traveled, I co-slept with you. I was able to get up and down, as needed, while we were co-sleeping, without waking you. I’ve also been able to slip in and out of your room if I need to shut your window at night without waking you.

I thought for awhile that you were giving up your nap, but this month you have gone back to consistently napping.

Nourishment:
You’ve been eating fairly well. You had some issues while we were traveling, and we had to go outside and talk about food a few times and what’s appropriate behavior when served food at meal time. The other thing I think we were battling is that we had a time zone change to 2 hours ahead, because like clockwork, two hours after a meal was served you’d be asking for food.  Traveling is tough on little ones, I think.

We’ve implemented the requirement for you to ask your father, “May I be excused, please?” before you may leave the table.

You are fascinated by our drinks… I drink decaf coffee and both your father and I drink iced tea.  We are finding that we need to be very attentive to our drinks, because if we don’t, we come back to find you with an impish grin on your face and our drink in your hands.  I went to Starbucks while we were at the airport this month and ordered my coffee.  You asked nicely for some coffee and I apologized and said, “I’m so sorry, but this is mine.”  You replied, without missing a beat, “But I’m all grown up now.”  All the people in our vicinity busted up laughing, thankfully none of them had just taken a sip of their brews because it would have been a mess!

Nursing continues to be something we both enjoy. A couple of funny things, at our arriving home nursing session, occassionally, Grandma D. and I will use that time to catch up with each other. You told me this month, unlatching to do so, “Mommy, your talking is bothering me. I just want you to stare at me.”

You also informed me as you switched sides, “I’m all done with the chocolate side, I want the coffee side now.” The other thing you’ll say is, “This side went to chocolate, I want strawberry.”

Favorite Books:
Mighty Dads
Belly Button Book
Where is Baby’s Mommy
Mater’s Tall Tales book

Things We Did:

09/11 – Beach trip
09/13 – LegoLand visit
09/19 – went to the beach in the evening (high tide)
09/20 – Zoomars Petting Zoo, San Juan Capistrano and Long Beach dinner
09/21 – grandparent’s house for play and Irvine Spectrum
09/27 – all day travel, flights and airport living
09/28 – family time, met your 2nd cousins
09/29 – Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo
09/30 – Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha and dinner with your Great Uncle Paul, his wife and daughter
10/01 – breakfast at the Cracker Barrell and the Union Pacific Railroad Museum and the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge
10/02 – road trip to family farm in Elgin, Nebraska. Met your 1st cousins, Mandi and Abby
10/03 – Visit to my cousin’s farm, with goats, rabbits, sheep, a calf, a pony and dogs
10/04 – drive back to Omaha and visit with my aunt & uncle some more
10/05 – travel home and acclimate to being home
10/06 – Library with Miss Mary and MyGym playtime
10/08 – Library with Miss C.

LINK TO PICTURES FROM THIS PAST MONTH

Things I Want to Remember:

How you turned on the monitor one evening, peered at it for a second and then said,”That’s my bed.” I said, “Who told you that?” You replied, “Myself.” Turns out, that was the truth. I checked with your father and your grandma D. and no one had told you that.

How, after I’ve put you to bed, you carry on conversations with yourself. Or at least I thought that’s what you were doing, until you told me one night, “Mommy? Answer me!” And then another night, you said, “I’m talking to you, mommy!”

How grandma took you to Wienerschnitzel (a whole other can of worms opened) for an ice cream cone on Tuesday (it’s discounted then), and you ate the first one, got to the bottom and started crying. The manager came over and asked what was wrong, and you said, “It’s all gone.” And he went and got you another one. Not at all what grandma intended to happen, as she wanted to get you home for your nap. Sometimes people don’t realize that giving a crying child prolongs the agony for the caretakers!

How we’ve been having flies around the place. You now sing the shoo fly shoo song at them. One night a fly was being particularly pesky and I noticed you were holding your ear. Concerned, I asked, “Does your ear hurt?” You replied, “No. My ear is fine. But that’s where the fly went bzzzzzz.”

How you figure that since daddy fixes everything, he can also “fix” the universe.  You’ve been really focused this month on whether the sun is up this month.  You told your father one night, “Daddy can you make sun come up? I’m sad that the sun is down.”  Your father said he wished he could, but even he can’t fix that.

You saw a garage sale for the first time this month and you said, “What are those jammies doing on the grass??? That’s so weird!”

A couple nights ago we were having dinner. You moved your plate to the side and spread your napkin out and put your plate on top of it. You said, “I’m having a picnic!”  It was the next night that you brought your lawn chair in from the patio and said, “I’m sitting in my little chair tonight.”  After a bit of you getting up and down to eat your food, I asked you, “How’s that working for you?”  You replied, “It’s working just fine for me.”

One evening in the pool, one of our neighbors came in the pool gate. She started talking to our other neighbor and you asked me, “Who is that??” I told you I didn’t know her name. You swam over to them and said, “Excuse me? What is your name?” She introduced herself as Keera, and you told her, “My name is Weeyum.” Then you said, “My favorite snack is blueberry muffins, what’s yours?” She replied, “I really like yogurt.” You both went on and on about favorite snacks, and then you said, “You’re really pretty… KACHOW!”  Turns out she is a Montessori teacher and speaks fluent “little boy speak.”

One evening you were out checking out our fairy garden (I add things or move things around every day or so). A couple weeks ago I had shown you the mint plants — cat nip, peppermint, spearmint, etc. I pulled some of the cat nip off and gave it to the cats to show you the hilarity of it. So that evening, you came in the house bearing some leaves from those plants and said, “I’m feeding the cats cement! Grumpy, come here! I have cement for you!”

Grandma tells you that you have to nap because SHE needs her nap. We tell you that you need to nap so you can stay up late and party with the parents. Now when we get home you say, “Let’s go to the party and have fun!”

One Sunday, we went to dinner at SIzzler. They had some artwork hanging right at table level, and they give kids crayons there. You held your crayon up to the painting and said, “I’m going to color this picture…” You paused and looked at me and asked, “What would my parents say?”

You love MyGym, and anytime Grandma buckles you into your car seat in her car, you ask, “Are we going to MyGym today?’ You’re learning stuff there, for example, I was sitting on the floor and had my foot resting on the wall, instead of stepping over my leg, or crawling under it, you tucked your chin and did a roll over it. Also, standing in a trapeze style swing, with one foot beside your knee, you looked up at Grandma D. and said, “This is tricky.”

When we were in visiting family on our vacation, we visited the Union Pacific Railway Museum where they had a wooden train set for kids to play with. Every little boy who came through there and left cried and screamed about it. And with every little boy who did that, I got a little more worried about you. Sure enough, as we left, you sobbed and cried. I carried you out, a loud, sobbing mess. After you had calmed down and we were driving back to our home away from home, I told you, “I’m so sorry. I had hoped you’d do better about leaving.” I was referring only to your behavior. So I was surprised when you replied, “I did do better than them, mommy. I didn’t scream, I only cried.” You were comparing your behavior to the other boys.

One morning, you were being particularly clingy, and you followed me into the restroom and sat down on the rug. I glanced over at you and said, “I’m going to stare at you while you sit there.” You promptly got up and walked toward the door. As you opened it, you said, “You can go potty, if you want, all by yourself!” Remarkably, you closed the door behind you. I guess I just have to tell you that I’m going to stare at you to get some privacy?

While we were visiting family, your Great Aunt Marjorie gifted you with a few family heirlooms. One is a child’s rocking chair that was handmade in 1868 by your G-G-G-Grandfather for his son (your GG Grandfather). It fits you just right. Now, you go sit in your chair and pat your little lap and say, “Come here, mommy, sit on my lap. I’m going to rock you to sleep!” And then you sing me Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves me. You also had daddy sit on your lap to rock HIM to sleep. Now that was a sight to see.

You still love Rachael and Signing Times. You love the Treeschoolers, too. You’ve been requesting the zoo Signing Times lately. Funniest thing, when you are asked a question, you’ve started sticking your hand up and making random letters, like you’re signing things. Recently, you were walking around saying, “Something about b r a…” while you signed it with your hand. Your father asked you, “Why are you spelling bra?” You responded, “I don’t know? Maybe because it’s yummy?” I’m really not sure if you know what bra is, or how it’s spelled, or even that you were saying bra… but that was just hilarious.

You picked your own Halloween costume a couple weeks ago.  I was surprised as heck that you want to be Spiderman.  You know next to nothing about Spiderman, except that one of your water cups is a Spiderman and so you know who it is… and that’s pretty much the extent of it.

Your Grandma D. has been working with you, starting about 3-4 months ago, on the months of the year.  Along with that, you know your birthday is in December, as is Christmas.  You know mommy’s birthday and Grandma D’s birthdays are in November.  You know Grandpa H.’s birthday is in October, and Grandma H’s birthday is in September, and that your daddy’s birthday is in August.

We’ve been asking you what kind of party you want for your birthday in December.  You’ve informed us that you want a train cake that is coffee flavored.  I asked you if you want train decorations and you told me, “No. I want Cars decorations.”  So I took you to the party store and showed you various decorations.  You absolutely do NOT want a dog birthday, or any of the super heroes.  You don’t want a Hello Kitty party, either.  But you waffled when faced with Cars or Thomas… so I’m not sure which you’ll be having.  But you still definitely want a train cake.

***

The other night, as is our routine, I nursed you when I got home. Grandma D. tried to sneak out the front door so she wouldn’t interrupt our reuniting. You unlatched as you heard the door shut and said, “Hey!! Grandma forgot to tell me she loves me!”

How when I put you in bed, and you ask me to snuggle, sometimes I ask you what you’re thinking about. You usually tell me, “Trains…” And then start telling me a story about trains, how Thomas fell in the water and someone came and helped him. Then you say, “Luckily, no one was hurt.” But you say “luckily” as “wuckiwy” and it makes me laugh every single time you say it. I also love hearing what’s on your mind and hope that this foundation of trust and communication that I’m working on establishing now will continue as you grow older.

One evening, after your bath, you grasped my face and pulled it to you. You said, “I’m kissing your forehead. I’m kissing your cheek! I’m kissing your other cheek. I’m kissing your nose. I’m kissing your chin. I’m kissing your mouth.” Along with the appropriate kisses. I do this to you all.the.time and to have you do it back to me, tells me more than ever that what I put into you is coming right back out.  It’s a fearsome and awesome thing, this parenting stuff.  And, dear child, I hope you continue to be this sweet your whole life long.

Love, Momma

Dear William,

On September 8, 2014, you turned 33 months old. You are 40.5 inches tall and weigh 39.3 pounds. Sadly, you have outgrown the Wee Ride seat that attaches to your father’s bicycle… and, apparently, after searching for something comparable, there is no attachment bicycle seat or trailer for kids that are over 40 pounds. Apparently, kids who are over 40 pounds are supposed to be able to ride their own tricycle or bicycle?

Nourishment:

After your last huge growth spurt last month, you started eating pretty sparsely. I was concerned for awhile, but then reminded myself to look at your eating habits on a weekly basis, not a daily basis. I also reminded myself that your continued nursing fills whatever gaps in nutrition you may have.

Favorite books:

Your favorite books right now are MIghty Dads and the Belly Button book. You ask for it to be read any time you can, upon wake up in the morning, before nap, after nap, before bath, and before bed. You love to repeat what the dad says in a high, sing-songy voice. Every time you get to the crane page, you ask, “Where’s his wheels?” And then you say, “They’re not in the picture, you can’t see them right now.” If you happen to see any of the construction vehicles in real life, you say the words about them. So driving down the road, we’ll hear, “There’s a cement truck, he says, spin, spin, pour.”

Sleep:

Things have been great this month. You awakened a couple times this past month in the middle of the night with a bad dream, but other than that, you sleep through with no issues. You are also able to go back to sleep after I nurse you in the mornings. I’ve been tempted to let you sleep uninterrupted, however, you look forward to it as much as I do. I know this because I nursed you one morning and true to form, you went back to sleep. When you woke to find Grandma D. there, you were inconsolable and told her that, “Mommy forgot to nurse me.” I hadn’t forgotten, but you had slept so deeply, you thought I had. Oh child, I wouldn’t ever forget something that important!.

An interesting development has occurred this month … if you do take a nap, you do not nurse to sleep at night. Instead, after about 20 minutes of nursing, you unlatch and request to go to bed. Once in bed, you request that I snuggle with you for a couple minutes. So that’s what we do, and then when I leave you say, “Mommy has to go downstairs and do chores.” If you do not take a nap, you do nurse to sleep at night, usually within 5 minutes.

Things we did this past month:

08/09 – Sea World
08/16-08-20 – Big Bear (Zoo, Castle Rock hike, bicycle ride)
08/23 – Great OC Park for storytime, carousel and park & family time at Grandparent’s house
08/24 – playdate at We Play Loud (indoor playground)
08/30 – Irvine Spectrum (ferris wheel, train, playground)
08/31 – Slip-n-slide and pirate ship pool
09/01 – Great OC Park for Balloon ride
09/02 – pool time
09/03 – library book reading w/ Grandma
09/04 – gymnastics at MyGym
09/06 – stayed home — haha

Things I want to remember:

How just in the last month, when you’ve finished eating your dinner, you will ask, “May I be excused, please, mommy and daddy?” The first time you did it without prompting, your father and I stared at each other in shock.

How you love to hang and then drop and land. You also really love to climb. I’m grateful that we’re near such a large variety of parks that you can do just that to your heart’s content. You also love to just flat out run. You did not get that love of running from me. You also adore swimming, and I take full credit for that one. In fact, you climbed out of the pool using the side ladder for the first time just this past week.

You love pretend play, whether it’s eating pretend food or conversing with pretend characters, or playing pretend sports. We were at the park one day, and four girls congregated at a table and pulled out a bunch of little toys. You ran over and sat down at the table next to them and called me over. You watched them with their toys, and then imitated them with our empty table … we had a hilarious tea party, hid behind imaginary walls and ate imaginary food. It was the best hide and seek tea party meal I’ve ever had. The next week, we went to another park, and no one was playing basketball on their court. You pointed that out and then ran over to the court and started shooting your imaginary basketball. I was impressed.

How funny it is that you’ve started telling me, in the saddest of voices when you’ve done something you shouldn’t, “Oh, mommy, please forgive me.”

You’ve started asking your version of the infamous “why” question. It goes like this, “If I don’t ______, then what happens?” Fill in the blank with whatever we’re asking you to do or not do. We’ve found ourselves scrambling for appropriate answers when you’ve asked, “If I don’t stop and run into the street, what happens?” We reply, “You could get hurt and mommy and daddy would be very sad.” Then you say, “If I get hurt, then what happens?” It’s kind of endless.

If we’re using the restroom, you wonder in and ask, “Are you all done?” Apparently we do that to you, huh?

If you ask for something that we don’t understand, you’ll expound on the explanation with a description, and without pause (whether we understand or not), you say, “Ohhhhh! THAT’s what you’re talking about.” We affectionately call this toddler charades. ha

How funny it was to hear you say “holy toledo!” for the first time this past month.

How uplifting and encouraging you were while I was rock climbing with you in the Tula… “You’re doing good, mommy. You’re almost there! Keep going! You got this! You did it!”

How you were talking nonstop as we drove down from the mountains. We stopped at McDonalds and got you a Happy Meal. It came with a yellow car, and you spent the last hour of the commute with your head stuck in the Happy Meal box playing with your new car and looking at the pictures on the box.

You’ve started doing weird stuff with your food, like sucking off the salt on the pretzel sticks or sucking off the Greek yogurt on the granola bars. I instructed you on the correct way to eat them, and would periodically check on you to make sure you were actually eating them. After the 2nd check, you started saying defensively, “I’m eating it, mommy! I’m eating it!”

Followed on the heels of this defensive behavior, you’ve become aware of when I turn to look at you if we’re the car together. One night, you freaked completely out, with tears and yelling, because I dared to check on you to make sure you were OK, and you finally quieted enough to tell me, “Please don’t look at me, mommy.”

Every Thursday night we go to the beach. When we crest the hill, you say, “I see the water!” Then when we roll down the windows, you say, “I smell the beach!” Our most recent Thursday evening sojourn it was high tide. You looked around at the non-existent beach and said, “They took the beach?” Somehow, I guess you’ve learned about the infamous “they.”

We went to the pool a couple weeks ago and it hadn’t been cleaned very well. You were swimming around and then told us, “We’re in a dirty washing pit.”

One night, you informed me that, “I really like banana treats… but I don’t like apples at all.” <—That was news to me, since you eat them both just fine. Apparently, you're experimenting with communicating opposites.

When we went to the Great OC Park, we intended to go up in their big orange balloon. Your father put our name in and we were told it'd be about an hour. We waited 1.5 hours, playing in their playground, and then I noticed they had shut it down. Your father went to check and came back and told me they had crossed names off from underneath our name, so they'd taken people out of order. Righteous indignation, I went in and bitched at them. When I got back, you were upset. I asked you what was wrong, and you told me, "I wanted to go talk to them, too." So I took you in, and you told the lady who worked there “I’m so sad… I can't ride in the big balloon." Then you told her, "My feelings are OK." Then, a few days later we went back early in the morning, they hadn't even opened yet, so we waited and got a pager. We were able to go up in the balloon's first flight of that day. After the ride, you said you wanted to go back in and talk to them. I took you in and you ran up to the counter and said, "Thank you, I had SO MUCH FUN riding in the balloon."

How one evening last week, after we'd done our "get home" routine, I left to go swimming and 30 minutes into my swim I looked up to see you and your father at the gate. I let you guys in, after donning your swimsuit and floaties, you walked down the steps and into the pool. You pushed off on the step, trusting your weight to the floaties. As you did so, you sighed and said, "I finally get to go swimming." I guess you'd been waiting all day for that moment.

How going into the stores, going to see the toys is the highlight of your trip. You aren't asking to buy them, but you do love to go look at them and examine them…. and after a minute or so with each toy, you'll hand it back and say, "I'm all done with that. May I see that one now?"

How, one day, reading a Thomas book with you, I stumbled over the pronunciation of "Sodor." Without missing a beat, you corrected me with, "Sow-dor."

We have a funnel that sits on the kitchen counter. One day, you picked it up and used it like a megaphone.

During the week, after you wake and grandma D. takes you downstairs, you've started taking the cat hats out of the drawer and putting them on the cats. A kid truly after my own heart. I'm thinking these practice runs could come in handy for holiday pictures this year!

How one morning, just after waking, I asked you what you wanted to do that day. You replied, "Ice cream land is on my to do list."

How when I lift you out of your bed in the morning, you're all warm with sleep. You audibly sniff through your nose, and in a sleepy voice say, "Ohhh, your lotion smells good." If I ask you if your daddy or grandma smells good, you always give an unequivocal, "No."

How you randomly will tell me, "Mommy, I like you. You're so pretty."

How you've randomly started to open your arms wide and tell me, "I love you thiiiiiiis much, mommy."

And then sometimes, still, you'll curl yourself up, your head tucked under my chin. I breathe in deeply the scent of your hair and the scent of you. You still smell half baby, but half little boy now. I knew this day was coming, the little boy days. The days when you lose that soft baby skin, and the hairs on your arms and legs are no longer downy soft. It's happening… but those times when you curl into me, I remember those fleeting moments of pregnancy. Moments that seemed to go on forever because we were so impatient to meet you. All those times that I held you as a newborn, seemingly endless times, but are now long past. Your legs are strong, your arms are strong. Your posture is the perfect posture of a child, untouched by years or burdens. You are but three short months away from being 3. It seems unreal to me that years of intertility could drag on forever, but years of parenthood flee into memories made in a matter of seconds.

I know for a fact that if your father and I linked our hands together and spread them wide, that there still wouldn't be enough space in the universe that could demonstrate that we love you THIIIIS much.

Love you forever,

Momma

Dear William,

On June 8, 2014, you turned 2.5 years old. Thirty months. Two years six months. Wow. My big boy, but still my sweet baby. There’s a child’s book called Love You Forever. It talks about a mother and her son who she rocks and rocks throughout the years and stages of his life once he falls asleep, it’s really very sweet and I understand it completely now after having had you in my life. You will always be my baby. Although, I promise, when you’re older and married and have your own children, I won’t drive across town and sneak in your window to rock you… I’ll just ring your doorbell. ha

STATS:
You are 39″ tall and 36.12 pounds. You’ve had a bit of a growth spurt this past month… someone commented to you about how you’ve grown so tall and wondered how that had happened. You explained, while raising your hand appropriately, “I growed and growed and growed!”

NURSING/FOOD:
A growth spurt this month has led to you eating and nursing very well.
You have a new found love of cherries, particularly maraschino cherries.

SPEECH:
Mispronuciations are rare these days. You will say something, stop, and repeat it until it’s correct. One of the charming things that you consistently mispronounce, though, is a very important word and that word is “dessert.” You say it like “bessert.”

You have started saying “Mmmmhmmmm” and “Yeah” in response to questions this month. I much prefer you to say “Yes” and so I am consistently trying to retrain you.

You’ve also started intermittently calling me “Mom.” Uhhh, child, I am mommy until such time as you are a teenager. My mom is mom, not me.
SLEEP & HEALTH:
You had another good month of sleeping. Despite my worries of traveling, when we went to our family cabin over the weekend, you slept in your own bed all night long BOTH nights with no wake ups. You do have the best bed in the cabin, so I would expect no less, which is why when you don’t sleep well up there it is so maddening. HA!

Naps were a different story, and since I didn’t want you overtired, I basically “forced” naps by lying down with you or holding you for your naps. Although the getting you to “be quiet” part of settling down was not a pretty thing. On one of the days I forced a nap, it was totally dark in the room, I was lying next to you and I could feel the bed jerking.  I ran my hand down your back trying to figure out what you were dong without initiating a conversation… you know, being quiet? It kept happening, and I finally asked you what was going on. You replied, “My poopy maker’s jumping, I’m being a froggy!” The next day, you fell asleep while nursing on the couch and that was much easier to handle. Despite the hilarity, I savored those naps because I know it will be all too soon that you no longer take naps and maybe a shorter time that you won’t want me to hold you at all.

 

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:

Monday and Wednesday – Library story time
Tuesdays – Music Class with Miss Cheryl
05/17 – lots of pool time
05/18 – Irvine Spectrum
05/24 – breakfast with your Great Aunt Marjorie and Great Uncle Jim
06/07 – weekend in the mountains

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

One morning, I was getting dressed, and standing next to me, you looked over and said, matter-of-factly, “You’re putting your black underwear on.” I confirmed, “Yes.” You pursued the observation with, “There’s no cars on them.”

That afternoon, you started talking about the airport, saying that you were going to go to the airport and watch planes take off and land. I texted my mom to ask her if she’d been talking to you about that. She replied, “No, but I think we’ve talked about it while you’re nursing him. He doesn’t miss a thing, that one.”

One evening after dinner at Outback Steakhouse, you were playing in the little field outside the restaurant. You saw a wild rabbit and said, “There’s Peter Rabbit!”

After a morning at the library, where there are several statues outside, you came home and, sitting on your potty, said, “I’m a sitting potty statue.”

You have willingly used public toilets on several occasions this month. This is progress! Over the weekend, you have started to request the “big potty” and you want to sit on it backwards. It doesn’t look comfortable to me AT ALL, but it’s the only way you want to go. Perhaps this is a step towards learning to pee standing up? One benefit for you, is that there is a “shelf” of the toilet tank that you put your trucks on.

You used the restroom at a restaurant this past month and did a big poop. When you were done, you looked into the toilet and asked, “Where did the poopy go?” I looked and the water was foggy, so I told you was down there hiding. Without any pause, you said, “BOO!”

On another day, you pooped and I was cleaning you up from it, but there wasn’t anything to clean up. Pleasantly surprised, I said, “My goodness, you did a ghost poop!” And you said, “I did a ghostlight poopy!” (You were referencing the short movie from the Cars DVD, I was referencing the guideline of types of poop.)

When I sing you Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star while we nurse to sleep at night, and when I sing the word “star” you bring both hands up and sign the word “star” and your eyes crinkle just a bit at the corners and I can tell you’re smiling at your cleverness. I love these interactive nursing sessions with you.

When we switch sides while nursing, you will say, “That side is dry.” I reply with, “No, mommy just needs to make more milk.”

At the library, there was a story about a dog who was ribbeting like a frog, neighing like a horse, etc., so the dog went to the doctor and the doctor pulled out a cat, all kid’s eyes got big. Then a frog came out, and you said, “What is THAT doing in there?” LOL

We were walking down the stairs and there were some balls that the cats play with in one of the cat beds. You took a look at it and said, “Look at that… Grumpy laid some eggs!” If that’s true, it could possibly explain why Grumpy (fka Snuggy) is so often out of sorts. This was followed by you telling me, “Mommy needs coffee to be happy.”

When we went to Walmart over the weekend, you spotted a cheaply made police car toy. I told you we already had one at home. You negotiated by saying, “I want this one, please?” I told you it wasn’t well made, that it doesn’t even make sounds. You looked at me and said, “WOOOOO WOOOO WOOOOO!” Touche!

Your toys constantly talk to each other, full on conversations, courtesy of you. You don’t mind if I join in and play the part of them, but it’s amazing to just listen as you create their conversations.

Sometimes, when we’re driving down the road, you say, “I want to say ‘AHHHHHH’!” and that means you want to do our Friday family yell! haha

We get to a restaurant and discuss what you want to eat, and you pick it out… and then you say, “It’s coming. Food is coming!” Uhh, we still have to place the order, little boy! Then, when we finally place the order, your eagle eyes follow the waiter around until he brings you your food.

When we were at a restaurant one evening, you overheard a lady telling the waiter that it was her birthday. When she returned to her table after paying the bill, you launched into a rendition of the happy birthday song, grinning the entire time. You sang it several times in a row. She was ready to leave, but didn’t want to because she told us it was the sweetest thing that had happened to her all day. As a thank you to you, she bought you a cupcake cup.

The singing is really out of control these days… grandma taught you an old gospel song called “Jesus is coming soon.” She rocks you vigorously to that tune in the rocking chair and you now go sit in that chair and rock yourself, all the while singing that song with much passion. I have the most hilarious video of you doing that completely naked. I’m thinking that will come in handy in about 16 years.

We went to Yogurtland one evening and you spotted a picture of yogurt on the wall. You told me you wanted that yogurt, and then proceeded to pretend eat the yogurt. You lifted your spoon in the air, perspectively picked some up on your spoon and pretended to eat it.

You are verbally linking cause and effect … you have been heard to say, “I’m thirsty, I need a drink of water!”

You now leave your sunglasses on and actually request them when the sun is bothering you. You will say, “The sun is in my eyes, I need my sunglasses, please?”

You also tell me, “Remember yesterday, mommy, when ____ happened?” Or, “I want to go to LegoLand? Oh, LegoLand is closed right now, we’ll have to go tomorrow.”

One night it was so hot in your room (a mini heat wave we were experiencing) and you were having trouble falling asleep. I went in to open and put a fan in your window. You were lying sideways in your bed, your feet propped up, looking for all the world like you were sitting in a recliner. I said, “There now… do you feel that cooler air coming in?” You grinned and replied, “Yes!” And started singing, “Because my body is amazing, amazing, AMAZING!” Complete with the signs for it. Thank you, Baby Signing Time for your late night precociousness.

You love going to our family’s mountain cabin, and as we were driving down the mountain, you said you wanted to go to the Christmas store, the one that has ice cream in it. I was confused and finally your father figured out you meant the candy store up there, that does indeed look like Christmas, and it does have ice cream in it.

One morning while we were in the mountains, your grandpa told you we were going to see Charlie. He asked if you knew what Charlie would make you. You replied, “A pancake!” We asked you what kind of pancake. You replied, “A blueberry pancake!” You were absolutely right!

This has also been a month full of leg hugs and I couldn’t be more thrilled. They are unbearably heart melting, especially because they are combined with an, “I love you, mommy!”

Over the weekend I was upset about something. You came up behind me and started pushing my shorts up. I asked you what was going on, you replied that you were trying to pick me up to give me a hug. It quickly degenerated into a game of me going to my tip toes every time you pushed upwards. Then the game expanded to you trying to pick up your father, and we were all laughing by the end of it.

Sometimes we’ll tell you we’re going to do something, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get to do it too. You always reply emphatically and with much confidence, “I’m lucky.”

Truthfully?  It’s not luck at all, child.  Nope.  Not even a little, nothing in your life or about your life is a happenstance of chance.  We really should start using the word “blessed” … because that is really what everything about our life with you is about.

Blessed.  Ten times a William.

Love,

Mommy