Alex at 2 1/2

When Alex was a baby, I used to marvel over the physical developments from week to week. Now I find myself marveling in the same way over the language developments, too.

Toward the end of last summer, Alex started putting multiple words together. Each. Word. Sounded. Like. A. Sentence. So deliberate. So intentional. I loved it.

"Princess. Daisy. Kiss. Donald. Duck. Frog."

That was his first sentence that I can recall. He was giving a summary of one of his favorite "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" episodes.

Toward the end of last year, his sentences started becoming more fluid. Here are a few phrases he's said over the last few months.

Alex: "What kind of chips got there mommy?"
Me: "White Cheetohs."
Alex: "Oooooo! White Cheetohs!"

Me: "Alex, are you hungry?"
Alex: "Yep. Think so."

Me: "Where's your big pen-pen?" (a "big pen-pen" is a quarter. he initially called pennies, pen-pens.)
Alex: "Hmmm. (while stroking his chin with his thumb and pointer finger) Know. (as in, I don't know.) Upstairs sleeping. Zzzzzzz (makes snoring sound)."

Me: "Eat your cheeseburger."
Alex: "I can't! I broke it!!"

Alex: (about the breast pump) "Mom! Little machine goes 'beck-em, beck-em, beck-em.' Make milk for Roo."

Alex: "Ms. Lauren has nice blue shirt."

Alex: "Oooooo. Nice green shirt, Mom."

Alex: "Daddy is my best friend."

Me: "Alex, do you want peanut butter with your apples?"
Alex: "Peanut butter? No! Peanut butter Jif."

Alex: "Dad, you took my apple juice away. That's not nice. That's not fair." (He says 'that's not fair' a lot but doesn't have a clue what it really means.)

Alex: "What's wrong with Roo? Huh?" (while I have Roo on the changing table early one morning using the aspirator to get snot out of his stuffy nose.)
Me: "I'm trying to get his boogers. He's not happy about it."
Alex. "Oh. Mom! Get my poo-poo up here. (pats the changing table) I'm a stinky boy."

And here's one of my favorites...his first bible verse - Joshua 1:9. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. For God is with you, wherever you go."


This was the first time that he said the verse by himself without repeating it in broken phrases after me. He did leave out 'wherever you go,' but he's got that part down these days. So sweet.

He's also started singing. Be still my heart. I love it. His first song was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." At Christmas he enjoyed singing "Jingle Bells," and now he goes crazy with the alphabet song, too.
 

Alex and Noni spent some time reading together while were in Texas for Christmas. He loved Baa Baa Black Sheep and wanted to "read" the first line himself.
 

They also made up songs to go with one of his Marsupial Sue books. "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm too fast and you're too slow!" They were a hoot to watch singing together!
 

Alex was also a big helper at the grocery store. This was his first time to push one of those little mini buggies. If you weren't loading his buggy up with stuff, he was going to load his own stuff in there! I haven't been brave enough to let him push the cart when I go to the store with both boys by myself. I think I'm going to need a great deal of agility and free hands to keep him reigned in. Ha!

Do you know my other favorite thing Alex has started doing? Pretend play. So much fun to see that little imagination coming alive and the creativity flow. Most of our pretend time is around his market and the play food. He likes to serve ice cream. A lot. And I "eat" it as if it were the best ice cream on the planet.

This little guy is so precious. I adore his sweet spirit and his kind heart. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be his momma. (Or, mom, as he calls me now. That's right. We've already gone from 'momma,' to 'mommy,' to 'mom.' I thought I had at least another couple of years with 'mommy' before we settled into 'mom.')

I love you, sweet boy!