Gualby Nation : Lil Dos

Elwood Wakon: You are our greatest love. Your Dad and I love you more than we could have ever known our hearts could love. We are so proud of you and the little boy you are turning into. These past two years have been the most amazing, rewarding, hysterical, exhausting, most love and laughter filled years of my life. I have learned and grown so much as a person having you as my teacher. You are my teacher in the most obvious ways of learning; to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures that life is offering all around me but I am too preoccupied to see them. Instead of hurrying you along to get into the car, you have taught me to slow down. Publix will still be open in ten minutes but this butterfly and family of lizards are fleeting and amazing and should be acknowledged. Thank you, my little love. I'm not sure if we need to examine every single rock, lizard, flower, piece of mulch and blade of grass from our front door to the car as if it is the first time you have ever seen them, every time we walk to the car, . . . but slowing down and enjoying life is something that you remind me of everyday. You have also been my teacher in a less obvious way, I have seen myself change and grow these past two years because I am trying to be the Mother I want to be, the Mother you so deserve, the Mother that you will look back on when you are old and say simply and without a doubt, My Mom was so fun, and patient, and loving. That's it, not anything spectacularly amazing, just patient, loving, fun.

You love to be outside. I usually give you an option for lunch and you think about it, say yes to which option you want and then immediately say "outside? eat outside?" We eat lunch outside almost everyday. You always invite the dogs to come with us. If they don't come running you use your loud voice and call for them, "Peennnnneee! Buuubbeee! Come here!" You like to be naked. When I try to put a shirt on you, you respond with "NO shirt! No shirt!" When I finally wrestle it on you while explaining that you need to wear a shirt to storytime at the library you respond with "Shirt off! Shirt off!" It's an awesome dance we do almost daily. You love Penny and Bubby. You show them your toys and read your books to them. You get all excited when they wrestle each other and you announce that is what they are doing. You try to put yourself in the middle of it, wanting desperately for them to want to wrestle you. You love to jump, run, and climb on everything. If I want you to go somewhere, you will usually comply if I ask you to jump or run there instead of just walk. You are social, you love being around other kids. You give hugs and kisses easily, sometimes your hugs can turn into wrestle moves but that mostly happens when you are really excited. You have been talking so much lately and it cracks us up. You are smart and thoughtful, you have been paying attention to your chatterbox Mama for two years now and you say words all the time that I had no idea you knew. You have started linking 5 and 6 words together and we are constantly amused by what comes out of your mouth! You also narrate our lives, I know how much time I have before Conor comes out of the bedroom for work because I hear your little voice, "Socks on, underwear on, shirt on, pants on," You like cars, trucks, boats, balls, and babies (real and pretend). You go to this "Mommy's Day Out" two days a week at a local church where you get to play with a bunch of toys and other kids your age. You love "Church Play" and I am so proud of you as you give me a kiss Good Bye and then confidently walk into the play area. When I pick you up I try so hard to get info out of you, and I usually get some variation of: "Play with babies. Play bus. Play police car, loud noises (then a pretty accurate siren sound) Play with friends. Snack time. Goldfish. Movie. Mickey Mouse. Friends. Miss Rita"

You are an okay sleeper. Some nights you sleep all night but most nights you still wake, somewhere between 3am and 5am, and call out for me. I come to your room, pick you up, you snuggle right into me, point your finger to my room and say, "This way, Mommy. This way. Daddy's bed." I bring you into our room where Dad has made a little spot for you and you snuggle right in between us. You are still a fantastic snuggler and your Dad and I love our little snuggle bug waking up with us in the morning. You are interested in being potty trained which I am excited about. You resist most diaper changes with the fury of 10,000 baby ninjas so you being potty trained sounds wonderful. If we keep you naked (as you prefer) you almost always make it to the bathroom for #1's, #2's. . . not as often. You are interested so we are rolling with it. You have TMNT and Superman underpants that you love and you look ridiculously adorable in.

You have a best buddy, Lochlan. He lives a few blocks away and sometimes you go there and other times you play at our house. You guys play great together, and you talk about him at home and ask to go to his house. You love your cousins. You talk about Annie, Maren, and Baby Ama all the time. Whenever your toys are going anywhere it is usually to Annie and Maren's house or Lochey's house. You talk about Grammie, Pops, Oma and Jopa as well. You are pretty good at sharing your toys, not great but ok. You are good at "taking turns" and "trading."

You are getting to be a bit of a pickier eater but I am staying firm on the "two bites of broccoli, two bites of this and that, and then fruit." You are crazy for fruit, you would be crazy for cookies, candy, and ice cream if those were options for desserts but they are not. (They are available for special occasions and long car rides so you know they exist and ask for them at times but you seem pretty happy and excited for fruit dessert as for now). You newly love Mango and I think I would say it is your favorite food. You also love spagettis, cereal with milk, cheese, yogurt, pretzels, smoothies, and rice and beans. If we let you choose your food you would eat fruit and cheese all day long. (Finally I am showing through!!)

You are silly and fun and snuggly and loving. You give hugs and kisses and love to dance. You request "Music please, music Mom. Woody dance, Mommy dance." And then we break.it.down. We have matching dance moves where we do fist pumps into the air, alternate legs up, lean forward throw your head around, and of course, La Cucaracha, where we lay on the floor and kick our arms and legs wildly around. We think we are hysterical.

When you "count down" its always, "One! Two! Six! Go!" It's too funny to correct for now, I'm sure you will learn at some point that there are a few more numbers between two and six. You know all your colors and most of your shapes. Oddly, your favorite shape and the one you said and recognized first was octagon. You couldn't point out a triangle or circle but I'll be damned if we biked past a stop sign without you announcing, "Octagon! Red!"

Our bedtime routine is my favorite part of the day. You love your bath, you think teeth brushing is okay but you love the toothpaste. After we finish brushing your teeth, your little naked bum runs out of the bathroom and I hear you say, "Play Dad. Dad! I'm Coming! Play Dad! Wrestle! Wrestle Dad!" You and Dad do baby tosses on the bed, "tacos" in the bean bag or just general wrestle moves. Then, pjs, a kiss and hug for Dad and then me and you snuggle up in the chair in your room for books and songs. You are so sweet, we hold hands and you gently rub my arm as we read. Then we turn the lights off and rock and sing. Lately, when I try to put you down you sleepily say, "One more song, that's it. In chair." I always sit back down and I whisper, "One more song and then its time to go to bed." And we snuggle and I sing slow and repeat verses, just soaking my little boy in. Then you let me put you in your crib and you roll over and fall sleep. It is so different than the nights of struggling for two hours to get you to sleep for one hour. Bedtime is peaceful and wonderful and I look forward to our special moments of whispering sweet songs in the dark while we hold hands. Woody, we are so proud of the little person you are. You are independent, loving, silly, adventurous but not reckless, brave, curious, smart and fun. I couldn't feel more privileged or happier to be able to hang out with you everyday.

We hit our neighborhood Zoo for your birthday and it was surprisingly fantastic. Most of the animals live in healthy, natural looking environments and look well taken care of. Feeding the giraffes was the highlight of the day. They are so gentle and majestic looking with those long eyelashes! You still talk about "Feed Giraffe carrot!"