Twenty-five

Tadpole,

You are now twenty-five months old. You are full of spunk, curiosity, and determination. To say that you keep us busy would be a gross understatement.

You are really starting to enjoy being a big brother. You are frustrated when little brother is not around and inquire regarding his needs and preferences on a regular basis. You show him affection via hugs and kisses and keep him in line by telling us all when we set him down too close to your stuff. You have even started asking him if he would like to play with you. Now that he knows how to smile, he typically laughs in response, which pleases you a great deal.

This month was a busy one. You learned about dinosaurs and transportation at school. The lessons fueled your love of motorcycles and piqued your interest in trains. While you are still relatively sheltered in that you do not really know who 'Thomas and his friends' are, you like to discuss locomotives and cabooses. You love going to school each day and playing with your friends. You enjoy art time, circle time, and getting to play outside. The structure is good for you and you seem to thrive on it.

You received a BBQ for your birthday last month. When you are at home, you spend most of your time preparing meals at your BBQ (corn and snake -- at least that is what you say, but you actually mean 'steak'). You also like to play at -- not in-- your pool. You are quite content loading Tupperware full of water and dumping them out repeatedly. When we are not outside playing, you prefer to spend most indoor time playing legos or cars. You have a medical kit, too, and make a mighty fine doctor. Much to my disappointment, we have not read as much as normal this month. This is likely due to the combined circumstances of being outside a lot and your brother's demand for attention at all other times. Despite a decline in the amount of time spent reading, we do sing A LOT. Thank goodness for YouTube!! I had to look up two songs this week so I could sing them with you. They were: Mr. Sun, Mr. Golden Sun and Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light. I do not know how parents dealt with the ramifications of circle time in the 80s. Thank you, Internet!

Last weekend, I took you to your friend H's second birthday party. It was at the Little Gym. This was your first real social engagement -- you received a formal invitation and everything. In general, you had a really great time. I made the error of bringing your little brother with us, as Daddy had to sleep that afternoon. I failed to realized how interactive I would need to be while you plated. Luckily, you have some friends with really nice mothers who are gracious and helped us out as you explored the gym. In the party room, each child was offered grape or apple juice. You do not typically drink a whole lot of juice. Thus, you just stared at the woman offering you a drink. You eventually had apple juice. When you sat at the table, you were thrilled to find that you got to use plastic utensils. In fact, you yelled, "Look, Mama! I got a knife!" You spend most of the time cutting, rather than eating, your cake. I was thrilled.

You are so much like me in many ways -- you like to be silly, sing, and create mischief. You are curious, determined, and incredibly funny. You are like your Daddy though in that you are so compassionate, LOVE to socialize and figure out how things work. If you had your way, you would like spend all of your time interacting with our neighbors (hello...blockwatch!) or tinkering around the house (this month, you're working on Daddy's shed). You, my dear sweet boy, are the perfect combination of us.

You bring us so much joy and pride and push us to be better people.

Love,
Mama