One for each month I have known and (mostly) loved you:
1. You love to fall down. Sometimes, just for the fun of it, you will suddenly drop to the floor, or ground, or bottom of the bathtub. You get up grinning from ear to ear as if that 2 foot drop gave you the biggest rush! Usually you will do it again. This time trying to hit your head. Apparently the only thing better than falling down, is hitting your head.
2. The doctor says you are “all boy”. She tells me that when I voice concern over #1 (above). She tells me that during your check ups as she examines your naked body and I am sure she is going to report me to DFACS because of all the bruises. She grins and tells me that during your sister’s check up as you are jumping off the stool, opening the exam room door, and turning off the lights!
3. I would never tell your doctor this, because she seems pleased in your “all boy” diagnosis, but at home, with or without your sister, you like to play tea party and try on princess shoes.
4. You recently became fascinated with cars and trucks and now when I take you grocery shopping I MUST place you in the cart that looks like a NASCAR and has the steering wheel for your enjoyment. The entire shopping trip is made with “vrooming” noises which delights the other customers, especially on Senior Citizen discount day.
5. You have only 2 speeds: fast, continuous motion or completely stopped (which usually means you are asleep…or you’ve hit your head so many times you finally knocked yourself out)!
6. You call everything in a sippy cup juice. No matter that I hand you milk every morning saying, “mmm…iii…lk”. You reply with a smile, “JEW”. This has only embarassed me once. We were sitting in the dr’s office and I forgot your cup in the car. You just got louder and louder, “jew, mama, jew”. Glad we were not in Dr. Filstein’s office!
7. You prefer walking around on your toes to using the bottoms of your feet. Maybe I have taken you to too many of Sissy’s ballet classes.
8. When you are awake, there are some doors in the house that MUST remain shut. One is the pantry. You have no problem helping yourself to snacks before dinner, pulling 64 oz containers of juice onto the floor, or rearranging all the canned goods. The others are the doors to the bathrooms. You think playing in toilet water is great fun, especially when you add toys and BOXES, yes the entire box, of Kleenex’s. This not only makes a big mess but it’s also rather disgusting since your sister rarely remembers to flush!
9. You absolutely LOVE to color! You want to get out the crayons and paper every day…3 and 4 times a day. I’ve had to keep a closer watch on you ever since the two graffiti incidents, but even so, just today I found a crayon in the dryer. (Things that make me go hmmmm).
10. When Savannah wants to play together, you scream and cry to be left alone. But every 5 minutes while she’s at school you ask me, “Sissy go?”
11. Your very best friends are the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh sleep with you in the crib and when you wake up, I can hear you talking to them or singing the classic “Eee, Eee, Oooh” (a.k.a. “Winnie the Pooh”). Once you become fully awake, they get tossed to the floor with a simple “bye, bye”, followed by “MAMA!” And that’s my cue that I am on duty once again.
12. I’ve been trying to teach you to count to three. Anytime I can fit it into an activity, I’ll give the sequence “1..2..3.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say the “one” and sometimes you say the “three”, but the funniest of all is when Savannah or I are laying on the floor and we’ll hear an excited “doooo”, then WHAM, suddenly there is a little boy on top of us! That is the only warning we get. Not 1,2,3…divebomb. Just “doooo”, then we are attacked!
13. Someday I would like to ask you why you will carry my cordless phone all over the house jabbering nonstop to nobody, but the minute I put it up to your ear with an actual talking person on the other end, you completely freeze up.
14. You still suck your thumb and cuddle your favorite blanket when you are sleepy. It doesn’t bother me one bit. As a matter of fact, there isn’t much in this world that makes me happier than when you crawl into my lap, blankie in hand and thumb in mouth. I could snuggle you like that for hours!
15. We are increasingly impressed with your throwing abilities. At first we thought it was just us, because we are your parents and all, but other have noticed it too. And the surprised reactions are always fun to watch. You’ll take someone a ball and they are thinking, “oh, how cute…sure Emery, I’ll play catch with you”. Then you totally whip it right at them. The look on their face is priceless and the response is always the same, “whoa, that’s quite an arm he’s got!” Hold tight Mark Richt, we gotcha a QB in the making!
16. There isn’t anything that you eat that doesn’t get smeared into your hair. It’s like having your very own towel right on top of your head. Handy for you. Not so much for me!
17. You have become more independent in the last few months and have been known to venture off by yourself up to your room or even to the basement. Sometimes I feel a little saddend by this, but the next thing I know you come running back to me shouting, “Mama, meere” (translation: “come here”). Turns out there is a book to read for you, a movie to start, or a toy out of reach. And I’m glad to help.
18. The announcement “Bath time!” makes you spin happily in circles until it’s safe to get in. If I’m not careful and I walk down the hall for a minute you inevitably climb into the tub fully clothes while the water is still running. You love it so much that even when your skin is pruney, the water is cold, and your lips are turning purple, you will scream and cry when it’s time to get out.
19. You have mastered the art of “cuteness”. Chris refers to this as a toddler survival mechanism. So far, it seems to be working for you.
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