Dear Callan: month 25

Dear Callan-

You are now in your second year and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep up with these monthly updates (not that they're ever on time now), but I rushed through your 2nd year (24 month) newsletter so I thought you deserved a proper one (in case this ends up being your last). What can I say... you are my little munchkin. You are two (well, now two + a month) and you are quite a handful. People ask how it is having a newborn again, and I have to say Nora's the easy one. She may be demanding, but her demands are easy -she cries when she's hungry, wants to be held, or wants to be left alone to sleep or when she needs a diaper change. There's no need to reason with her and there's no other way for her to communicate (and she sleeps a whole lot and isn't mobile so there isn't a lot of supervising that needs to be done at this stage).  You on the other hand are your own little person with your own ideas and desires and there's no reasoning with you either, but you sure as heck want to try. There are a lot of tears and foot stomping going on in our house right now and I know it's frustrating for you because you are mister independent and want to do EVERYTHING yourself and want everything done a certain way (i.e. your way). You had a complete meltdown the other night because I dared to pour you a cup of milk by myself and didn't let you help. Granted it was a full gallon of milk that I was pouring from, but you had a complete meltdown and screamed "Me do it. Pour milk" for at least 20 minutes. "Me do it" is your favorite phrase (or at least it seems like it is) right now.

You still seem to love your sister and whenever she's awake you let us know. Whenever she's lying on the ground playing, you always insist on lying down next to her too. It is awfully cute except we have to watch you because you sometimes have bad aim and end up lying down on top of her or resting your head on some body part of hers.

It's also like when you give her hugs. If we're not watching you carefully you sometimes smother her with your hugs and kisses and then you seem offended when she starts squawking in protest or starts to cry. 

I've started calling your sister muffin and it's super cute to hear you refer to her as muffin too. I mistakenly called her munchkin one day and you were quick to remind me that "me munchkin, Nora, muffin". Speaking also of nicknames, you've taken to calling daddy "Huge", which is both cute and disturbing. Whenever you want to get daddy's attention, you'll cup your hands around your mouth (which is really just you putting a hand on each cheek) and yelling "Huge". 

Some of your favorite things right now are your green car, 

bubbles,

and McDonald's. Not only for their delicious fries, ice cream and apple pie (or whatever other treat you get Adelia to give you)

but also because of the play space they have. At one of the McDonald's by our house there is this giant climbing structure, which I'm sure is a death trap (and full of germs -probably the underlying reason for your never ending runny nose these days). The first time I went with you there were a ton of kids (mostly older) running around and climbing. I was sure you were going to get trampled and I hesitated to let you go because it looked so big, but I knew you had gone with Adelia before and you really wanted to go climb. It was one of my first lessons in parenting and letting go. I had to trust you to go off and get through without me holding your hand or helping in any way. To be honest it was kind of nerve wracking for me, but you and I both did it and you had the time of your life. I was watching you while holding Nora with complete amazement because to me, you are still this small person, my baby and there you were scaling this giant structure with all the older kids, holding your own and coming out the other end a sweaty mess, but with a giant grin.

Seriously, look at this thing. That "tube" is made of mesh that you have to crawl through to get to the slide to go down. If a kid gets stuck in there or freaks out and blocks the way, there's no way and adult can get up there and intervene. And there's a hole in one spot and kids kept getting their foot stuck.

You really are a lot of fun. You are talking a lot more and are so interactive. Although along with this talking, you've decided to use "no" much more liberally than before. Even though know you don't mean it, it still breaks my heart a little bit every time you tell me "no kiss" or "no hug". I usually still end up with one, but I know the day will come (probably sooner than I expect) where you'll say that, but mean it.

You still love to dance, but now you've started to sing songs too. You have a fantastic memory and can tell us what's going on in a book or on a show. Speaking of which, we've let you start to watch a bit more tv (yes, I've turned into one of those moms that will throw on a show in the a.m. to get a few extra minutes of sleep or to take a shower knowing you're not inadvertently smothering your sister or pulling apart all your toys). We were watching a lot of Elmo/Sesame Street clips from You Tube, but you've now graduated to actual shows. Your current favorites are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Super Why, Caillou and Dinosaur Train. You also watched your first movie this month (Cars) and you loved it.

What else can I say about you? You're this fun, spunky, fiercely independent, but super sweet and loving 2 year old little boy. I'm always amazed when I catch you in these moments where I see you as this tall lanky little kid and not the chubby toddler you just were. You no longer call me mama (about 95% of the time now it's mommy) and you've almost lost your knuckle dimples -these are what I use to measure baby-hood and you're almost done with both. You'll always be MY baby, but I've come to realize you really aren't a baby anymore. 

Happy 25 months munchkin.

Love,

Mama

P.S. We had your 2 year well baby visit and you continue to be off the charts for height (38 inches) and about 60th percentile for weight (29 lbs).