two years, three months, one week

Dearest Zachary,

It's been another week of solid sleep, pleasant mood, great eating, and hilarious conversation.

Of course, there has been your usual occasional defiance. "I don't like it" and "I don't want to" are often heard coming out of your mouth.

You've been naked a lot more recently because when I try to get you dressed in the morning for school or at night for bed, you usually assert yourself saying, "I don't want to wear that! I need to pick one!" And then you proceed to empty the contents of your drawers. Eventually, however, you do end up "picking out" the same pajamas mommy and daddy already laid out for you.

It's important for me, and for anyone else who cares for you, to understand that when you say, "I don't want to", you really mean "I don't want to do it right now. If you give me a few minutes, or some incentive, or some reason I should do it and not you, than I am more than happy to oblige."

Last night the following conversation took place.

Me: (on my knees) Zachary, your sweatshirt is dirty. Please take it off and put it in the hamper.
You: I don't want to. Mommy do it.
Me: Mommy will help you take it off, but then you need to put it in the hamper.
You: I don't want to. Mommy put it in the hamper.
Me: But Zachary, it's not Mommy's sweatshirt. Please go put Zachary's sweatshirt in the hamper.
You: It's MY sweatshirt. (And then you ran to put it in the hamper)
You: I did it! (With a big smile on your face as if it was your idea to put it in the hamper in the first place).

I keep being reminded of that scene from My Big, Fat Greek Wedding where Tula's mother and aunt are trying to convince her father to let her go work at her aunt's travel agency. In that scene, the women plan to have the father think he came up with the idea on his own. And in the end, he does think the plan is his, and the women praise him for it.

Sound familiar?

I love you, even though it takes you 10 minutes to put on your shoes.

Love,
Mommy

"thank you for dinner, tata"

We have dinner with Tata and Baba every Friday night. And after dinner, Tata drives us home.

Tonight, as we were pulling up in front of our building, you said, "Bye-bye Tata. Thank you for dinner. It was very very yummy!"

You are just absolutely delicious.

two years, three months

Dear Zac,

I am so happy to have last week behind us. You are back to your usual happy, energetic, cooperative, well-rested, and secure self. You say "good night mommy. see you in the morning." in your sing-songy little voice and you go to sleep. You sleep through the night and wake up a reasonable hour, happy. You let mommy go to the bathroom. You let mommy make dinner. You let mommy walk out of the room. And you don't come screaming and running after me. I am really so very happy that last week is over.

And I still have no idea what was actually wrong.

However, this week, mommy and daddy (and tata) have noticed another tremendous leap in your verbal skills. You are engaging in complete conversations, you respond to questions, you are using dozens of adjectives, you talk about the future.

Today, you and Tata were talking about your cousins. You listed them all nicely, and then Tata asked about the baby in Micki's belly. She told you that the baby was going to come out soon and asked what you are going to do when you see the baby. "I give the baby kiss!"

Tonight, after your bath, as we were putting on your 'jamas, I notice that we are running out of diapers. I said "Zachary, we only have a few diapers left. What are you going to do when we don't have any left?" You thought for a moment and then responded "I wear underpants!" I followed-up with "Then where will the pee-pee go?" You said "I go pee-pee in the toilet!"

I like to believe that you know what you are saying, and that in a couple of weeks, we can start to save money on diapers. And spend more on laundry.

Happy 27 months, my big boy.

Love,
Mommy

two years, two months, three weeks

So Zac,

Remember how last week I was all grateful for how you can tell me about your day and I don't feel so left out of you life?

Well, this week, you switched thing up a bit.

I'm not sure if what you are going through right now is a stomach bug, teething or sleep regression. OR, something serious. There's a stomach thing going around the world right now, but you're not puking (just pooping in the bath tub). Your top last molars have cut through, but are still making their way down. Sleep regression around 2 years old isn't uncommon. So, all of those are plausible explanations for your constant clinginess, especially when you should be asleep. Say, at 4:30 in the morning.

If you could only just say, "Hey mommy, ya know, these molars are really hurting! Please apply some teething gel?" or, "Mommy, my tummy hurts. Can you please just rub my back while I try to fall asleep?" Or, "I'm experiencing another bout of separation anxiety and really just need to make sure you're still home in the middle of the night."  Any of those would be really great to hear right about now.

Of course, as I write this letter, you are quiet in your crib. You are not screaming my name as you have been for the past 4 nights. You did not beg me to stay in your room after good night kisses. You actually sound like you might fall asleep in the next few breaths. Certainly before I publish this blog.

Yup, you're asleep.

Mommy now sounds like a big, fat liar.

Well, I'm grateful that whatever it is that's been causing you so much distress to the point of interfering with your appetite and your mood and your sleep these past few days is resolving itself.

Sleep well, little monkey. I'll see you in the morning.

Love,
Mommy

"i'm a monkey!"

"You are my sunshine" is one of mommy's favorite kids' songs. 

I'm not so sure how much I like your new version, "you are my monkey", but it is pretty cute to hear you slur, half asleep, "so please don't take my monkey away...".

two years, two months, two weeks

Dear Zac,


You and I spend a lot of time apart. I go to work 6 days a week. 5 of those days you go to school and one day you are home with daddy. A babysitter picks you up from school once or twice a week, daddy picks you up on Tuesdays, Tata's picks you up on Wednesdays and sometimes I am able to pick you up on Thursdays or Friday. While you love going to school every day, and often ask to go to school on the weekends or holidays, it breaks my heart to have to say good-bye to you every day. I have an especially hard time on Tuesday mornings when I leave you and daddy on the corner and I go to work, for 13 hours, and don't get home until you are already asleep. On those days, you and I see each other on Skype for a few minutes when I am between classes.

Although you have so much fun at school, I think you do miss spending time with me. Tonight, you had a hard time settling down for bed. Almost immediately after I walked in the door at 6, you were a wild little boy. You insisted I give you your bath and, when it was time to say good night, you cried and cried until I came and sat next you and rubbed your back. We talked for 10 minutes about your day and about what you will do tomorrow. I promised you I would pick you up from school and we would have the afternoon together (now I just have to get out of that faculty meeting!). I'm looking forward to trains and tunnels and bridges and play-doh and cars and books and dancing and songs and snacks and anything else you want to do.

I promise to do what needs to be done in order for me to able to spend more time with you. I'm working on it.

I am so happy you are so verbal. At only 26.5 months you talk about everything and everyone. I love that you can tell me about your days. What you did at school, who your friends are, what you ate, what you saw.  Since I can't be there to experience all you do with you, I am grateful that you can and do tell me all about your little life.

I hope you will always, even 30 years from now, want to tell me about your day.

I love you,
Mommy

two years, two months, one week

Dear Zac,

This week I've noticed a huge leap in your cognitive and social development. Specifically in you're ability to distinguish between what "listening" and "not listening" is.

Since you turned 2 you have been becoming more and more defiant. And, you seem to be aware of your defiance.

On Tuesday morning you woke up extra early. (5:30! I think because your last molar finally cut through.) You were a chatterbox from the start. You insisted on wearing your oveeyalls to school and when I finally had you dressed and ready to put your shoes and jacket on, you insisted on sitting (and doing nothing, mind you) on the toilet. You sat for about 8 seconds (maybe less) and jumped, bottomless, into my lap stating you were "all done" and "need to flush the toilet together". I started to get your diaper and overalls back on and you were wiggling all over the place. I reminded you that we needed to get to school. You looked up at me and said "Mommy, I'm not listening."

Daddy took you on a special trip after school yesterday. You were very excited to tell me all about it. "I went to museum. I went on subway. I saw lions and gorillas and giraffes and buffalo! I ate snack in stroller. I listen to Daddy."

When you talk about school, you often add "I need to listen to Trudi" or "I was listening. I did it myself."

I'm glad you are aware when other people are speaking to you. This is such an important thing to know how to do. I am proud of you when you listen and I hope you will learn to enjoy listening to others and one day find value in what other people have to say.



I love you so much,
Mommy

"you see that?"

I love how you are beginning to imitate what you see at school. Especially when you read to mommy and daddy. Just like your teachers do at school, you turn the book around to show us the pictures as you "read". It's particularly adorable when you are reading by yourself and you run to us in another room to show us the pictures, and ask, "you see that? you see that picture?"

Never mind it's a book we've read with you about a hundred times and we know the pictures...

May you always have this much excitement about reading.

two years, two months

Dear Zac,

You are growing so fast, I'm having a hard time keeping up. I thought that in this week's letter I would write out where you are in your development. I know you can do a whole lot more that just what's on this list, but I wanted to get at least some of this written down before you learn a whole new set of skills and I forget what you were doing at 26 months.

You are now able to:

-open doors "secured" with heavy magnets, cupboards in the kitchen, and, to your greatest pleasure, the refrigerator.

-undress yourself completely. Asking you if you want "naked time" is great motivation for getting you out of your booster and ready for your bath.

-put on and take off and put away your shoes by the front door. Your shoes are always beautifully aligned at the front door. Usually blocking the front door.

-put on and take off your jacket and hat.

-feed yourself a cup of apple sauce at a ridiculously fast pace (think more "inhaling" versus "eating") and you only drip one or two drops. It's pretty cute watching you scrape the sides of the cup to get every. last. drop.

-recite about 15 (maybe more) books, singing about 20 songs, independently and in their entirety.

-ask what things are. And then tell me I'm wrong and laugh. (Apparently the hamper is not a hamper. It's a frog.)

-tell me when you're tired, hungry, in pain

-demand sympathy. The other day you were crying about something and you KNEW if wasn't a big deal. You came over to me and said "I'm cryyyyiiiiing!" A few minutes later something else was bothering you and came back to me "I'm crying AGAIN, mommy!"


I'm very much looking forward to seeing what next week holds.

I love you so much pumpkin.

Love,
Mommy

"what's that smell?"

Today, as we were playing with your magnetic drawing board, you asked me to write down several words.

"What's that smell?" you asked.

I was very confused. Was there something in your diaper??


SPell, Zac. You meant to say "sPell".


This reminded me of the time when you were about 11 months old and you pointed to the dryer and said "PISS!"

It took mommy and daddy several moments to figure out you were trying to say "spin!"

Thanks for the laughs, pumpkin.