3 Years 5 Months

1)  "Oh Sprout!" is Fuzzy's most helpful response when Sprout kicks something, grabs at a toy Fuzz is holding, falls on the floor and cries, etc.  Less helpful responses include coming over and shoving his brother and grabbing the toy back so hard that Sprout falls over.  "Oh Sprout!" is a good one though.  Occasionally it even lets Mama know that the little one is doing something dangerous.

2)  We've also seen some very heart-warming interactions from Fuzzy.  When Sprout has hurt himself, I've witnessed Fuzzy come over, pat him on the back, and softly whisper ,"Shhh, Sprout, shhhh - it's okay."  When I was gone for a business trip, The Pit also put both boys together in one bed, and Fuzzy repeated the same gentle patting and whispering when his brother was having a hard time falling asleep.

3)  "Ow ow ow!" is another recent favorite saying, especially when nothing is hurt.  I'm not sure what that's all about, but I'm guessing preschool is the culprit.  

4)  We were going to go on a hike with my sister and brother-in-law once the kids woke up from naps.  Of course, on this particular day, Fuzzy woke up super grumpy, and cried as we were getting him dressed, in the car, and as we were putting him in the hiking backpack.  Somewhere about mid-hike, the kid started to feel better, and post-hike, was in great mood.  On the way down the hill he asked me, "Mama, why was I so grumpy in the car?"  Kid, I wish I knew.

5)  The Pit has been wanting to start Fuzzy on board games for a while, and I kept telling him that Fuzz was much too young.  Well, turns out Mama was wrong on this one.  Father and son played Candy Land with much joy for the first time this month.  Two peas in a pod.

18 Months

1)  New words this month:
wan da = want that (often accompanied with a quick grab of the object in question.  This is particularly awesome when what he wants is a food item Fuzzy is holding.)
han = hand
hane = plane
eye = eye
ba = bath (in addition to book)
daaak = dark
hone = phone
pumpa = pumpkin
wet = wet

2)  Sprout can now easily identify mouth, nose, ears, hair, hands, legs, feet, and toes.  Tricksy body parts like elbows continue to give him trouble.

3)  Our new California nanny lives in the hood in Oakland, and she is continuously amazed at how tough Sprout is.  "Sprout is the toughest 18 month old I've ever met.  I could take him home to my street, and those kids wouldn't be able to push him around!"  Part of his toughness is that he won't let big brother push him around.  If Fuzzy comes in and hits or shoves him, Sprout will return the favor two-fold.  The other part is that he barely cries when he gets hurt - even when the injuries seem like they would really smart.

4)  In addition to toughness, the baby's coordination continues to astound.  He now walks down stairs relatively well when there's a handrail or I'm holding his hand.  He continues to be a super climber, although we still hover nervously, particularly when he has a food item in his hand and refuses to let go while climbing

5)  At the playground, Sprout saw Fuzzy peeing against a tree, and was not satisfied until he was granted the same privilege.  He tugged down his pants, and kept gesturing at his diaper until I took it off.  Then he proudly peed all over his own shoes and took off.

3 Years 4 Months

1) Recently I've noticed Fuzzy really picking up idioms and expressions.  Looking at a bug in the yard, he turned to me and said, "What that little guy doing?"  The use of 'little guy' wasn't something I've ever heard from him before.

Then, he heard our nanny say "Home sweet home" after they got back from the park.  That afternoon, returning Sprout's toy to his crib, Fuzzy repeated with genuine joy, "Home sweet home!"

2) I shouldn't laugh when Fuzzy throws a tantrum, but sometimes it's really hard.  After a late night and associated misbehavior, he started throwing a tantrum after bath time because I told him he couldn't watch Reading Rainbow.  He was going crazy in the bathroom, stomping his feet and flinging his towel around.  "NOOOO, I want to watch Reading Rainbow!!! NOO!"  Then he paused, and went in an unexpected direction.  "I want to fweak out up here with you!!"

I had to clarify.  "You want to freak out?"

"YES! With you! Hold me!"

3)  Lately the kid has been having fun pretending to be a cat.  Typical interactions go something like this: "Mama, I a kitty."
"Oh, does the kitty want some berries?"
"Meow. That means 'yes'!"

Another time I found him splayed out on the stairs.  "Fuzzy, what's going on?"
"I dead Mama.  The kitty is dead."
"Oh no, can the kitty get up?"
For this inane comment, I received a well-deserved withering look. "No, because the kitty is dead!"

In yet another incident, he was sitting on the couch with a bowl of Cheerios.  He got down and tried to lick them like a cat, scattering Cheerios in all directions.
"Can you eat those like a person instead of a kitty?"
"No Mama, kitties eat like this {demonstrates}.  And I a kitty, so I have to eat like this.  Not like a person."  It was hard to argue with that logic.

4)  Fuzz goes to a Jewish preschool, and the other day came home with a burning desire to tell me something about Rosh Hashanah.  "We had Rosh Hashanah at pweeschool, let me talk about that.  Um...we had muuuffffiiins, and piwate booty.  Annnnd - that's all I know."  The muffins were apparently apple and honey, so that makes sense, but I'm still not sure what pirate booty had to do with anything.

5)  One of the kid's favorite expressions is "oh man!"  Except it's Fuzzy, so he stretches that out to something like "oh mannnnnn." And now Sprout is copying him, stretching the word out even longer - "mannnnnnnnnnn!"

17 Months

1)  Loads of new words this month:
appa = apple (or any other apple-shaped fruit, really)
all done = all done
bubba = bubbles
baoon = balloon.  It is now it's own distinct word, easily distinguishable from ball.
naaaaa mmmm mmmm = no
baby = baby
ommm = home
up = up
um = um
eee = tree
bik = bike
doe = door
weeng = swing
mou = mouth
wun = run
dadul= turtle
wa dat = what that?
weah dada = where daddy?  He never really asks about anyone else.

2)  Walking past a picture of himself, Sprout says "Mine!"  At first I thought he was pointing at himself, but gradually, I came to understand that this is what he calls his brother.  You can draw your own conclusions about how often Fuzzy says this around Sprout to make Sprout think it is his name.

3)  The night of 8/27-8/28 was a momentous occasion - Sprout slept through the night in his own crib for first time.  Sadly, this was not the start of a trend.

4)  Another night this month was more typical.  The baby woke up freaking out and making "ooh oooh oooh" noises at 2 AM.  It turned out he wanted his huge, clanking, totally unwieldy monkey on a stick toy (see picture below).  I tried to give him a small, soft monkey toy instead, but he yelled "NAAAA" over and over, and then when I set him down and handed him the soft monkey anyway, he grabbed it, opened the kitchen cabinet where we keep the trash can, and threw the monkey inside, all while giving me an extremely significant look.  He ended up falling asleep with the stick toy, which I then gingerly removed from his grasp before falling back asleep myself - at 4 AM.

5)  Sprout is an amazing climber.  The other day we watched half in horror and half in admiration as he climbed to the top of ladders meant for much older kids at the playground.

6)  In addition to his athletic prowess, the kid is also a neat freak - he insists on always putting his books back where they belong and his blocks in the basket, and is thrilled when given the opportunity to throw something in the trash.

7)  Sprout is actually kissing people upon request  Previously when asked to give somebody a kiss, he would just present *his* cheek to be kissed.  I've even witnessed the baby giving a few spontaneous kisses, the cutest of which was one for his brother after Fuzzy spent a weekend away with grandma.

3 Years 3 Months

1)  Fuzzy's vocabulary is really expanding - reading a book with fold-out characters, he looked at me knowingly.  "That's vewee complicated!"

2)  Our new neighborhood has a pool club, which houses both a regular pool and a baby pool.  Fuzz has been characteristically cautious of the big pool, but his joy when he finally got in was tangible: "MAMA, MAMA, I IN DA BIG POOL!! BECAUSE I A BIG BOY!!"

3)  Although Fuzzy is very sensitive to certain things, he is oddly unaffected by others.  I avoided reading him The Gingerbread Man fairytale for a long time, thinking he wouldn't like the ending.  However, when I finally read to him about the gingerbread man getting eaten, the kid was unmoved:  "Oh, dat woman is going to have to make anodder one."

4)  While staying with my mom, Fuzzy picked up her habit of saying 'oh god.'   Except he says it with her Russian accent and exact intonation: "Oh got!"

5)  The other day, Fuzz announced that he wanted to pee standing up.  He pulled down his underwear, got ready, and then looked at me with a little confusion.  "But Mama, I can't operate my penis."

"What do you mean, you can't operate it?"

"When I operate it, the pee goes there, there, and there," he said pointing all around the toilet.  "How do I operate it?"

Kid, if I knew, lots of ladies would want the secret.

6)  Fuzzy is getting very good at pretend play.  For example, he pretended to be dolphin in the pool.  "I have a tail and flippers, and I have one two free fou five dolphin fwiends.  We like to splash and make bubbles in the water, and we go on a dolphin caraswheel - we sit on the horses with our tails, and hold on with our flippers."

7)  In a triumph for our new dentist, she finally got Fuzzy to start brushing his teeth with real fluorinated toothpaste, like a big boy.  He only swallows it about half the time.

16 Months

1) New words this month:
nigh nigh = night night
moo = cow
mooooon = moon
mine! = mine! (always said very definitively, with that exclamation point on the end)
hi = hi, or high, or occasionally butterfly
eye = butterfly (usually, except when its 'hi')

2)  We're still sort of confused about down and up.  Sprout will often say 'dunnnn' and hold his arms to be picked up.  However, he gets an insane amount of joy from saying 'buh bye' and waving.  Seriously, the grin on his face is worth somebody leaving.

3)  For the first time, I heard the baby utter two words together this month, and in multiple situations.  For example, pointing at my mom's bed: "Baba nigh nigh," or when leaving a fountain: "buh bye wawa!"

4)  Despite his still limited vocabulary, Sprout understands pretty much everything that is going on, and can point to relevant household objects, as well as parts of the body.  I can usually get him to point to eyes, nose, mouth, hair, ears, hands, feet, tummy before he grows bored of our game.

5)  Perhaps because he understands most everything but can articulate so little, he's settled on a really unfortunate banshee scream when he wants something.  Everyone on our new block is hoping this passes soon.

6)  Sprout continues to be the toughest baby on the block, not taking any shit from his big brother.  If Fuzzy pushes him, accidentally or on purpose, Sprout will come back twice as hard with his little fists.  For the most part though, the baby adores his older brother, and tries to copy everything he does.

3 Years 2 Months

1)  Fuzzy has finally, FINALLY learned to tip his head back when I'm washing his hair - "Oh, dat feels nice!"  Yes, yes it does, as I've been trying to tell you for years, you wretched child.  We've ended bath time in tears so very very often, because *someone* refused to either close his eyes or tilt his head backward when the shampoo was washed out.

2)  Fuzz recently requested to stop wearing diapers to bed, and in a major achievement, slept through the night with only underwear on for two whole nights in a row.  No accidents or anything - and then, of course, we moved.

3)  Upon being offered half of The Pit's falafel pita - "No Daddy, give me real food, dat kids eat!"

4)  Fuzz absolutely refused to go down for a nap, and ran away from me screaming to hide in the garage.  I bring out an M&M, he magically appeared.  "Can I have dat?"  "Well, who gets candy?"  "Little boys!"  "Little boys who..." "Listen! Bed!" and ran to lay down.  After dinner, he then asked if he could have more candy, because, and I quote, "I already pooped out the other candy, and now I need more!"

5)  In preparation for the move, we were in the basement sorting toys when Fuzzy turned out the light.  After I implored him to turn them on so I can see the toys, he said, "No mama, we don't need light.  We can pretend we dolphins, and use echolocation."

15 Months

1)  A lot more words this month:

nanda = panda
wow = wow
ah ah, or eee eee eee (and assorted shriekings) = monkey
oof oof or woa woa = dog
mow mow = cat
clicking noise with tongue = bird (sometimes squirrel too)
na = nice (always accompanied by hair stroking - he's being nice, you see, not hitting people)
baooo = balloon
no mo = no more
no = nose
boom = boom (he says this when he falls)
buh bye = bye bye

2)  As referenced above, Sprout's word for falling is 'boom.'  In a terrifying turn of events, I found out he isn't really scared of booming.  We were up on the highest playground structure, which includes a pole for the big kids to slide down.  Sprout walked up to the opening, pointed at the ground 10 feet below, and said 'boom.'  I happily agreed with him, until he up and tried to step off the structure anyway.  Fortunately I grabbed him in time, but my rather pointed cries of "no boom!" did not seem to make much of an impact on the kid.  He tried to the same thing again the next day, and now I'm super paranoid whenever we go to the playground.

3)  Unlike his brother, Sprout has never been a huge fan of books.  Until recently, he typically tolerate just a page or two, and then slammed the book shut with a sense of finality.  If you tried to open it again, he would give you a pointed look and slams it shut on your fingers again.  However, this month Sprout has displayed a little more interest in books.  He will now sit for three or four pages, especially if the book makes sounds or has pictures of things he likes.  Pandas and bananas are very popular with him.  We also recently received a book that makes noises of different animals if you press the buttons - the wolf howling made a great impression on the baby, and now he tries to imitate it whenever he spots the page.

4)  Sprout has been shaking his head "no" for a while now, but this month the gesture got significantly more emphatic.  There is no confusion at mealtimes about whether Sprout wants something or not - if he doesn't, he nearly shakes himself out of the highchair telling us "no."

5)  Sprout likes to throw food off his high chair.  Then he listens with a grin while we tell him, "No, no, no!"  Then he sits there and shakes his finger back at us, presumably explaining that throwing food is a "no no no."  Once all the food is cleaned up, the cycle repeats itself.

6)  However, sometimes his powers of deduction are a little bit stronger.  He was playing with balloon on kitchen floor.  Suddenly, the kid peeled up his shirt, poked at his stomach, and said "baooo?" with a slightly questioning air.  His little round tummy was quite reminiscent, indeed.

7)  In another connection, he recently looked at me to make sure I was paying attention, then poked at diaper, looked at me significantly again, and proceeded to poop.

8)  The baby loves to share his food and feed others.  This food is often half-masticated, taken out of his own mouth, but Sprout will not take "no" for an answer.  You will share his smushed peas, and you will like them.

9)  In a major milestone for the family, we actually moved back to California just before Sprout turned 15 months.  We're staying with my mom for a few weeks until our furniture arrives, and thus far the kids have taken the move with equanimity.  It helped that in anticipation of having grandchildren close by, my mom remodeled her backyard and set up a whole freaking playground in there for them - there are so many new toys here, they haven't even had time to fight over them all.  And yet for all that, the kids spend the most time in this old baby bathtub:

3 years 1 Month

1)  Fuzzy continues to be amusing.  Here's three representative exchanges.

Fuzz: "What's inside a fish?"
Me:  "Ummm..." Stalling for time while trying to think about how to explain organs, bones, and flesh.
Fuzz, while I'm still ummming:  "Fish!"

Fuzz: "Mama, where does meat come from?"
Me:  "From different kinds of animals."
Fuzz:  "What aminals?"
Me:  "Cow."
Fuzz:  "Nooooo."
Me:  "Chicken."
Fuzz:  "Noooo."
Me:  "Pig."
Fuzz:  "Nooo."
Me:  "Well, what kind of animal do you think meat comes from?"
Fuzz, with utter conviction:  "Polar bear!"

Me:  "Did you go to the park today?"
Fuzz:  "No!"
Me:  "No?  I saw that you and Sprout and Maya were gone, and so was the stroller.  Where else could you have been?"
Fuzz:  "Missing!"

2)  Fuzzy developed a new-found fear of the dark, and of his dresser, and consequently hasn't been going to sleep easily.  In desperation, I resorted to science.  "I'm going to give you a very special medicine called a Placebo.  It makes kids sleepy and gives them very good dreams."  Fuzzy was immediately on board.  "Okay!"  Then, after I gave him a syringe full of water out of an old medicine bottle.  "Hey, this is funny, it tastes like water!"  I played it cool.  "Yeah, that is funny."  Fuzzy yawned, stretched, lay down, and said, "Okay Mama, I sleepy now."  Sadly the sleepy effect only lasted a few days, although the kid kept demanding Placebo for several weeks thereafter.

3)  Fuzz has been a little parrot lately, repeating newly discovered information to the closest person he can find, even if said person clearly already heard it.  For example, The Pitt was watching TV when Fuzzy wandered by with me.  The kid was captivated, and pointing at the action, said, "Look at dat!!"  The Pit explained that it was a game called ice hockey.  Fuzzy then turned to me self-importantly, and pronounced very seriously, "Dat ice hockey Mama!"

4)  Fuzz has been joking recently too.  Although...well, let me just recount his last one for you:
Fuzz: "Mama, I will tell you a joke.  Say 'knock knock' Mama."
Me, complying, although I was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to salvage this one: "Knock knock."
Fuzz:  "Who's there?"  ...stares at me expectantly.

5)  Fuzzy has also started lying this month.  And he is *terrible* at it.  As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he starts giggling uncontrollably.

6)  I've been fairly impressed, because Fuzzy is actually remarkably restrained when Sprout hits him, steps on him, pinches him, pulls his hair, or otherwise assaults him.  Sometimes he shoves the baby, but usually he just runs to me and cries.

14 Months

1)  Sprout has slowed down on the new words a little this month:

dunnn = down
blowing noise = dandelion
wawa = water

2)  However, he made up for it with loads of adorable noises.  When staying in Tahoe during our California visit in May, he saw multiple bear statues all over the place.  Now he very happily growls whenever he sees a bear picture.  It's quite a credible effort, I didn't realize such a little throat could make that realistic of a growl.  Sprout has also been happily babbling this month, chattering nonstop nonsense in his car seat and the stroller as we push him along.

3)  During our California trip, my mom brought out a set of plastic golf clubs and balls that she had intended to gift to Fuzzy.  As it turned out, Fuzzy was not particularly interested in this pastime - but Sprout took to golf with great enthusiasm, and more skill then I would have imagined.  He was pretty good at actually hitting the giant balls, and also distressingly good at knocking Fuzzy or his cousin over with the clubs.

4)  There's also been evidence of jealousy from Sprout - when I'm holding both him and Fuzzy, the baby will now make a determined effort to push his big brother out of my lap.  Previously this type of behavior was confined to Fuzzy, and now there is twice the shoving when both of them are feeling territorial.

5)  In a potentially linked behavior, he's also been very snuggly with me in the mornings (he usually moves into our bed sometime between 1 and 3 am).  When he wakes up, he rolls over and adorably squishes himself against me, rubbing his cheeks on me and smiling beatifically if I pat him.  There's really no better way to wake up than with a snuggly, huggy baby.