Here we have your two favorite things in the whole wide world: firetruck PJs and race car diapers (or "boppers" as you call them)

The theme of the moment is Growing Up. You're growing up. Fast. You've slimmed down a lot. Your "buddha belly" is melting away. (In case anyone wonders, that's not an Asian reference. The belly really did seem Buddha-esque.) Your cheeks are losing their fullness. You've gotten so tall. You can now handily reach the stair rail, where it used to be out of your grasp.

Speaking of stairs, you're nearly a climbing pro. It takes my breath away to watch you haul butt up the steps after so many months of hovering over you and of extending my finger for you to grip. You still ask for the finger, I think to stabilize, but you often just go, go, go without anyone's assistance. And you like to, after checking with Mommy first, "Jump down!" from the last step sometimes.

You're counting to 10 regularly, although you have something against the number six. You used it quite a bit in the beginning, but it must have done something to offend you since you leave it out consistently these days. You're also reciting the ABCs up to about "H" before losing interest. And when we go through an Animal ABC book that we have, you're very good at, when Mommy says, "B is for...", chiming in with "BEAR!" You get about 75% of the animals right. I don't blame you at all for confusing jaguar and tiger (which you simply call "RARRRRR!) or for calling a quail a bird. They all look so similar sometimes.

You do, as I mentioned above, have many favorite things. Nearly all involve wheels. You love lugging your cars and trucks around with you from room to room. And your favorite book is one that's filled to the brim with vehicles: Richard Scary's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. You call it your "car book".

There's more. There's always more. I just wish I could document it all as it happens. I'm doing my best to get the moments up here and save them for you. I hope you'll be able to look back on these observations and see how much Mommy and Daddy adore you. Because we do. Very much!

Posted on August 29, 2006 08:45 PM