3 Years

1)  I can't believe Fuzzy is three now.  In a major achievement, he has learned to kiss properly.  Instead of slobbering or licking me gently, he will now give an actual peck on the cheek.

2)  In less polite but also adorable news, I present two poop-related stories which showcase that creative play is not necessarily for the best:

A:  Fuzzy was playing in my bedroom as I got ready for work.  He gathered a pile of toys on the ottoman, and stood behind it, telling me he was The Giver.  Periodically he would call me over and give me a toy.  Then, I heard him yell, "Mama, The Giver has to poop!"  I ran over to him to bring him to the potty, at which point, he explained that The Giver had pooped in his underwear.  As I cleaned him up, he started laughing and gleefully chanting, "Poop-giver, poop-giver, poop-giver."  Sigh, no thank you, poop-giver.

B:  Fuzzy has been pretending to be a baby turtle recently.  He will hide under a blanket or something, say he is under his shell, and then ask Mama Turtle (me, obviously) to come hug him/play with him/call him to come out.  Minutes following the poop-giver incident, when he was already running around pants-less, he ran over to me and pointed to a spot on my floor: "Mama, I pooped!" he said.  "WHY BABY?  Why didn't you come to the potty??  We JUST talked about this!"  "But Mama, I was being a baby turtle, and I tried to lay an egg."

3)  This month Fuzzy has been concerned with "bad mans" and appropriate courses of justice.  On our walk the other day, he took a stick, broke it in two, and handed me half.  "Dis is your sword Mama.  And dis is my sword.  We knights.  We turtles.  We turtle-knights.  Come on turtle-knight Mama, let's go find some naughty people and hit them with our swords."

4)  The sibling relationship in a nutshell: whenever Sprout cries to be picked up, Fuzzy immediately wants to be picked up too.  "Hold me Mama, hold me!"  Most inconvenient timing ever.  However, he is also very protective of his little brother - I put both of them on a pool table, and Fuzzy immediately chastised me for my negligence.  He ran over and bear-hugged Sprout, saying, "Mama, he going to fall Mama!!"  He will also try to reassure Sprout in the car when he is crying - "It okay Sprout, we almost home Sprout!"

5)  In spite of the poop stories above, Fuzz is actually pretty good about going to the bathroom, or at least, not going in his pants.  In the backyard one day, while I was distracted with Sprout, Fuzzy dug a hole, pulled down his pants, and when I turned around, was concentrating hard on peeing in the hole.

6)  The Pit taught Fuzzy a song.  The song goes like so: "The Grand Old Duke of York, he had 10,000 men, he marched them up a hill and he marched them down again."  I didn't realize that The Pit had sung this song to Fuzz, and was thus mighty confused when the kid demanded that I sing "The Grundle of the Ork" for him.  He did not appreciate my confusion, pleas that I didn't know this song, or the resulting laughter when he repeated the title over and over for emphasis.

13 Months

1)  Our word count continues this month:
naNAna = banana
ohno or ohoh = something got dropped
ower = flower
ba = ball, or balloon, or book
baba = grandma (this is the Russian word for grandma, so we're bilingual now)

2)  Sprout's favorite game this month has been the shoe game.  He grabs a shoe, brings to me, and hands it over gravely and with great ceremony.  Then he expectantly waits for praise and acknowledgment.  Once his contribution has been recognized, he then goes back for another shoe.  The game continues until I have a large pile of footwear in front of me, whereupon Sprout decides that Mama has had enough, and switches his attention to The Pit.

3)  Sprout continues to be super excited about dogs.  He makes panting noises and points whenever he sees one - however, just like last month, that is more or less where he has his limits.  He will approach within three feet of the animal, and will then stand there, grinning happily, panting.  Entreaties to pet the nice doggy still do nothing - the kid does not wish to come any closer under any circumstances.  The one exception was the picture below, when Sprout was unaccountably interested in sharing his snack.

4)  This month Sprout has decided to take matters into his own hands - that is, he now takes me by the hand and leads me where he wants to go.  There is much tugging and whimpering if Mama has another destination in mind.

5)  Sprout also learned to shake his head for 'no' this month, and has been using this skill with great effect.

6)  Being an independent kind of child, he has also taken to grabbing spoons away from me at mealtime, and now feeds himself.  As you can imagine, this results in less food entering the mouth, and much, much, MUCH more cleaning for Mama and Daddy.  But the kid is just so damn pleased with himself, and also so stubborn that we have no choice.

35 Months

1)  Fuzzy has been pretty hilarious this month when it comes to responsibility.  When he wanted to hold Sprout, this was the reasoning: "Can I hold him?  I a big kid!"  And on another occasion: "Mama, can I have my garbage truck?  I pwomise I will be vewe wesponsible wit' it!"

2)  He has also been totally random.  For example, we have these bath markers that draw on the bathtub wall.  Usually he wants me to draw a digger, but one time this month, he demanded that I draw Peppa Pig.  "I can't," I said. "I don't really know how to draw a pig, much less Peppa."  "Just twy!"  So I did.  I drew...something.  It might have been vaguely pig-shaped.  Fuzzy was not pleased.  "I don't like dat face.  Dat face belongs to a tiger dat lives in Afeeeka."

3)  I was eavesdropping as The Pit was reading to Fuzz.  Describing something in a book, The Pit explained, "They are British.  I am American.  Are you American too?"  Fuzzy responded in the negative, "No, I'm not." "What are you then," The Pit asked, and got back the best answer ever:   "Difficult."

4)  I was in the shower one morning, sick and coughing.  Fuzzy came in very concerned: "Mama, are you going to fow up?  I will make you feel better!"  He disappeared, and came back carrying the mug of water I had left by the bed.  "Here Mama, dwink some water.  Dwink all the water 'till you feel all the way better."  After I assured him that the water was helping, he left again, only to come back with a tissue to wipe my nose.  This was accepted with profuse thanks, although I was dubious as to its usefulness in the shower.

5)  In another sickness-related incident, Fuzzy found The Pit's beard trimmer charger.  Not knowing what it was, he plowed ahead anyway.  "Mama, bend down so I can take you temperature!"  I obliged, and he stuck the charger vaguely under my arm.  I asked him what it said, and, with full confidence, Fuzzy pronounced, "46 hours ago!"

12 Months

My munchkin is one!

1) And he's said his first words this month:

da=dog.  He also likes to pant like a dog - he'll come up to them and stand there panting at them, confusing owners and animals alike.  Does he want to pet the dog?  Oh no, he just wants to stand there and pant at it.
brrr sound with his lips = car
haaaa, accompanied by much hand waving = hot
dadum = daddy (possibly other stuff too, I can't really tell)
mama = me!  For a while he's been yelling maaaamaaaaa when he cried at night, but not actually using it in any way during the day.  Then finally, about a week before his birthday, he said it for the first time in the correct context, without crying.  Made Mama very happy.

2) Sprout has also mastered clapping.  Well, 'mastered' might be a tad strong.  But he claps!  Mostly when others are clapping, but sometimes when he's dancing, and always with a big smile on his little face.

3)  In addition to the clapping, there's been a lot of other copying of adult (and Fuzzy) behaviors.  For example, as I'm getting ready for work, Sprout will find my hairbrush and attempt to use it - this usually results in him banging himself with the flat part - but very occasionally he manages to catch some hair, and is always very proud of himself when this happens.  Like the little mermaid, I've also seen him use other vaguely hairbrush-shaped objects to comb his hair - the standouts have been a toy saw and a large fork.

4) I don't know why, but this month Sprout has been the pinchiest of little pinchers.  He gleefully squishes skin between his little fingers, and laughs and laughs as you try to swat him away.  Despite filing his nails at every available opportunity, he somehow manages to have razor sharp claws at all times, so his playful pinching is actually quite painful.

5) In his final act of development progress before he turned one, Sprout began to actually point with intention.  Between that and his milk/I want sign, communication between family members has never been better.

34 Months

1)  Fuzzy had another ear infection, and got used a nightly bribe of some chocolate-covered berries in order to take his disgusting antibiotic mixture.  He kept right on demanding these berries even after the medicine was done, so I tried linking them to other useful behavior.  The results were...less than exemplary:

"Can I have my chocolate berries?"
"Well, did you do something nice today?  Good boys get chocolate berries."
"Ummm...I pushed Sprout!"
"That isn't a nice thing!  Poor Sprout, we don't want to push him!  Can you tell me about something *nice* that you did?"
"Ummm...I bit Sprout's finger.  Now can I have chocolate berries?"
"That's not a nice thing at all!  We don't bite people, that's very naughty!  Naughty boys don't get chocolate berries.  Did you do something nice today?  Did you help anybody?"
"I pushed Andrew!"*
*Andrew is one of his best buddies at preschool, which he hadn't been to the day in question.
"That is not nice, not helpful, and also not today."
"Ummm...I massaged children.  Dat a nice thing!"
I was a little taken aback and confused by this reference, but relieved that it didn't have to do with pushing or biting.  However, I wanted more.  "Did you do anything else nice today?"
"We done."
"What do you mean, 'we done'?"
"We done talkin' 'bout dis now.  Can I have my chocolate berries?"

2)  Fuzzy is still obsessed with the Jack and the Beanstalk story, and has been requesting it almost every night for more than a month.  Consequently, I have several amusing anecdotes regarding our nightly telling.  Now that he's established the plot more firmly in his mind, he's asking slightly deeper questions, and requesting different versions of the story.  Thusly on two different nights, we had the following exchanges:

Me: Jack grabbed the goose and started to climb down the beanstalk.  Just then, the giant came out and started climbing after Jack..."
Night #1 Fuzzy:  "Dat giant not nice to chase childrens!  Why da giant climb after Jack?  He can go to da store an get another goose!  Da aminal store!"
Night #2 Fuzzy:  "No Mama, da giant not climb after Jack!"
Me:  "...Okay...just then, the giant looked out his window and saw Jack taking the goose.  He said 'Fe fi foe fum...I don't feel like going outside today.'"
Fuzzy:  Smiles and murmurs approval..."Mmmm hmmmm."

3)  Fuzzy also enjoys when he is introduced into the story, and Fuzz and Jack successfully bring back the goose together.   When I get to the end of this telling, he always smiles beatifically as I say that Jack's mama hugged and thanked the boys.  "We did a good job!"

4)  Since I tell the story the same way every time, we've gotten into a routine where he finishes my sentences.  For example, I always say, "The beanstalk grew taller and taller, taller than a house, taller than a tree, taller than a mountain!"  And for a long time, Fuzzy was quite satisfied to say "house," "tree," and "mountain" at the appropriate spots.  If I forgot to pause and said the ending word, he would get quite upset.  "I taut I was gonna say dat!  Say it again!"

One night, instead of saying "house," he substituted "mushroom" (or mufwoom, in his pronunciation).  I laughed, and Fuzzy took this as his cue to repeat the joke...over and over and over.  Every sentence ended with muffwoom, all the way down to the goose laying a golden muffwoom.

5)  As you might be noticing, Fuzzy is very into his routines.  Bedtime at our house goes like this - Mama gives him a bath, brings him downstairs, and he and Daddy read stories on the couch.  Then Mama is summoned back to take him and put him to bed.  Every night, The Pit asks Fuzzy if he can put him to bed instead, and every night, Fuzzy very emphatically says, "NO!"  When questioned why, he states, "Dat Mama's job!"  One night, The Pit decided to get more clarity, and asked what his own job was...Fuzz replied, "Youse job is taking me to pweeschool." *

*Please note that Mama takes him to preschool 99% of the time.

6)  I was giving Fuzz and Sprout a bath at the same time, and Fuzzy was standing, such that his junk was directly in front of Sprout's face.  Sprout of course immediately focused on this new and interesting bit of anatomy, and grabbed at Fuzzy, pulling on his penis quite hard.  Fuzzy yelped in surprise, and I removed Sprout to the far end of the tub, where he commenced wailing about being denied this new toy.  Fuzz, in an uncharacteristic bit of generosity, looked at his baby brother and said, "It's okay Sprout, you can play with my penis!"

7)  A more common interaction between the boys took place on the playground:  Sprout crammed his mouth full of sand, so I took him away from sandbox, where Fuzzy was happily occupied with some trucks.  Fuzzy was not pleased by my absence, and ran right over to me.  "Mama, come play wit me!"  I explained that I couldn't, as Sprout was not to be trusted over there, and would eat more sand.    Fuzzy was undeterred.  He gestured vaguely at the far corner of the playground, a good distance away - "No Mama, come play wit me...you can put Sprout down over der!"

8)  From the backseat of the car, The Pit and I also overheard this exchange:

Sprout:  "Dada."
Fuzzy, apparently deciding to be pedantic:  "The Pit."
Sprout:  "Dada."
Fuzzy:  "The Pit!"
Sprout:  "Dada."
Fuzzy:  "THE PIIIIIIITTTT!"

9)  The Pit and I, in a fit of sleepless delirium, where having an argument in the kitchen about who exactly had it worse the previous night.  Fuzzy did not like our raised voices, and immediately ran over to us from the living room.  "Stop doin' dat!!"

11 Months

1)  Sprout got his second tooth at the beginning of the month, but has made no further progress.  This is a shame, since the kid wants to eat people food more than pretty much anything else in the world.  He's taken to loudly smacking his lips together when he's hungry - which is all the time, the child has an insatiable appetite.

2)  I've sporadically been trying to teach Sprout a few signs - 'more,' 'milk,' 'water' - and for a while I was optimistic that the kid was a genius and picking up on the milk sign.  Then I realized that Sprout has determined that this sign means "I want."  Thus, he makes it whenever he wants anything, be it milk, food, a toy, or to be picked up.  This is less than useful in the communication department, as his previous sign for wanting something - whimpering - was perfectly sufficient in its vagueness.

3)  This month the baby learned to push himself to a standing position without leaning on something.  He now grabs a toy, stands up, and then toddles around self-importantly.  The toys he loves best are all balls, and he will grab them, clutch them tightly while properly positioning himself, and then throw then down the stairs or across the room with great joy.

4)  In other mobility progress, this baby is a climber.  He loves to climb up on his little chair, and will stand there banging as high up on the wall as he can reach.  I've also witnessed him climbing up the side of his stroller to get a few cheerios I left in the kid's cup holder compartment.

5)  Sprout is so good-natured, that even when he's feeling miserable, he manages to find a way to smile.  Case in point, he caught the latest cold Fuzzy brought home from preschool, and started running a fever.  Despite this, when he heard some music playing, he began bouncing up and down and waving his little fists around, dancing and grinning at us happily.  Of course, he did this when he was supposed to be settling down to sleep at night, but it was too cute to be grumpy about bedtime.

6)  Sprout is still mostly pointing vaguely upward, but now jabs with more emphasis, and sometimes directs his finger ever so slightly horizontal, enabling us to better guess his meaning.

7)  The baby has started sharing his food, carefully taking masticated bits out of his mouth and putting them in ours, then grinning broadly at his own cleverness.

8)  Sprout used to try to eat tissues on the floor - now he picks them up and wipes the floor with them carefully.  He is also interested in the broom, and will happily drag it about while 'cleaning.'

33 Months

1)  I needed to go to dentist, and when informed of this fact, Fuzzy started whining and crying that he didn't want me to leave.  I left him in the living room throwing a little tantrum.  A few minutes later, he came into the kitchen and said, "Mama, I feel betta' now.  I will let you go to the dentist."

2)  Ever since our visit to California over the holidays, Fuzzy hadn't sleep all the way through the night - he either crawled into bed with The Pitt, or made Daddy sleep in his room on a mattress on the floor.  Finally, I decided enough was enough, and we had a serious conversation/bribing session.  I began by telling him that he's was a big boy, and that big boys sleep by themselves.  Fuzzy presented a counterargument: "But Daddy *likes* to sweep on the mattress!"

At this point I decided to capitalize on his new interest in fairy tales, and presented him with a book I'd purchased for the occasion.  I showed him that it had *so* many new stories, and and then informed him that unfortunately, these stories were only for big boys who slept in their own rooms without Daddy.  Further discussions on this topic led to him actually leaving us alone at night.*

*Sort of related and funny - after I told him that the new book had stories and fairy tales, he kept asking me where the tails were in each story.  Explanations of homonyms did not help.

3)  On the morning of my birthday, Fuzzy started throwing up at 3 AM.  Daddy took care of him until about 7 AM, when he proceeded to crawl into bed with me.  I left him watching cartoons on the iPad while I showered, only to hear the unmistakable sounds of puking as I turned off the water.  After I stripped the bed, pulled off Fuzzy's pajamas, and put him in the shower to wash off, he finally stopped crying, and instead started apologizing: "I sowee I few up on your bed Mama."

I reassured him that it wasn't his fault, and after a few minutes, he started to smile. "Happy Birthday MAMA!" he said, as I finished washing the puke from his hair.  While it wasn't precisely the scenario I had anticipated to start the day, The Pit salvaged it with an amazing Pavlova cake, which we fed to our puking child.  I mean, if you're going to throw up anyway, you might as well throw up cake.

4)  After Fuzz spent one afternoon constantly smacking Sprout, I set him aside and to try and explain why this was a bad idea. "You need to be nice to your brother, show him how to do things, show him how to play.  Not hit him.  If you are nice to him and show him how to do things, he'll grow up and be able to play with you."  Fuzzy gave this some thought, and then brightened up, "...and THEN I can hit him!"

As evidenced from the picture below though, he is sometimes nice to his brother:

5)  Then again, a few days ago, I found myself saying something I never thought I'd have to say: "Stop wiping your nose on your brother's hair!"

6)  I guess it's a right of passage of some type for toddlers - Fuzzy has started adorably mispronouncing the word 'animal.'  For example, once he gathers all his stuffed toys, he turns to me and announces:  "All my aminals are on da bed!"

10 Months

1)  Around the 9.5 month mark, Sprout had a really big week.  He *finally* got his first tooth and took his very first unassisted steps.  Then, typically for him, he turbocharged walking.  He went from his first tottering steps in the morning of February 1st to taking 4-6 steps unaided steps in the basement that evening.

2)  Sprout is starting to use objects for their intended purposes.  The other day he was playing with a an empty cup under the dinner table while I cleaned up in the kitchen.  Suddenly, I heard a loud slurping noise, and when I went to look, saw the baby pretending to drink from the cup.

3)  He's also taken to copying some gestures - for example, when I leave in the morning and both Fuzzy and Maya wave to me, Sprout waggles his fingers at me too.

4)  Although this month Sprout started walking on his own, he still loves to push something in front of him.  However, not something specifically designed for this task like a walker toy - no, he likes to find a box, a foot stool, or a really heavy chair, and then push those in front of him as he toddles around.

5)  He's been doing a lot of tongue waggling recently, and like his brother at this age, is making a really adorable burbling noise - ablalblahlah, and so on.  Periodically he will wake up in the middle of the night and talk to me like this for 5 or 10 minutes, at which point it is less cute, but still charming enough that I don't want to put him down.

6)  Towards the end of the month, Sprout started points at things.  Well, sort of pointing.  He tends to keep his arm at a 45 degree angle, such that we keep guessing like so:  "...that's...a tree...another tree...a...streetlight...possibly a cloud...likely a power line?"

7)  The baby loves his big brother, and especially his hair.  Whenever they are in the bath together, he practically lunges at Fuzzy, and grabs at his hair.  Understandably, Fuzzy is a little disgruntled at this, and will quite indignantly let me know: "Mama! Tell Spout to be gentle with me!"