Because who knows when I'll find the time again to write down what you're like, here are some quick snapshots of what you're like at 2.75 years old and about to lose your only child status:
I've always been grateful that you are more like me than I could have anticipated or dared to hope, what with enjoying reading and all, but more and more it looks like you're turning out to be a little geek with all of my fandoms! Of course, that might be a function of spending most of your waking hours with me. Two of my first obsessions as an elementary schooler were Star Wars and dinosaurs, and you are into both! I didn't purposefully set out to make you so, but now that you are, more or less of your own volition, can I just say that I'm so incredibly glad that it wasn't trains or construction vehicles you decided to obsess over? I don't know anything about Thomas or dumptrucks, nor do I care, but I am happy to read my old Star Wars trilogy book with you and talk about Jabba and the rancor and X-wings and the Milennium Falcon. I love seeing you figure out the difference between diplodocus vs. brachiosaurus, stegosaurus vs. kentrosaurus, etc. I am also thrilled that your love of dinosaurs gave me a chance to make a whole bunch of plush dinosaur toys! We are now on month three of basically only checking out dinosaur books from the library, and you know the names of a good thirty or forty dinosaurs and what makes them unique and what kind of food they eat. When asked (and sometimes even when not asked), you are happy to explain to adults that triceratops has a bony frill and that ankylosaurus has a club on its tail and that dimetrodon has a sail on its back, etc. You are also still really into animals in general and we have graduated from talking about meat eaters vs. plant eaters to talking about the difference between mammals and reptiles and amphibians, types of habitats, continents, and inner organs. I love that you love learning!
You have recently gotten really into doing puzzles. You have a few big floor puzzles and some smaller Finding Dory ones, and it's been so interesting seeing you go from needing lots of help to being basically independent in figuring out new puzzles. The other week we hit the thrift store jackpot and found six new floor puzzles for 20% of the retail price, so let's hope you stay into puzzles for a while.
Rhyming is also a big thing. I think it started from singing silly made-up songs in the car with Daddy on the weekends when we drive back from Berkeley or the peninsula, but you've finally gotten the concept of switching out the first sound of a word and then you giggle like mad when you have a nonsense rhyme. Prime example: yell-singing "Room where it happens! Doom where it happens! Tomb where it happens! Boom where it happens!" or "A dot ham! A dot jam! A dot dam! A dot wham!" while laughing like a maniac.
Speaking of the room where it happens and A Dot Ham, you are super into Hamilton and I love it! You favorite songs most recently have progressed from the King George songs to the Room Where It Happens and Who Tells Your Story, although the Ten Duel Commandments remains a top request. With Room Where It Happens, you love pointing out that chess is a game, and that Aaron Burr goes "Iiiiiiiiiiiiii, I wannna be in the room where it happens..." Something about that drawn out I is hilarious to you. One time you came home after listening to it in the car and pretended to cook some sausage, and you said it was for Alexander Hamilton's dinner. You love when Eliza Hamilton sings in Who Tells Your Story, and you have to tell me she wears a blue dress every time. A little more disturbing is that you love pointing out that Aaron Burr is getting angry in The World Was Wide Enough, and then after the gunshot you gleefully pronounce Alexander Hamilton to be dead...
You are also a big fan of "I'm So Shiny" from the Moana soundtrack, although you are very quick to also point out that you don't actually like Tamatoa, although you like his song? It's all very confusing to me. Anyway, this also means you get really excited to see the big crabs in the tanks at Chinese restaurants like Fusion Delight. Other favorite songs currently include "the African animal song," aka "The Circle of Life," and "Hakuna Matata" ("Mom! They eating grubs!"). VeggieTales in general remains a hit as well.
Although screen time is slowly increasing, you are still a big reader. You still gravitate toward the books in new places, church childcare workers continue to tell us that you love reading, and the other day I wanted to laugh and kiss you when you told me you had to stop eating breakfast because you had to read something first. I insisted that you finish breakfast before reading, but inside I wanted to cheer! At night and before naps, you'll take all the books off your shelf and read them to your friends before sleeping.
Speaking of your friends, it's been so fun to see you develop your imagination and use your stuffed animals in creative reenactments of whatever you did that day. You've used Mssr. Bear, Ice Cream Penguin, Mr. Harlow, Piggy Wiggy, and Christmas Zebra to recreate trips to the bakery, to the park for picnics, to the restaurant (complete with menus and to go boxes!), to ride the bus, and all sorts of other situations. Christmas Zebra has been a surprising new addition to your inner circle, but you seriously love her and have been bringing her with you everywhere. She comes with us in the car, and you always check whether zebras are allowed at the library or Target or wherever we're going. Unfortunately, because she's so large and unwieldy, she always has to stay in the car. You also use her as a reason why you need to do something (e.g. eat ice cream, or listen to Moana), because she's never done it before or it's her favorite. Nice try, toddler, but you're still not getting random ice cream.
When you first received Christmas Zebra, I told you she was a gift from Evie and her parents, Auntie Jennilyn and Uncle Steve. You surprised me by stating that you like Uncle Steve a lot and that he was cooking at Paigey's house; we hadn't talked about that night in a long time! Your memory is so good for random things like that; the other day you kept asking what was "parkaking," but because of your toddler pronunciation we couldn't figure out what you were talking about, until suddenly you announced that you remembered it was pie. When we figured out you meant piecaken, we were astounded because we haven't mentioned it since last Thanksgiving.
You have been getting really into gardening, inasmuch as that's possible for a toddler. You always ask to go into the garden to water and pick tomatoes; when given a chance to play with our water table you'd rather use the water to pour on the plants instead of splashing around in it. When you pick tomatoes with Daddy you do a little stompy-jump dance and say "Yippee!" every time you pull one off the vine. You ask to read Secrets of the Vegetable Garden every time we're at Paigey's house, and that's where you learned that you're supposed to put a cloche over vegetables to protect them from snails. When you play at home in the bath you upend tupperware over your dinosaurs and tell me it's a cloche.
Now that you're older and better about playing with instead of alongside your friends at Sanity Club, it's been so fun seeing the friendship develop between you and Paigey (your "best favorite person"). You guys love your CFA dates and playing together in the playground area, as well as sharing animal crackers and reading and doing puzzles. You are so much more expressive with her and are a very appreciative audience for her singing and dancing.
Ever since finding out that Evie gave you Christmas Zebra, you've been talking about wanting to go to San Diego to see her. You also talk about going back to Seattle (all those buses made an impression on you), but we explain that that involves getting on a plane and that they're really far away. When I told you a couple weeks ago that your Auntie Emily was in Sacramento, you asked if we could get on a plane to go see her; you're turning into quite the little wannabe traveler! You also enjoy looking at maps and talking about South America especially. No idea why that continent appeals to you so much, especially considering we have the least animal figurines from that continent.
It's so hard to remember what you were like before you started talking, as you're such a funny personality. It's so cute to hear you try to talk like a grown-up, with words like similar, except, and actually. It's also a little scary to hear you talk to your stuffed animals, as the phrases you use with them are a reflection of what you hear most often from us. Whether it's putting Piggy Wiggy in time out for hitting, or telling Mssr. Bear that you can't read to him right now because you're washing dishes, or reminding them all to share and take turns, it's a good reminder that what you hear from us now will be your inner voice when you're older, so we need to be very careful about what we say. Even when we think you aren't paying attention, you'll randomly ask "What you talking about, Mom?" and then I have to try to explain in terms that you can understand.
Besides internalizing words that you hear, you also really take to heart what you read in books or see on Daniel Tiger. Some things are neutral and/or cute (e.g. carrying dinosaurs around in a bucket after reading all the Harry series of books, or having your unicorns eat cherries after reading Goodnight Unicorn), some things are great (e.g. being a "big helper" by carrying things for me, eating broccoli), and some things are not so great (e.g. having your cars and trains crash into each other after reading Dino Rescue, or making messes after reading What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night). Because of this, I've been really careful not to choose books that set up sibling rivalry as a foregone conclusion. Maybe you won't experience any (hah! I can only wish!) and if that's the case, I don't want to plant the idea of being mad at the baby in your head.
Which brings us to the biggest change on the horizon: your baby sister is due to make her appearance any day now! We've been reading Baby on the Way and What Baby Needs in preparation, and you seem to have finally wrapped your mind around the idea that it's a baby and not a zebra in Mommy's tummy. You regularly ask if Baby ____ is here yet, or ask if you can give her a kiss, and the other day you said we had to include her in our sing-about-all-our-family-members lullaby. She has a representative in our unicorn family, and we've talked about how Baby Kina and Baby Charlie are younger siblings of your playdate friends, so we'll soon see how all the preparation worked...or didn't work, as the case may be. In the meantime, I am trying to soak in all these last days with you as my bestest only bub.
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