Thirty-Five

Tadpole,

You are thirty-five months old. On some days, I feel I have aged thirty-five years since you were born. On other days though, you have me feeling like I am five.

These days, you are busy. You are into everything, testing your boundaries, and simply on the go. Like me, you like to process things. Sometimes, you'll mention an event that happened weeks prior and it takes me a minute to catch up with your thoughts. Daddy and I remain impressed by your memory and ability to synthesize things from the various aspects of your life. It is really cool to witness your mind at work.

Right now, your favorite toys seem to be your legos and hot wheels. You and your brother never fail to dump them both out all over the floor each time you enter the living room. You seem to like the noise you make when the toys spill onto the floor and are entertained by the look of despair that washes over my face (or that of your Daddy) as we inevitably just cleaned up before you dump everything. You continue to love to sing and dance. You received a special treat this month when your Uncle D came to town just to see you. You and he bonded over your love of the guitar and you taught him to sing Tim Noah's Country Store. He also spend a lot of time on the floor making lego creations with you, too.

When not playing, singing, and dancing, one of your favorite past times remains reading. You love to bring a book, force your way into my lap, and demand that I read. While not always the most opportune time, I love that you do this. We simply do not read as much as we likely should. Your taste in books is variable these days. While you love the classics like Little Blue Truck, your taste has expanded, too. You like to try new books in your library as often as possible. You even like it when we read longer stories without pictures sometimes.

We continue to practice your ABCs and numbers. You're awesome at your reciting your ABCs, can typically identify all of your letters, and even associate some letters with particular words. On occasion, you'll even stop to spell a word. Yesterday, you ran up to me and exclaimed, "Mama! Z-O-O spells zoo!". Your counting is pretty good, too. You're able to count to 29 consistently without issue. After 29, however, sometimes you'll go to 30 and at other times, you say, "20-10, 20-11, 20-12...". There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. You're starting to understand the concept of adding, too. You understand, for example, that if you have two cookies and add two more then you have four. Similarly, you know that if we've already passed two school buses on the way to school and then another one drives by, that makes three. Again, it is cool to witness.

Your current obsession is your social calendar, including the planning of your birthday party. You and your brother will have a joint race car/cookies and milk party this year. It will occur at the community center just like last year. You are super excited about it. Similarly, you are also excited about bringing treats to your friends on your actual birthday, too. You change your mind almost daily regarding the type of treat you would like to bring. Today, you think you would like to bring Rice Krispy Treats. We'll see. You're also insistent that a birthday crown is an essential accessory in any birthday boy's outfit. In fact, you think everyone should likely wear a crown. Given my love for sparkly tiaras, I'm inclined to agree. It is with this is mind that I gave in and ordered your entire class shiny paper crowns. You're so excited to bring them to school. Outside of official party appearances, you remain social with neighbors, the Blockwatch crew, and the fam, especially PopPop, G, N, and Auntie K.

The only other great piece of exciting news has to do with potty training. While you've been a potty rock star for months, you just recently decided that going to the bathroom is a lot of work. This is likely due to the fact that you INSIST on getting naked from the waist down (including shoes and socks, thank you very much) each time you go. With that, you decided that you would like to stand when you go potty rather than sit. Once you realized you are tall enough to do so, your world changed. You simply beamed with pride the first time you did (so did your Daddy). In fact, you were so proud that you insisted on calling your grandfather and announcing your accomplishment to him. His response, "Oh, so you're a pointer rather than a squatter. Congratulations!'.

It looks like others are impressed with you as much as Daddy and I are. We love you, little buddy!

Love,
Mama