3 Years 8 Months

1) Fuzzy is still in teenager mode this month, and won't tell Daddy or Baba that he loves them, instead clinging to me with fierce attachment.  However, when said important personages are out of the house, he makes them presents.  We know this is love because he started doing it after watching an episode of Daniel Tiger devoted to the theme that "making something is another way to say 'I love you!'"

2) Fuzz has also taken to saying 'not funny' when he is annoyed with a parental request or command.  When we agree that it is, in fact, not funny, and we need him to go to bed/brush his teeth/sit down and eat, he says, "Stop coppppying me!" in a really aggrieved tone of voice.

3) When he gets even more annoyed, he busts out with, "I'm not your friend!"

4) To complete his lexicon of hateful teenage behaviors, the kid has also taken to yelling, "I hate that!" to a variety of things he loves - mushrooms, rice, etc.  I'm telling you, the Peachy household these days is a real land of sunshine and roses.

5) However, occasionally we do get gems like this:
The Pit: "What job do you want when you grow up?"
"I want to drive a combine harvester!"
"Oh, you want to be a farmer?  What are you going to grow?"
"Corn!"
"What should Sprout be when he grows up?"
Fuzz, with intensity, "A ninja turtle!"

6) We went to visit Dina and Noam overnight, so that The Pit and I could go out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  Noam put Fuzzy in same bed as Sprout that night, and Fuzzy proceeded to hold Sprout's hand and shush him when he cried.  When I went in there in the morning, they were hugging and kissing each other.

7) Sadly, the above-referenced night was the only time since The Pit and I returned from a 10-day Caribbean vacation sans children (in December) that Fuzzy has fallen asleep without my physical presence in his room.  Prior to the trip, he used to demand three "Twinkle Twinkle" songs, followed by a goodnight story, and would then happily roll over and let me leave his room.  Those halcyon days are gone - ever since our return, should I try to ease myself out, there is a flood of hysterical tears, and an insistence that I have to hold his hand until he falls asleep.

21 Months

1)  So many many new words this month, I've lost count.  My favorite may be the way he's adopeted Fuzzy's pronunciation of animal - "aminal."

2)  Fuzzy got a remote-controlled car for Christmas.  Sprout and his similarly-aged cousin were both scared of it, but their reactions were very different.  Sprout's cousin jumped back, and ran to his mom in tears.  Sprout also jumped back, but instead of running to me, he then ran toward the car, grabbed it in both hands, and proceeded to smash it as hard as he could against the floor...over and over and over.  Toughest baby on the block, indeed.

3)  Sprout is putting words together into small sentences, but less to describe things, and more to give orders.  "No sweep dat woom!" or, "Mama eat dat!"

My favorite Sprout command was a very short sentence directed at one of his toys.  "Eat!" {shoves robot feet into an apple}.

4)  My sister and brother-in-law got the boys a bouncy house for New Year's, which we keep in our garage.  Sprout is obsessed with the thing, and it is his new favorite activity.  He's picked up the language very well: he points his finger in the general direction of the garage and commands, "Bouncy hoss!"

5)  Sprout has started to call himself by his actual name, although his inability to pronounce Ss hampers the situation somewhat.  He replaces the problematic sound with an H, so for purposes of this blog, he is now Hout.

He also sometimes says, "me!" - principally when I ask, "Who made this mess??'
Then he glances up at me, grins slyly, and says, "Bandeet!"  Which is Russian for 'bandit', which is exactly what he is.

In other naming news, Hout now refers to his brother by his almost correct name, omitting only the R sound.  No longer is Fuzzy referred to as "Mine!"

6)  I present the first real conversation we ever had.  To set the scene, Sprout is picking his nose in the middle of the night while I change his diaper:
"Boooooger.  Bick boooooger!"
"You have a big booger stuck in your nose?"
"Yeah."
"Did you get it?"
"Yeah.  Eat dat."
"No, don't eat the booger, that's gross."
Indignantly, "Hout booger!"

7)  When a toy or something no longer works, Sprout plaintively brings it to an adult and wails, "Woooking!"  By which, of course, he means, 'not wooking,' or in English, 'not working.'  I have to do a lot of Sprout translation around here.

8)  The kid is starting to pick up an uncomfortable amount from his brother.  When I'm washing his hair in the tub, he has taken to grabbing the washcloth and throwing its across the room, while firmly announcing, "Nuff!".  It's clearly not enough, because at that point, I have barely even touched him.  Try explaining this to Sprout though.

9)  On the plus side of copying big brother, Sprout is beginning to potty train himself.  He now says 'poop!' and wants to go to the potty...although most of the time it's not poop.  He's a clever one though, saying 'pee' wouldn't generate quite the frantic amount of activity as when he declares 'poop!'.

10)  In a really adorable development, Sprout has taken to screaming "YEAH!!" when we suggest he do something (and he wants to do it).  His level of enthusiasm for throwing a paper towel in the trash or heading to the grocery store is very impressive.

The kid also goes "um um um" when he doesn't know the answer to a question.  This is both charming and singularly ineffective at getting grown-ups to leave him alone.