Almost two years nine months

I read through the last post I did on Leo, when he was two and a half, to see what I had written. He's now about to be two and nine months and not much has really changed.

His speech just keeps getting better and better, becoming more easily understandable to people beyond his parents. He's using some simple verb tenses, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives. He will often sit down and chat away to himself (or some toy) for very long periods of time. His toys even have long conversations with each other, via their puppeteer.

He's at the stage when he repeats EVERYTHING you say, no matter how long and complicated. The longer your sentence is, the more he'll stammer over it, but he gets it all out eventually (if unclearly). He is also getting better with the written aspect of our language. He repeats the alphabet back to you, saying every letter extremely well except L (for Leo) and N (for Nicky, which he pronounces Micky) - I guess we made pretty poor choices in kids' names! His favorite letter is W, which he thinks is very funny.

Spanish also improves whenever we visit friends and other kids. The strange thing to me is that he will instantly use the language with which someone addresses him, and doesn't seem to confuse the two. Whenever someone comes to the house, he likes to be the one who goes outside, shakes their hand, holds the door open and says "Pase-le" (come in), which of course people find adorable. Unknown visitors, who come to see what we are doing here, are all referred to by him as "Peoples" or "Peoples and kids".

His memory is something that continually amazes me. We'll see, do or say something that triggers something in that little mind of his that happened months ago. At times, we struggle to keep up, and we'll look at each other a little confused. But then we remember what he's talking about, and realize how glorious a young mind and memory is! A couple of weeks ago, I was going through family photos for a calendar I put together and he could remember so many of their names. It doesn't surprise me that he would remember grandparents and some of his aunts and uncles, with whom we skype with and see in person fairly regularly. However, when he saw, for example, his uncle Bruce's photos (whom he has seen a total of two times in his life), he instantly beamed and shouted "Bruce" - I guess Bruce made a big impression!

He sings more and more. He loves any movie with a song and especially ones he can pick out words from. Whenever we go out in the car, he usually starts the journey naming all the things he can see (tree, rock, horse, cow, bird, sun, etc.), then lapses into a song of some unknown origin.

One huge advancement is his independence in the toilet area. He can now pull up and down his own pants, and has, over the last month, learned to "pee like a man" (ie. standing up. Like any other man, he only gets one or two drops of pee on his pants!). So we are no longer needed for his bathroom needs. Great.

He is getting more and more stubborn and defiant. He's into a stage of testing his boundaries, and we find that a lot of our tricks and bribes no longer work. I'll be cooking and hear a very firm "no" in answer to an order from Abe (like put that knife down right now). I'll look over at the two of them and they will be staring each other down (in a way that frankly makes me love each of them even more!). Of course Abe always wins, which is hard for the little guy to accept, but there are times when he just can't be allowed to get away with things. Defiance is one of those things that is very frustrating for a parent to deal with, especially when you are trying to tell them something for their own good. It is however a trait, a spark, that I like to see my son has, he just needs to learn when and how to use it. (Remind me I said that some time in the future when I am screaming and ripping my hair out that Leo deliberately disobeyed me, again, in some matter or other!!).

He is very interested in my growing belly and likes to kiss, pet and talk to it. I've already started preparing things for the baby (a little early for nesting, I realize), and Leo points and things and says "when Nicky comes". It's going to be interesting to see how he'll handle his little brother in the flesh. When his little playmates come up here to our house, Leo is very courteous, sharing all his toys happily and even showing them ones they hadn't noticed. Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come.

Christmas was a blast with him. Abe and I never really celebrated it much when we were on our own, but now we have started again. And it's a lot of fun seeing it through the eyes of a small child. Leo put cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve and was amazed to see them gone in the morning. He looked at the empty plate and presents with a look of awe rather than excitement. "Santa come. Santa flies." He then got to open his gifts, and spent the WHOLE day engrossed in playing with them. He still talks about Santa, but knows that he's now gone home, to where it's cold. We can't wait til next year!

For more photos, click here.