March 2013: 30 months (two and a half years old)

 

Dear Patrick,

• You handled your first day of full-time daycare on Monday March 4th with such ease.  You were excited to see your friend Rivers at school and called the new building “cool.”   Later the director emailed me to say that fifteen minutes after nap started, you feel asleep with the other kids and stayed that way for two full hours.  You ate well, played hard and had a great time!  Why was I even worried.
• The family started this month with three full days of the "pukie-poos" and it was quite an ordeal.  We warned friends, “don’t even drive by this house.”
• You are fickle.  “Yes, I want crunchies.  No, I do not want crunchies.  Yes I do.”  You can change your mind in an instant - its like living with vacillating, moody, erratic, unpredictable, crazy chameleon.  And then you get angry that we can’t follow your train of thought.  Your dad has actually had to say to me, “Just don’t talk to him for a moment.”
• I love when you clarify a statement by saying, “for sure.”  The other day you told me, “We can make chocolate milk.  For sure.”
• You love: lollipops, squishy play-dough, bird seed, bracelets, trampolines, golf clubs as hockey sticks, the snort in Home Depot, dirt, Monkey Joes, the Cars Movie, the wall at school that has the toys which you have to play with “just for a min” almost everyday before we leave.
• You laugh really hard at the Winnie the Pooh movie - especially when Tigger bounces or Pooh’s tummy grumbles.  We found the movie “on demand” so now you watch it most mornings before school while you drink your chocolate milk (with the egg your father hides inside!)
• Twice this month you woke in the middle of the night and needed some extra hugs and love (and you asked for cheese balls but we didn’t oblige). You may have been hungry or you may have had a bad dream.  Your dad rocked you back to sleep and put you in your crib both times. You have such a great dad.
• I recognize that this may be too much information, but you pooped on the potty this month all by yourself and got an M&M.  (Your father and Uncle Michael should also be given a bag of M&Ms for their encouragement and clean-up!) When I congratulated you, you smiled shyly and said, “you are so proud of me.”  More than you’ll ever know.
• Things this month that cause you to cry - and I mean cry with actual stress & real tears: Cooper the dog sniffed you.  Your cup won’t balance on the sofa.  Your veggie straw broke into two (and you wanted only one)!  Your sock hurt.  Your hands are asleep.  You do not want to take a bath.  You do not want to get out of the bath.  Gravity.
• Patrick, I’d like to take a moment to tell you that at two and a half years old you are already such a secure, confident person.  That doesn’t mean you aren’t shy or unsure at times, but you just seem to be simply “solid,” as your Pop would say.  I wanted to make this observation because I think sometimes people underestimate the strengths that come easy to them.  You are innately kind and happy, and you should know its been a part of your core from day one. 

I love you very much,
Mom 

more photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200667244460870.1073741827.1153490639&type=1&l=e612172b08