Twenty-seven months old now!
[[image:2014-adik27month-03.jpg:Ooo-chak! Peekaboo!:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for comments
Speech status: There is nothing this child can’t say. He does have trouble with Malay or Spanish though, but English, he’s good. He speaks in full sentences. He does, adorably, sound like Ming Ming saying his Ls and Rs exactly like she does. Is this a symptom of watching too much Wonder Pets during my pregnancy? Perhaps. I love how he says “Bradley” (the name of his stuffed bearcat). It ends up being “Byadyey”. For whatever reason, this just makes me laugh and laugh.
He is also learning to introduce himself. “Hi, my name’s Adik” (or sometimes Rafiq or Rafe). Shakes hands. He also loves pretending we have different names. “Mama, your name Siwa?” I say Yes, Adik. My name is Sila. He says “Not! MY name is Siwa!” And he laughs at his own joke, and I have to laugh with him because he’s so funny. Sometimes he comes running and says “I’m Alya Jean”. And laughs and laughs. Sometimes when we are playing this game, I say that my name is Rafiq Charles and that also makes him laugh. Funny guy loves to make jokes and laughs. He doesn’t really cry very much at all – even when he falls down and gets a cut or a scrape, his tears are momentary. He’s perfectly fine after a hug and a kiss. He doesn’t even seem to feel the hurt when he’s bathing. I know I always hated taking a bath after taking a spill, but he doesn’t seem to mind at all.
Adik loves to break into song – and lately he’s been singing grown up songs and not as much the kiddie songs. So we are treated to I’m Yours by Jason Mraz, Hey Soul Sister, by Train, TNT by AC/DC, and a few others. He is very funny when he throws himself into it and rocks out, microphone and dance moves included.
Bedtimes – what a change! Keeping in mind the spring forward and being so tired of Adik going to bed after 11 o’clock, we adjusted him by leaving off his nap. He is a bear between the hours of 5-9 PM but he adjusted well! He now goes to bed between 9:30 and 10 PM and falls asleep very quickly. However, he doesn’t seem to want to take a nap now. We thought we would just switch him to going to bed earlier, with an earlier afternoon nap, but he seems to have just skipped the nap entirely. He sleeps for 11-12 hours a night though so he is getting enough sleep. It is making for a happier household. It had been a huge struggle before – to get him to take a nap, and then to get him to fall asleep at bedtime. But the nap-skipping seems to have done the trick. He’s not even super terrible in the afternoons anymore. On the off days that he does fall asleep in the afternoon (he did that once at the beach), he does stay up later at night. And although he stays up even later, he still gets up at his usual time, even with a short 30-minute nap. So it might be in everybody’s best interest to just skip the nap entirely.
Bathtimes: Adik does love playing in his little blue bath tub and there have been no tears. In the hotel for work in PA, he even went in the big bathtub with Yaya – there was a bit of a struggle but it wasn’t too awful. At the beach, we showered together and he loves showers! So maybe he is switching to showers faster than Yaya has. Yaya consented to showers at the beach since we couldn’t run a bath for her after every pool/beach session. It’s all working out, alhamdulillah!
And the really big thing is that Adik is reading more and more words. He is constantly surprising us by calling out words (like on a billboard or signboard). He keeps asking us “what spells?” and pointing to words in books, magazines, and on the computer. He doesn’t limit himself to his own books either. He will take a grown up book out of your hands (or off the bookshelf) and start reading that too. He loves reading the titles of books on the spines of books in the bookshelves in the office, and making words (or asking us to make the words) using the letter magnets. Words that he now reads and recognizes include:
* ZEBRA
* BEAR
* WOLF
* BAKER
* BREAD
* SUGAR
* NOW
* MAMA
* YAYA
* PAPA
* QUIET
* TOY
* BACK
* BLACK
* HOP
* POP
Some of them are definitely Dr Seuss’s words, but others are random words that he asked about or words that he saw on the bookshelves. In any case, this is all at his own insistence. We only do as he requests. It is very exciting. When he looks at words in Malay, he’s pretty funny. For instance, K-U-C-I-N-G = CAT! 🙂
We had work travel and then a week at Clearwater Beach, FL this month. Unfortunately for poor Adik, his month-birthday fell on the day that we started home from Clearwater (day 1 of driving). We drove until about midnight that day so the pictures aren’t super exciting. I have included pictures of breakfast at the hotel in Clearwater Beach (rather than in the vacation entry) just because they are some of the best pictures taken on his actual birthday. Enjoy!
[[image:2014-adik27month-01.jpg:Good morning!:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-02.jpg:Yaya and Adik are ready for breakfast:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-04.jpg:Singing while waiting to be seated at the restaurant:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-05.jpg:Papa and Adik:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-06.jpg:Is it time yet?:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-07.jpg:Adik shows off his “winking” skills:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-08.jpg:Gnom gnom:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-09.jpg:Cereal for breakfast:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-10.jpg:Sitting on the hotel lobby floor after breakfast:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-13.jpg:He picked up the family elevator stance:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-11.jpg:Oblivious to the whirlwind of packing that Vin and I are engaged in:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-12.jpg:The picture doesn’t show it clearly but Adik is playing with his shadow:center:0]]
Time to get in the car and drive.
[[image:2014-adik27month-14.jpg:I’m buckled in!:center:0]]
We drove for a while and at about 5 PM we stopped to eat:
[[image:2014-adik27month-15.jpg:Serious discussion on what to order:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-16.jpg:Selfie!:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-18.jpg:Crayons and such:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-19.jpg:Laughing at Yaya:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-20.jpg:Laughing at Papa:center:0]]
[[image:2014-adik27month-21.jpg:Shadow puppets with Papa shining his flashlight app:center:0]]
Then we drove for many more hours and found refuge in Rome, GA. Traffic was crazy. Spring break is not a good time to drive. Happy 27-month birthday, baby boy! Sorry you had to sit in the car for so long and you were such a good boy. We love you!!
[[image:2014-adik27month-17.jpg:Thpttt selfie!:center:0]]
