Boys Boys Boys

The little guy is a full five fingers big. He made his birthday-loving Grammy so happy with his excitement about his birthday month, week, minutes, milliseconds. SO excited. He's a little ball of joy, that one. And while he is akin to a puppy in so many ways (poor judgment around playing ball in the house, a strongly held belief that shoes are good for anything other than wearing, a need to run run run), he's also clearly (I hope) a little boy who makes the world brighter by just being in it. Jack is so stinking charming (I believe you can find that fact on Wikipedia) and has a heart bigger than the sun. His preschool is mixed age and he loves the littler kids in his class; he takes his role of ambassador very seriously. He is as happy to play with a two year old (especially if they're cute little twins two doors down from us) as he is to play with a nine year old. And while he should probably hire a social secretary, he's also fairly content to bum around with me or by himself. We have the afternoons to ourselves and he's still my little book snuggler so we spend a lot of time at the library, wandering the stacks, browsing books... he's rarely (or NEVER) in a rush. My little man would prefer that sustenance came entirely from wheat, peanuts, and cow milk -- rarely does anything of the flesh pass muster, though he does consent to fruits and vegetables if he must (which he must).

In the past year, he's learned to ride his two-wheeler, is starting to sound out words, learned to control the TV better than me, still loves hockey, baseball, and soccer. He likes jokes (the punchlines are often still ambiguous), puzzles, and competing with Molly to be the slowest person to get out the door in the morning. Trains have largely given way to Hotwheels, he thinks he's a Wild Kratt many days, and Rescue Bots are ah-maz-ing, in his opinion. He and his buddy Will play fight in the most destructive and unfun looking way imaginable but they are such happy little puppies, er, boys who are entirely in sync with their kicking/shoving/chasing/grabbing/tackling games... until one of them gets kicked in the eye. Speaking of which, he's the kid with four thousand bruises at any given moment. He whacks his head, kicks himself in the face, and bangs his elbow with alarming regularity. He can fall down standing in one place but he's remarkably coordinated on the field or in the net.

My boy is determined in that typically unshowoff-y manner of a second born. He's cautious but confident. I hope there is never a day that he loses his charm, his wit, his kindness, his brains. He's smiley, happy, genial and still, thankfully, my sweet, sweet boy.


Weight: 46 lbs
Height: 43 inches
1. What is your favorite color? Light Blue Blue and Yellow 
2. What is your favorite toy? Rescue Bots Thomas
3. What is your favorite fruit? Banana Pineapple 
4. What is your favorite TV show? Rescue Bots and Wild Kratts Thomas and Wild Kratts
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Bagel with cream cheese Peanut butter and jelly
6. What is your favorite outfit? Batman costume Striped Thomas shirt and cozy pants 
7. What is your favorite game?  Cat in the Hat Thomas chugging on the rails 
8. What is your favorite snack?  Fruit leather Chocolate granola bar 
9. What is your favorite animal?  Guinea Pigs Monkey 
10. What is your favorite song? Lego Movie song Chuggington 
11. What is your favorite book?  Bats at the Library Superhero books 
12. Who is your best friend? Jackson, Josh, Sam, Will Theo and Levi 
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Strawberry Cheerios Strawberry Cheerios 
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play Wild Kratts Play hockey 
15. What is your favorite drink?  Orange juice Milk 
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas Thomas holiday... 
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Spider Man stufy Horton 
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal Bagels 
19. What would you like to have for a special birthday dinner? Pizza Pizza 
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Spiderman A real hockey player 
BONUS QUESTION: What is one wish you have for the year? I hope Molly's birthday comes this year See Joshua

Big, Bigger, Biggest

The posts get fewer and further between because the milestones don't come with the rapid fire frequency that they used to. But still, teeth are lost and Lego masterpieces are built and homework is finished off so it's not like cool stuff isn't achieved -- it is just at this different rate. The day to day isn't as remarkable except when you step back and look at the depth and breadth of all that we do in the aggregate. We bounce through our daily lives with normal English being spoken instead of the cute little gobbedly gook of toddlers so we don't spend as much time deciphering or trying to figure out what a frustrated little person is trying to get across, exactly (though let's not pretend that we don't have tantrums any more). I love the gobbedly gook... and I love understanding 90% of a conversation. It's all such good stuff.

We looked back at old pictures and videos tonight and it made me miss some of those little people-isms and the funny antics. It also made me so happy with the amount of sleep I get these days... I loved being with babies and toddlers but I also love our big people and all the cool stuff we get to do now that our babies aren't, well, babies. Lucky for me, I get to rent out friends' babies and toddlers so I still get drooled on, and get ridiculously excited when I three words are strung together. I'll never get tired of all those antics. But I also won't get tired of Lego masterpieces and the whatever comes next. Here's to stages and ages!