Growth & Appearance: Two more molars are making their way through. They didn’t seem to bother you much except for the fact you woke up with diarrhea that resulted in the worst diaper rash I’ve ever seen. You woke up crying in obvious pain and I found you on your bed on all fours. I cried too. It was so hard to see you in so much discomfort. I know, I’m such a sucker. When I removed your diaper, it looked as though you had laid under the sun, in the Sahara desert, with your legs spread wide open. The upside of it all was that it resulted in extra cuddles and it cleared significantly after a day or so of treatment. Those damn teeth…

You’re still in size 4 diaper/ size 2T undies, size 2-3T in everything else, and size 7 shoes. You have some great size 8 kicks waiting for you, so I’m eager for your feet to grow.

Eating: Note to self: If you go a full day with refusing to eat, assume you aren’t feeling well. It’s happened a few times now and your Papa and I go to bed so fed up and frustrated only to discover in the morning that you’re not feeling well or have teeth coming in. I feel like I say it every month, but I really do need to trust you to eat when you’re hungry and not eat when you’re not hungry. Note to self: my job is to provide you with healthy choices. Note to you: your job is to eat it. Capiche?

If we let you eat whatever you want whenever you want, you’d already be diabetic. You’re just like your Mama in that you like cupcakes, cookies, and all things breaded. I made you a belgium waffle the other morning and put some whip cream on it as an added treat. You proceeded to lick the whip cream off of each bite. I think you’re the only kid in town that would discard a waffle. I tried to get you to eat pancakes for the longest time and, now that you discovered it has the word “cake” in it, you like them. 

Talking: When we ask you what show you want to watch, you reply, “Cat-uh-hat”, but are unable to answer questions like “what’s your favorite color” or “what would you like to eat”. I suspect that’s just around the corner and I’ll have the video ready to record some of our what’s-sure-to-be captivating conversations.

You still use “hi” on a regular basis and it remains your go-to in uncomfortable situations or situations where you’re trying to accomplish something you know you shouldn’t. Like the other day, for instance, Papa left a chocolate chip cookie on his nightstand from the night before. You wiggled your way over to the nightstand and kept saying “hi” as you inched closer and closer. Then, when you got within reach, you glanced at the cookie then back at us and said “hi”. You sure know how to land a cookie into your mouth. Your cuteability is heart stopping.

You’ve started replying with “okay”, which has been entertaining.

You pronounce all your “S’s” as “F’s” so “sleeping” is “feeping” and “sock” is “fock”. Papa still makes you repeat “sock” a lot.

Things you say that we did not teach you that don’t make sense to anyone other than us. AKA, “Hooper Language”:

Blanket: Da-dgee

Motorcycle: Da!

Thank You: Deep

Fork: Bem-mee

Development: You love your balance bike, which you refer to as your “new bike”. This is because it came to us as a hand-me-down (thanks Kris) and I kept asking you what you thought of your “new bike”. Now, I’m pretty sure you think it is called “new bike” as opposed to just “bike”. Either way, you love to ride it around and have taken a few spills that don’t bother you much. The other day, you insisted in putting your bike in your wagon and then proceeded to pull your wagon around. Needless to say, you’re still entertained with putting things into other things and organizing different piles of things. On any given day and at any given time, our sofa is still covered with your cars neatly placed in separate piles or lines.

Potty training seemingly started slow but looking back in hindsight, it was rather easy. You haven’t had an accident for some time, but we haven’t ventured out in to public with just chonies just yet. You use your potty with ease when you’re home and naked. You refused to wear your chonies initially; apparently big boy batman undies mean nothing to a Cat in the Hat fan. Now I’ve gotten you to wear your chonies and for the most part you’ve transistioned well. You’ll grab your dong and announce, “pee pee”, signaling that it’s time to take you to the potty. You aren’t able to pull your own pants down yet, so you ask for help with this. It was relatively easy to get to this point, but we still have quite a few challenges: wearing chonies in public, using public restrooms, using an on-the-go potty, and wearing chonies for naps and at night. We’ll get there my young lad, we’ll get there.

You have a gentle and tentative nature. You enjoy jumping off surfaces, for example, but often need prompting to do it on your own. I’m probably the only mom in town encouraging her toddler to jump off the furniture by themselves. Don’t tell Papa.

You like to emulate your Papa by going around the house with your toy computer and toy phone and say, “Papa werking”. You’ll set up your little area complete with a pen and paper, phone, and computer. Oh my young little lad, have fun while you can. You can work later.

You counted to six clear as day the other day. Your Papa and I both looked at each other in disbelief, unsure of who taught you that… Until we realized all the time outs you’ve earned have actually taught you something; You may still spit and hit, but you’ve learned to count. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad.

We left you both with a babysitter for the first time this month. Your grandma and grandpa had watched you before but your Papa and I decided it was time to squeeze in more Papa & Mama time. You love your babysitter and had no problem with us leaving (you know her from your gym class).

For the most part, you do a good job of entertaining yourself. Once you get going, you can play with your cars on your own for an hour or more. You like lining them up and organizing them into different areas, but what’s new?

Favorites: Your cars make the cut each and every time, it seems. You also love your “new bike” (aka your balance bike) and pretty much anything else with wheels that goes. You also like Dr. Seuss books and the Cat in the Hat cartoon. We’ve started making forts, which you love. Currently our forts consist of lying on your bed with your big blanket over us like a tent; you have no idea what kind of forts are sure to be in your future. Just wait until you see what a cardboard box can do!

Growth & Appearance: Still in size 4 diapers. It feels like I’m going to be saying that forever. Size 7 shoes. 2T pants fit but will be too short soon enough. 2T shirts are perfect. You’re due for another hair cut as soon as I can get my ish together. 

Eating: There were a few days we questioned if you weren’t feeling well. You slept one day until one in the afternoon and had a little bit of throw up on your blanket. This was followed by two or three days of horrible eating despite a chipper mood. You’ve been better the past few days so I guess we’ll give you a pass and chalk it up to you not feeling well. Your eating, in general, still sucks. There are good days and there are bad days. The bad days are terrible.

Here are some things you enjoy:

Breakfast- Oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese, cereal, eggs, berries

Lunch- Avocado sandwich, PJ sandwich, grilled cheese or quesadilla on flax seed tortilla, deli meat

Dinner- Veggie burgers, breaded chicken, peas and corn

Development: You love jumping off things. You like to climb on top of the ottoman in Van’s room and jump off. You don’t push off two feet quite yet. You also enjoy galloping, spinning around in circles, and jumping on your bed and on the sofa. You like to play the “dark game”, where we go into your room, close the door, and turn off the light at-which-point you proclaim, “dark”. You also have an understanding of what it means to be happy and are quick to proclaim “haw-pee” when you hear music or see people dancing. You graduated from standing in your bath to swimming, completely bypassing the whole sitting stage. You’re either up on your feet or down on your belly. 

Favorites: You’d watch TV all day if we let you. Though you usually lose interest at some point. It’s been a good distraction while I’m busy feeding Van but it’s probably my least favorite thing so we’ve been limiting TV time significantly. With that said, you’re still obsessed with your cars and lining them up everywhere. I must clean the sofa off daily only to find it filled with cars again moments later. 

Talking: You’re putting a lot of words together. Most of your sentences begin with “mama” or “papa” and end with something like shoe, or car, or eye. You’ve also become quite literal, quick to point out what things are as you pass them as if the world is one big game of pictionary. The other day we went outside and you pointed out the rocks, and sky, and trees, and leaves, and grass. You said your first three word sentence the other day when you noticed Papa’s car was missing, “Paw-pa ka bye”, said with a noticeable pause and stutter between each word. Your brain is running the race much faster than your mouth. Your mouth is like the fat kid slowing to a fast walk every 50 feet. The result is the silliest stutter I ever did hear. It’s quite endearing. It goes something like this: “Papa kar. Pa Papa kar. (pause). Papa k-kar. Papa (pause) kar (pause) bye”.

I’ve said it in the months prior, but we are in a state of a language explosion. Everyday your Papa and I look to one another and ask, “Did you teach him that?” And we always look at each other dumbfounded. Like the other day when you picked up your toy syringe (I know, future addict, right?) and came up and pushed it into my butt (I know, my butt of all places?) and said “sshhhot”. 

Sleeping: You’re still taking two naps a day and both naps are taken in your playpen, which we have smack dab in the middle of your room so it’s just out of reach of your drawers. We learned the hard way when we came in to find you napping on top of a pile of your diapers you had removed from your dresser drawer. You nap well, but apparently you need to be held prisoner to fall asleep. You do well sleeping in your bed during the night and often climb out of bed and jiggle your door handle to let us know you are awake. Much to my dismay, you’ve figured out how to open the door to your room from the inside. You’ve done this once and once only. I’m hoping the fact you escaped totally slipped your mind. I guess we should get one of those safety door knob things soon. Why can’t they make a giant bed belt that just kinda straps you in? What’s that you say? It’s called a crib? Oh yes, you’re right. Too bad your parents were too cheap to go out and buy another one. Hash tag: Regretting that decision. Not really though. You’re pretty cute in your big boy bed. You sleep about 16 hours in a 24 hour period.