Robby has become such a joy to talk with. He is insightful, creative, and SUCH an instigator. He is very careful with his speech. He carefully considers each word before it comes out of his mouth, but his vocabulary is astounding. Frequently I wonder where something comes from, whether he's yelling, "We be jammin'" in the grocery store, or talking about gardening, or just is asking for the definition of absolutely everything. He IS making up tons of stories right now. Last week, I took him to the doctor and had to start with, "Well, he's 2 and 1/2. He SAYS that his neck, ear, and belly hurt, and he's dizzy. I only believe the ear." Also, if you say no, or tell him something he doesn't like, it's "Don't say "nope". Don't tell me that. I watch show. Daddy said I watch show." Someone else always has supposedly promised him something. I get in a little trouble, too, when he reprimands his father. For instance, "Christopher, you not listening. My tell Christopher to stop." That doesn't thrill Chris so much at the moment. He still says "my" for "I" about 90% of the time and skips some smaller words, but he does REALLY well. We get comments all the time on how smart and verbal he is.
He continues to look more and more like Jim. At Thanksgiving, my mom was saying, "It's so weird, he acts like Katy, but he looks like Jim." Certainly, he has more of Chris's build and face shape, but he looks a lot like my brother.
Music continues to be one of his primary loves. In particular, marching band music. He will lead everyone around the house playing different instruments, and insists that it is what we listen to in the car. He also still loves trucks and trains. He will tell you that daddy is an engineer, and that means that he draws the pictures to tell the construction workers what to do at the construction site. He also points out every retention basin and says, "Daddy built that!"
The animals continue to surprise us. They are so fantastically tolerant of him. He loves playing with them, but is still a bit rough. OK, a lot rough. But they have never been anything but angelic. He will tell you that Monster is my cat, Harper is his dog, and that Daddy has a duck (?). He also claims to see panda bears any time he is out with my mom.
Napping has become more of a battle. He isn't a big fan. He still will take 2-3 hour naps at daycare, but fights them at home. Though as we speak he's on his 2nd hour. Miracle! (and I'm cursing myself) At night, we finally broke the needing to come sleep in our bed, and then had a couple weeks of needing to sleep with the light on, but everything has settled down again. He sleeps pretty well from around 8/8:30pm until 6am. He has to have about 5 MILLION stuffed animals, and they have to be arranged properly, but that's ok. He comes up with a lot of excuses why he can't go to sleep, including that he's peed, though...spoiler...he's still in diapers. We need to switch to a twin bed, but he's still in a crib without a side for the moment.
Robby was SOOOO excited for Christmas. And I will try and do a Christmas post soon. He really understood, too. He was thrilled to see Santa and did twice. Once (above) he told him primarily about the motorcycle on his shirt, and the second time he announced, "My throw up on Mommy Daddy's bed." Nice, kid, nice. We did a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas, which was very effective from about 10 days out. He insisted he wanted a train most of the time, but also would tell you guns or a pink castle, just because we had flinched when he said it at some point, and he loved the reactions.
Cooking is still a big hit, and Chris is a little horrified that I let him do so much on his own. He measures, dumps, turns the mixer on, etc... We joke that he could probably keep the animals alive on his own. For example, he measures 2 cups of food into Harper's dish every meal, then puts 2 1/2 tsp of enzyme on it, adds water, and mixes. He's got it down.
Oh snow. He LOVES the stuff. He won't stay out forever, because he does get cold, but he REALLY REALLY REALLY loves it. There is much shrieking if it starts to snow. We started sledding at the park by our house this year, which has been a big hit. We haven't had good snow for making snowmen, though, so that hasn't happened yet.
Robby is incredibly helpful, but in his own way. The above picture was impressive and terrifying. I went to use the bathroom, and Robby decided to unload the dishwasher. He carefully put all the silverware into the drawer, except, knowing he wasn't supposed to play with them, he brought all the knives UPSTAIRS to me. Well, he kind of has the idea.
Other cute sayings:
- Memaw and Pop Pop live in "Apple Seed" (this is not correct)
- Right now I'm being told "I not want you finish it. You come down when you finish this?" Ok, I'll stop. :)
