Because I Don't Want to Forget

You refused to take a picture with the lobster, so Walnut will have to suffice.
Also, you used to be scared of this monster outfit, but now you suddenly like it.

Dear Zachary,

Before I had a kid, all I really knew about the under-five set was that you had to beware of the Terrible Twos. Of course, now that I'm more intimately acquainted with this population, I hear that the real problem is the Threenager. I don't know if that's just in addition to the Terrible Twos or if three is the new two, but let me just say that ever since you've turned two, you have been especially delightful. I can say I genuinely enjoy you and the time we spend together and I love hearing what you have to say now that your language has exploded!

I used to worry because you weren't talking much prior to two, and what you did say was mostly foods and animals, but I needn't have bothered. Other parents warned me that once you really started talking I would rue the day because you would never shut up, but I seriously can't get enough of your little voice and your little monologues. It's not any kind of month milestone, but I need to write all this cuteness down now before you turn into a threenager. Although maybe you'll pleasantly surprise me and be an amazing three year old too?

Of course, I'll still love you regardless of what kind of three year old you are,
Mommy


In no particular order, here's what I want to remember forever:

• You seriously love reading. Your daycare teacher said that she's never seen a kid get so absorbed in "reading" and looking at all the details in books. A couple weeks ago she told me you were in the middle of reading a book when it was time to go outside, so you tucked the book under your arm and brought it outside with you. Are you my child or are you my child? I used to do the same thing and it warms my heart to think of you loving books so much. Even the church nursery workers, who only see you once a month because of the rotation schedule, comment on how much you love books. Today, you had your first real tantrum; you cried and yelled for thirty minutes because you really wanted to go to the library but it was closed. 
• When you have independent play time, your favorite activities are reading animal books, playing with your animals and feeding them toy food, or playing with your Duplos. I heartily approve of all of these pasttimes. Also because you get so absorbed, I can actually get work done now! On an average day, you'll spend at least an hour and half playing on your own in the morning before school and another hour reading and talking to yourself after school. On an amazing day, you'll spend up to four hours (spread out over the course of the day, of course) entertaining yourself. Your introvert mommy is so thankful. 
• Your fascination with animals is incredible. Besides the typical two year old farm animals and African savannal animals, you can recognize and name all sorts of other, more exotic animals (a sampling: tapir, okapi, cows vs. bulls. vs. buffalo vs. bison vs. water buffalo, bowhead whales vs. beluga whales vs. killer whales vs. narwhals, horned frogs vs. tree frogs vs. poison dart frogs vs. bullfrogs vs. toads, octopus vs. cuttlefish vs. squid vs. jellyfish, clownfish vs. zebrafish vs. puffer fish vs. barracuda, "regular" leopard vs. snow leopard vs. cheetah vs. jaguar vs. ocelot, and so on). You delight in giving explanations about what these animals eat, where they live/originate, and how they are different from other animals ("The lion eats [sic] envelopes. [read: antelope]" "The bear eats fish. Also the penguin."  "That's a donkey. It's a fake horse." "That's a Siberian tiger. This is a Bengal tiger." "The cow udder makes milk. But not the bull.") You are so into animals, you can spot even the tiniest 3-mm picture of an animal as part of a logo (the tiny macaw on the Arnott's TimTams package, the tiny butterfly on the non-GMO symbol in the corner of the cereal box, the tiny cow next to the tiny barn on some dairy porduct). 
• Because of your love of herbivorous animals, it's easy to trick you into eating your vegetables. All you need is the reminder that cows, giraffes, and elephants love eating their greens, and you'll gobble it all up. Meat is still hard though, probably because you are disturbed by the notion of lions eating your beloved zebras or polar bears eating penguins. You still love sour things (re: lemons -- "It's sweet! I like it!" and your love for grapefruit, aka pamplemousse, is so powerful that you now like moose) and cold drinks ("I want some ice! It's spicy. But it tastes good!"), and you are now aware of the existence of chocolate, cookies, ice cream, and brownies. Thankfully, you are also pretty good about accepting boundaries around sweets and the coffee you see Mommy and Daddy drinking every morning ("That's for big people. It's not for little boys."). 
• It's really thanks to Costco that you know about sweet things. You've gotten so used to trying all the samples that when we see a sample stall, you get really excited and so I feel guilted into letting you try a bit of chocolate-covered almond or coconut cookie or juice. As a result, you love going to Costco. Also commonly requested for outings: Trader Joe's (because of all the cows on the dairy products), Target (because of the animals in the toy section, of course), "Chiffy" (aka Chick Fil A, because of the cows again), and the Inside Zoo (aka the California Academy of Sciences, because of all the guess what, animals). 
• Back when it was Christmastime, you loved hearing "Away in a Manger," "The Little Drummer Boy," and "The Friendly Beasts." Common thread? They all have animals/barns featured. You even wanted me to add more verses with more animals to that last song, so I had to figure out what a cat might have contributed to the birth of Jesus. I was, of course, reminded of the scene from Love Actually where it is revealed that there was more than one lobster present on Christmas night. We didn't have a real Nativity set, so we got creative with your pirates, barn, and assorted animal figurines. Your favorite Christmas book was (and still is) Who Is Coming to Our House? Because again, animals. 
• You really like the Hamilton soundtrack, but really only three of the themes: the King George songs (cue clapping and yelling "OCEANS RISE!!!"), the Ten Duel Commandments (this song seriously taught you to count...and now we can almost sing it as a duet, with you singing all the number parts!), and Dear Theodosia (most recent lullaby request: "Mommy, sing the Dosia"). 
• You still love the toddler music videos on YouTube during teethbrushing, but not every song is created equal. Animals are generally preferred, but the Hickory Dickory Dock with the elephant crushing the clock made you very upset, Daniel Tiger is a favorite of course, but not the theme song for some reason, and Silly Songs with Larry's Water Buffalo song and Weebls' Dugong Song are constant requests. Oddly enough, you really enjoy the phonics and alphabet songs, and I credit the constant repetition of those songs with how well you know your letters (all the upper case and most of the lower case with the exception of b/d/p/q) and what letter words start with (worth it, for the fifty million times we've sung A-a-apple, B-b-bear, etc. in the car). 
• Lest all this talk about reading and animals and letters make you sound too much like you are your mother's child, you are equally interested in bodily humor and functions. When you fart or burp you yell "EXCUSE ME!" with alacrity; when Daddy taught you your body parts you went around chanting "my nipples, my penis, my testicles, oh beedeedah [bellybutton]!" During diaper changes you always want to see what the poop looks like and you'll comment if it's especially big. Today you ran through the halls at school yelling BOOGER BOOGER BOOGER, and when I asked you what you wanted for snack you said lion boogers. Sigh.
• It's scary and amazing how much you pick up from observing us. When I inobtrusively listen to your monologues while you play in your room, I am relieved and gratified to hear you having Mr. Harlo, Mssr. Bear, Ice Cream Penguin, and Piggy Wiggy use thank you and you're welcome, and you even instruct them to share your lap! You tell yourself to clean up when there are too many things out on the floor, and you are very conscientious about putting things back where you found them. It's nice to know that all the training to be a good citizen is working...for now!
• Speaking of being a citizen, a crucial part of parenting during this scary Trump presidency is teaching you compassion and empathy. Sometimes this works a little too well; when you learned that the last verse of The Farmer in the Dell goes "the cheese stands alone," you got really sad about the poor lonely cheese. We had to find a cheese friend to accompany your lonely IKEA cheese so that you would feel okay. Then the other day I was singing Humpty Dumpty to you and at the end, you spontaneously said "Humpty sad." I was exceedingly pleased at your sensitivity asked what you could do to make Humpty feel better, and you said "Give him a cheese." Okay, so maybe a cheese friend doesn't solve all problems, but it's a start? 
• And speaking of the lonely cheese, here's an incomplete list of reasons you've woken up crying in that terrible 2-4 am time slot in the last couple of weeks: 1) you could only find one of your cheeses, so we had to dig through your twenty stuffed animals to find the other cheese; 2) you wanted to read the new animal storybook that 舅父 got you; and 3) you wanted to wear your new animal shirt.
• You still love going to school with me, thank goodness, because it's not like you have much of a choice about that. You've got the routine down pat, you know where Mommy's classroom and cubicle are, you know which buttons to press for the elevator, and where to go to listen to the choir sing or find the badminton team at practice. You've gotten a little too comfortable with everyone there, enough so that you wandered off to another classroom and didn't realize you were lost until they paged you over the intercom. Your favorite thing to do after school is wander around looking for Jasper or Elijah or Lester, but when you actually find them you are usually seized with a sudden shyness and just want to stare and smile. 
• A month ago I did a little "interview" with you and I never posted the results on the blog, so here is a record of your answers:

A month later, you have now mastered the consistent use of the number four, and your revised answer to
what Daddy does for work is "he holds the coffee and go to work and drink the coffee and bring pasta."
Which sounds significantly better to me than killing spiders. 

TL; DR summary: it's all about animals. To the point where when other little boys come over for playdates, they want to know where all the cars are, and how come you only have animals. But hey, you like what you like even if it's not mainstream, and I love that you're firm about it and unabashedly passionate. You've got the makings of a geek, my boy, and I couldn't be more pleased!