I’m late on posting this, but what else is new. Your birthday is right around the corner…

Growth & Appearance: Your eyes appear hazel and while your hair is still blond as can be, I think it will turn brown in time. You’re wearing a size 7 shoe, size 4 diapers, size 3T pajamas, and size 2T clothing. 

Talking: You have preferences now. Actually, I’m fairly certain you’ve always had them, but you can now communicate them. Or some of them, anyway. Here’s how our conversation went the other day in the bath:

Me: “Hooper, would you like to sit down in your bath?”

You: “Nooooo” (said so sweetly you could melt an ice cream cone)

Me: “You don’t like sitting down in your bath?”

You: “Nooooo”

Me: “How come?”

You: “Doo Daa… Hi-YEE!”

And that’s about the extent of it.

Your favorite word is “Hi-Yee” and you use it not only when you want to say hello to someone, but also when you’re in trouble and not sure what to say. There’s been several times we have taken you to the corner and scolded you only for you to look us dead in the eye and say “hi-yee”. I think it’s your go-to when you’re uncomfortable.

You’re saying a ton of two syllable words now. Our favorites include “pumm-mee” (pumpkin), “tra-tee” (tractor), “ta-tee” (tatoo), “da!” for motorcycle (I know, we’re confused too), and my most favorite of all: “bra-ba” for Barbara. You don’t know a Barbara, for the record. Again, you better pick up on our humor if you want to thrive in this family.

Before you go to bed, it’s become routine for your Papa to hold you and go through a series of new words you’ve been saying. It’s not for practice. This is purely for our own enjoyment. It goes a little something like this:

Papa: “Say bye”

You: “Bye-yee”

Papa: “Say pumpkin”

You: “pum-mee”

Papa: “Say Bananna”

You: “Bammmm-ma”

…and now…

Papa: “Say Barbara”

You: “Bra-ba”

I know, we’re weird. Welcome to the family.

Oh yes, you finally call Sarah by name. Only to call her by her nickname, “Gonlz” (which you pronounce “gone”, said like “cone” with a “g”). Never mind how she became known as “Gonlz”. What I will say is it’s a derivative of her prior nickname of “Sonlz”. 

Feeding: I’m really making an effort to help you become more independent with your eating. I give you praise each time you use your utensils. It’s gotten a little bit better, but the improvement is so slow moving and mealtime, in general, takes forever. I’m eager for your two year check up so that I can confirm your weight is fine and I can relax and let you eat when you want at the speed you want. Though somehow I have a feeling I’ll still be a neurotic lunatic chasing you around with a spoonful of something.

Your favorite foods include the following: pesto chicken pasta, breaded chicken, bread, peas, kiwi, strawberries, cheese, chicken nuggets, mac n’ cheese, ground beef or turkey, and greek yogurt. You used to love scrambled eggs, but lately you’ve been doing this weird gag thing every time I give them to you.

I’m giving you breast milk again. Not to mistaken with breastfeeding. I have so much milk and I hate to waste a single drop, so I put whatever leftover milk I have into your bottle. One of these days I’m gonna slip it into your Papa’s glass too. Shh… don’t tell him.

Sleeping: If we are home for the day, you typically take two naps. The second one is much shorter than the first and sometimes we refer to it as “quiet time” instead of a nap because we can hear you in there rustling about the whole time. You’re sleeping nearly 12 hours at night (9:30pm to 9-ish am). You take your first nap around 10:30 or 11 am and wake up around 1:30ish pm. Then we put you down again around 5:30 and you rest for about an hour. If we’re out and about, you usually skip the second nap and pass out on the way home. You’re pretty adaptable and so long as you are entertained, you are not too grumpy even if you miss your nap. 

Development: You love to give kisses. You kiss lots of inanimate objects. I caught you kissing the grapes I gave you as a snack. I’ve also heard you kissing your blanket during a nap. You have given kisses to the passing garbage truck, flowers in the yard, and mickey mouse on my shirt. You’re quite the lover these days. Van still gets more unsolicited kisses than anyone.

You are no longer shy. In fact, you say hello to everyone. We were leaving a restaurant the other day and you walked right up to a table and said hello to a little girl. She got down from her seat to say hello back. You gave her a hug goodbye and that was that.

We took our first road trip as a family this month and it went as smooth as possible. You’re very adaptable and easy going. You didn’t even mind sleeping in the little closet of our small room. You spent the long 6 hour drive watching the passing cars out the window, pointing out the trucks and motorcycles along the way. I hope you always stay this way, but I’m sure we’ll hit the “are we there yet?” blues at some point.

You love pointing. When you want to do something again, you raise your index finger up to your face like you just stumbled upon some bright idea and proclaim, “ghen” (again).

I still take you to your gym class, which you love now. You’ve fully come out of your shell and are the same madman there that you are at home.

Favorites: You still love your toy cars. Good thing you have a gazillion. You enjoying organizing them into piles or lines and then reorganizing them at a different location than before. You can almost always find at least seven cars on our sofa at any given time. You love coloring and like taking my writing pens out of the drawer and scribbling all over the paper at your little table. You also still love Gabba Gabba and insist on watching it daily. It’s a struggle for me. I’d much rather you play outside, but it keeps you entertained while I’m feeding you and I’m not sure how to get around that. I hate TV, I really do. Luckily, you do love going outdoors too. We’ve done a lot of fun things this month. You went to your first circus, which you loved. We went to the pumpkin patch and LA county fair. Also your first official road trip to San Francisco, where you went to the zoo. You’re a lucky little dude.