Alex at 25 months

I never thought I’d call Alex by number of months after he reached 1 year. I met a mom once in the park who called her almost 3-year-old daughter 35 months and I remember thinking that was a bit too complicated – why not just say she was almost 3? I now understand why it matters… The reason being that little ones accomplish so much from month to month! They pack as much as they can in their little heads every single day. Alex can say so much and do so many new things. I love watching him grow and learn. He’s my sunshine and makes every day an adventure.

Dear Alex,

At twenty-five months:

You weigh 13.5 kilos (nearly 30 lbs) and are over a meter tall (93 cm to be exact)!

You call yourself “Alice”. When anyone calls you otherwise, you quickly correct them with the ‘proper pronunciation’ of your name.

You can clearly say many words. A few of your favorites are: up, back, more, look, pink, pumpkin, socks, cow, cat, book, cookie

You call me ‘mommy’ (big upgrade since my previous name ‘dada’) and Daddy is ‘pappy’

You keep phone calls short. A normal conversation goes something like this: “H-e-l-l-o… Pappy… Yep… Bye….. Ciao” and you end by kissing the phone.

You almost always use your manners. I love hearing you say please and “tee-taw” (thank you). You receive many compliments from other mommies about your good manners, which makes me proud.

In the morning, the first thing on your mind is breakfast. When I pick you up, you extend your arm and point your index finger towards the kitchen. As we head towards that direction, you plant a big kiss on my cheek.

Your favorite breakfast items are yogurt, bread with butter & jelly, oatmeal, and bananas.

You can’t stand wearing socks and take them off the first chance you get. Same goes for clothes – as soon as we get inside you start undressing from head to toe.

When you go poop, you say “poopy” and point to your diaper. You then want your diaper changed ASAP. If I’m not fast enough, you’ll start taking the diaper off yourself.

You’re scared to go to the bathroom on the big potty. Just mentioning the word “bathroom” or “potty” makes you anxious.

You love going to Music Together class and having all the attention on you as you dance around in the middle of the circle.

You enjoy going to daycare on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. You love all of your friends there and they love you. Your friends say you’re so lustige (German word for funny)! When I come to pick you up, you never want to leave.

You get so excited about tools (both the real ones and your plastic ones). You and your multiple tool belts are inseparable from sun up to sun down!

You know where almost all of the body parts are and can point to them upon request.

I can barely get you to sit down in the bath tub now-a-days. You end up taking more showers than baths.

You’re picky when it comes to food (unless you’re really hungry, then you’ll eat almost anything). You will however eat practically anything that has tomato sauce on it. Sometimes I sneak other vegetables in the sauce, luckily you don’t seem to notice yet. =)

Some of your favorite fruits are clementines, pears, and grapes.

You love being a helper in the kitchen. Pouring ingredients and stirring are your specialties.

You love being given directions. Most of the time you follow through. Example – when asked to pick up your toys, you put them back neatly in their containers.

You decide when mommy should do laundry. Sometimes just for fun, you drag the clothes hamper into the bathroom and start loading up the washer.

You get personally offended when I unload the washing machine or dishwasher by myself.

You’ve mastered several different types of laughs (including a fake laugh and a rather evil one)

You can hear me eating a treat from a mile away and come running at the slightest crumple of a candy wrapper.

You give kisses to everyone/anyone you come in contact with (including little girls at church that don’t want ‘boy cooties’)

You agree to almost everything by saying “yep”, unless you know it’s something you really don’t like (for example: getting teeth brushed).

When you get a boo boo, you say “owwwwwwie” and then you give yourself a kiss wherever it hurts. If I give you an ice pack for your boo boo, you put it on a completely different spot.

You love coloring with crayons, markers, colored pencils and finger paint. I think markers are your favorite.

You’d wear rain boots every single day if I let you – even though they’re 2 sizes too big.

You are so smart. You’re always trying to figure out how things work, especially with zippers, buckles and snaps.

When we’re outside and your legs get tired, you run around to the front of the stroller and try to hop in before it comes to a stop.

You love recycling! It must be the Swiss coming out in you, but you absolutely love putting plastic bottles into recycling bins and get mad when I put any in without your assistance.

Your favorite expression is “uh-oh”

Whenever mommy or daddy gets down on the floor to play with you, the first thing you do is hop on our backs and say “hee haw”

If you’re not sure what type of animal you see in a book or real life, you assume first that it’s a donkey.

You love making all sorts of animal noises!

Reading books is your favorite part about bedtime. After your bath/shower, you grab several books for mommy or daddy to read, but for some reason you insist on reading only one of the books several times in a row (we recently read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at bed-time for almost a week straight).

You won’t go to bed until you’ve given both mommy and daddy a dozen kisses each.

You love singing. Throughout the day you sing songs with different melodies and at night you often sing yourself to sleep.

Happy 25 months Alex! We love you very much!