The boy is twenty-five months old now!
[[image:2014_0129_rafe02.jpg:Happy Adik!:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Speech status: it is unbelievable how many words the boy can say. He is also formulating his own sentences and is a master of imitation. For instance, when we need to give Yaya a time out, we tell her to be quiet and to go sit on the sofa (her time-out area). Adik might run behind her, saying “be quiet, Yaya. Sit onna sofa!” and laughing. He is starting to talk back when he is being scolded. If we tell him “no, you can’t do [XYZ]”, he responds with “YES I CAN!!!”. In fact, “Yes I can” is his answer to every negative response that he receives, on some days. No Adik, don’t stand on the chair. Yes I can! No Adik, stop running with that stick in your hand. Yes I can! Adik, don’t go there. Stay here. Yes I can! You get the gist. The funniest thing is that when we do our nightly round-up of “favorite things” and “least favorite things”, we used to have to make up answers for Adik. Now he participates – he’ll say “Papa, papa I have a question”. And we say, what’s your question? And he launches into “my favorite part about today was…” and then starts mumbling about something. Sometimes it is “fighting”. Fighting? With Yaya? Yes! Fighting with Yaya. Some days it might even be, after hemming and hawing he will say “Oh! I don’t know!” Other days it is “Red ‘jamas” or whatever random thought or most recent thing that he liked that happened. It’s really quite funny. He doesn’t understand the “least favorite” question yet. So we still make up answers for that.
Bedtime is very funny. Adik is now cracking us up when he says good night. Every night when I prompt him: say night-night to Papa. He will respond with “Night-night…ummm…Yaya!” with a mischievous gleam in his eye and he starts laughing hysterically. His laughter and enjoyment at his own joke makes us all laugh with him. I am not sure how he knows that deliberately saying the wrong name, and doing it in such a way that we all know he deliberately said another name is funny. What is clear is that Adik is fast becoming a funny little person and not just the baby of the house.
This month, we got a break from traveling. It has been nice to be home for the whole time, and relax. Despite it being so cold (two polar vortices!) and snowy, it was nice to be at home, all of us together. In fact, we have not even gone out to eat or gotten take out or delivery this entire month of January! We have been cooking and staying in throughout the month. It’s really quite nice.
Bath times have improved. Adik no longer screams and cries and clings to me like a spider monkey. We decided to break out the old blue baby tub (Adik had been bathing happily in the big tub with Yaya until the past month). At first Adik screamed and cried in the little blue baby tub too, but at least he’s kind of wedged in and stuck and cannot stand up and cling to me. I just wash him as quickly as I can and get him out while he keeps screaming “need a towel!!” over and over again. But about halfway through January, he started to relax and now finally is enjoying bathing in the little baby tub again. He plays with the ceboks (water containers? I don’t know – I don’t think there is a proper translation for cebok which is what a person uses to scoop water onto themselves for the purposes of bathing) and several bath toys that Yaya throws into his tub for him. It might be a tight fit and sometimes his legs hang out of the little tub, but for now we are excited that he is no longer screaming and crying at bath-time. However, every time we ask him if he wants to bathe in the big tub with Yaya again, we get a resounding NO! And he runs away. So I guess we are back to the little baby tub until this phase is over.
Adik is starting to understand that putting letters together makes words. He has a toy bull that has “Benny” written on it (in cursive-ish font) and not only was he able to tell us what the letters were even though it wasn’t a standard font, he also recites “B-E-N-N-Y Benny!” and that is becoming a springboard to other words. At his 2-year checkup, his doctor told me that we had to prepare ourselves and ensure that we keep Adik’s mind stimulated given that he not only knew his letters before the age of two, but knew what sound each letter made and was already trying to write them. So I figure, what the hey. He likes letters, we can just keep going with it.
Adik is also now being included in doing artwork with Yaya and has been allowed to play with pens, markers, play doh and even paint. He’s unstoppable now! Anyway, let’s get to the pictures. Caveat: we totally forgot to take pictures because I was on Day 2 of all day teleconference, and that is always hard on everyone! But we remembered after his nap and started taking pictures.
[[image:2014_0129_rafe01.jpg:Did you just remember to take my pictures?:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe03.jpg:Detective Adik is detecting:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe05.jpg:Lounging on the sofa:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe06.jpg:I think his eyes look so pretty here:center:0]]
So a box arrived and that is always cause to celebrate.
[[image:2014_0129_rafe04.jpg:Hey can we open this box?:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe07.jpg:Sticking out his lower lip in defiance! He wants to slide in the box down the stage steps!:center:0]]
Yaya reads to Adik:
[[image:2014_0129_rafe08.jpg:Hello Kitty sticker books are fascinating:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe09.jpg:But what shall we do next?:center:0]]
Adik thinks it is time for some t-ball!
[[image:2014_0129_rafe10.jpg:Mama! Have an idea!:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe13.jpg:Whacking so hard even the tee falls over:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe11.jpg:Swinging for the fences:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe12.jpg:Victory dance while he yells “I win! I win!”:center:0]]
Yaya and Adik have also been enjoying the tent. They ask Vin to build it out of the brown blanket, the counter stools, and various pillows.
[[image:2014_0129_rafe14.jpg:Hi Mama! I see you through the window!:center:0]]
Adik always enjoys oversized footwear:
[[image:2014_0129_rafe15.jpg:Trying on Yaya’s new winter boots:center:0]]
He likes to rearrange furniture:
[[image:2014_0129_rafe16.jpg:Easily picking up and carrying the yellow chair around:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe17.jpg:Sitting by the race car toy so he can sit and play:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe18.jpg:Yes I love the yellow chair!:center:0]]
Lying down on the stage steps (on purpose):
[[image:2014_0129_rafe19.jpg:I’m upside down!:center:0]]
Now of course, January 29 happens to be my birthday. So we pulled out the cake from the freezer (the very one that we forgot to serve at Adik’s birthday party), and lit some candles:
[[image:2014_0129_rafe20.jpg:The family sing happy birthday to me!:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe21.jpg:Let’s blow out the candles:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe23.jpg:Re-light the candles so we can blow them out again!:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe24.jpg:Adik really does love those candles:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe25.jpg:Vin is cutting and serving the cake and Adik wants the candles again:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe28.jpg:Yaya made me an awesome Super Frog card! She invented a super hero for my birthday!:center:0]]
Sadly, neither child ate any of the cake. Bah, humbug! So Vin and I ate a bunch of cake, but if you guys want really good Graeter’s ice cream cake, swing on by! We’ll cut you a piece. Here are some more random shots of what goes on in the house that evening:
[[image:2014_0129_rafe26.jpg:Prince Charming Adik helps Cinder-Yaya put on a glass slipper:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe27.jpg:Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa!:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe29.jpg:Dalek Lily tries to intimidate Adik to no avail:center:0]]
[[image:2014_0129_rafe30.jpg:Pillow fort before bedtime!:center:0]]
Happy 25-month birthday, baby boy! We love you!!
[[image:2014_0129_rafe22.jpg:Me and my babies:center:0]]
