Faves of the Month

So instead of giving a full blown monthly update like I've done the past 24 months, I decided I'd just list a few of Alex's favorite things from the past month (...and some of our favorite things about Alex from the past month, because I just can't help myself).

Favorite phrases:

-"Come on, Mom!" (usually while pulling my hand in the direction he wants me to go)
-"Wake up, Daddy!" (in the mornings after Tim has worked late and I tell A to go get Daddy for breakfast)
-"Oh Maaan!" (aka "Oh May-in!")
-"NO, Murshy, NO NO!" (along with vigorous finger-wagging)
-"I'm maaad!" (said in a low, gruff voice and accompanied by the evil eye)
-"This way!" (answer to the question, "where are you going?" or "where are we going?" - the latter also involves hand-pulling)
-"Right here!" or "right there!" (the answer to just about any question, accompanied by emphatic pointing to said person or object)

Favorite books:
All Aboard (a book about trains)
The Little Engine That Could (another book about trains)
Friends & Heroes (no trains - it's a look & find book featuring Pixar characters)

Favorite movie: Finding Nemo

Favorite TV show: So You Think You Can Dance (seriously, we haven't watched any children's programming in days - he keeps begging for "mo' dance")

Favorite song: I'm Yours by Jason Mraz (aka the "Doo-doo-doo" song)

Favorite food(s): pancakes and butter, separately or together

Our favorite things about Alex:

When we finish blessing our food at mealtimes, he always says "Amen" and gives God two thumbs up.

When he smells/sees anything gross/messy/stinky/ugly he yells, "Stinky! P.U.! Yucky!!!", always in that order, always with accompanying nose scrunch and wafting hand gesture.

If we are out in public and someone makes a sound that resembles sneezing in any way (a cough, a throat clearing, a belch - all fair game), he will yell "bless you!" and continue to yell it, getting progressively louder each time, until the person who performed the bodily function acknowledges his blessing with a "thank you".

When he is playing quietly in his toyroom, and I sneak a peek to find him studying the plans to his train set, trying to reassemble the track that he has pulled apart for the umpteenth time because it is now more fun to break the track and try to fix it than to just play with it.

How, whenever anyone is looking for anything, he wanders around the house going, "are you??" as in "where are you?". This includes people or things. Like if I say, "I can't find my shoes", Alex will immediately walk around the house going, "Shoooeees, are yoouuuuuu???" until we find them.

Whenever we leave the house, he makes sure to say "bye" to everything he passes on his way out - toys, the TV, Murphy...As we were on our way out the other day, we passed a Playdoh stamp with the letter O on it, and he spent the next two minutes waving to the stamp and saying, "Bye, O!! Bye!! Bye-bye, O! Bye!!", and tonight, he bid adieu to his milk when he finished drinking it. "Bye, milk! Bye-bye! Bye-bye, milk!"

How he leads me around by the hand when he wants me to go somewhere.

The way he points to himself when he says his name, just in case we still don't know who he is talking about.

When he yells, "I funny!" and starts fake laughing at himself just to prove his point.

How he always asks, "Hear that?" and cups his ear whenever a truck drives by or a plane flies overhead or a neighborhood dog barks...

The way he gets so excited about EVERYTHING, like he is so happy that he could explode, but instead of exploding, he screams like a banshee and runs around the house like a hyperactive chicken with its head cut off.

How he always wants to help me, whether changing the laundry or handing me dishes to put away or putting things in the basket at the grocery store. He'll say, "Alex help" and then point to himself (again, to make sure there is no confusion about who will be helping).

When we are out and he hears another kid crying, he will do one of two things, depending on his mood. He will either shout, "baby!"(which is sort of embarrassing when the "baby" he's referring to is older than he is) or he will pretend to look sad and cry and sniffle, as if to sympathize with the other kid's plight.

Out of the blue, he will start telling us a story about something random, like about what happens in that awful Thomas the Train movie that we haven't watched in months. He will get super excited and say something like this:

"Thomas! And Pinchy!! And bridge broke! High! And Pinchy fall! Down!! And pttcchhhh!! Water! And Pinchy fall! Pttcchhhhh! And..."

And he does it all with grand hand gestures and bending of the knees and an excited, out-of-breath voice.

Other notes:

He has bumped his head more times this month than in the rest of his life put together. Not from falling off of or out of things, but from running ninety-to-nothing, not looking where he's going, and running into a doorframe or a wall or bashing his head on a table top.

He has really started to use logic to figure things out, which is fascinating to watch. If we are looking at a book and there is a picture of something I know he doesn't know the word for, I can describe the thing to him, and he will point it out. For example, if he sees a picture of a lime and I ask him to point to the "lime", he can't point it out because he is not familiar with the word. If I say, "a lime is a green fruit" and then ask him to point out the lime, he can do it. It's pretty cool.

He loves to talk on the phone, to Grammy or B or his grandpas or whoever else happens to be on the line.

He also loves puzzles, which he used to call "puffles", but now pronounces correctly. He is really good at finding matching pieces and fitting them together.

He is really into numbers - he counts everything and likes to point out how many of something he has. He can count to eighteen or nineteen on his own (depending on his mood), although thirteen to fifteen go like this: "...twelve, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, sixteen..."

His behavior has been much more manageable this month, to the point where I'm starting to suspect he wasn't feeling well last month, teething or whatever, and that contributed to his frequent outburts. He's only been in time-out a few times lately, and while he does a lot more to test his boundaries (by flagrantly disobeying and whatnot), his meltdowns are few and far between...but they still happen from time to time. For example, here is what happened when Mom poured his milk in the wrong cup:

And here is what happened when he wanted me to stand in the kitchen and eat my lunch instead of sitting at the table with him:

But honestly, those might have been the only two times that he's really freaked out this month, and I happened to catch them both on film (which Alex just loved, by the way). He is SO much fun and so energetic - people who are around him for more than a few minutes usually describe him as "busy".

And to keep his busy-ness from making me bonkers, I do what I can to help him burn off some steam. We've done a lot of fun things this month, including Alex's Last Day of Summer School party, birthday parties, playdates, fun times at home with the sprinkler, making art, and playing in the toyroom.

It's been a good, busy month, but I am more than ready for A to head back to school the first of September. I just can't match a two year old's energy level - at least not all day every day. Can anyone? If so, I'd love to know your secret...as long as the secret doesn't involve going to bed early and eating well and exercising...



btw, don't you love how I prefaced this post with something about not wanting to do a "full blown update" like I usually do, and this post is longer than any monthly one I've written? Being succinct is overrated.