Lovin on your brother
Raiding Momma’s makeup bag
Pure joy and excitement over Thomas!
Like Father like Son
Reading stories to Roger
Trying on some glasses– future nerd alert!
Cooking up a storm
Enthralled with the tiger
Morning Thomas the Tank Engine cuddles
You love to sleep in the car!
So enthusiastic about food!
Playing with trains
Dear Gregory,
You are a little over 2.5 years old. There are so many things that we love about you, that it takes Mommy a few days to compile it all!
The biggest thing we want to remember about this stage of life with you is your extremely joyful spirit. We asked your Uncle David what he thought of you, and the first thing he said was, “He makes me want to be a happier person! He’s always so cheerful!”. And it’s true– you are enthusiastic, over-the-top excited, and want to giggle hysterically about everything. You greet the members of your family with sheer and utter joy, and you love to interact and sing/dance with people. You have a special “Happy Dance” that you break into whenever you are especially exuberant about something and just can’t contain yourself.
You talk ALL the time. We love the way you talk to yourself about what you’re doing, saying,”YEAH” in reply to all of your little suggestions. You will reiterate the days’ events for us in a sweet little voice, remembering little details that even we’d forgotten. Our favorite sayings of yours: “Thank-oo Mama!” (high voice), “What issit?” (pointing to all sorts of stuff), “Cookie for cookoopoofs!” (thanks David!).
You also are having trouble pronouncing a few words, making it sound (at times) like you are screaming obscenities, especially the F word. You have caused your Momma more than few embarrassing moments in public!
Your funniest conversations occur when you’re playing with your Thomas trains. You re-enact all of the little TV episodes you’ve seen, chastising engines, making them best friends, telling them to be patient, etc…You play with your trains around 70% of your waking day. We received a train table from a friend, and you LOVE it!
The other thing you love to play is church. You use the kitchen cabinets are your “Royal Doors”, take cups and put a cloth over them to simulate “cuh-moon-un”, sing Alleluiahs all over the house at the top of your lungs, and hold books high in the air as though you’re reading scripture. You use hangers as your “censor” and have a special technique that no one else can master (although you stubbornly try to instruct us!). You have a funny little way of crossing yourself that looks like you beating your chest– super cute!
Two more things you are obsessed with– windshield wipers (Dadda turns them on in the car on random so that we can hear you squeal in delight!), and helping Mamma sweep. You also pretend to cook with your new pots and pans from ikea. You describe all of the funny concoctions you are making, like “Oranges soup!”.
You seem to be obsessed with whatever sport is currently on TV, probably because your dad is always watching a game or two. You watch intently, then mimic their mannerisms exactly. For example, you grab Momma’s softball glove, pretend you’re on a pitching mound, look left then right, pretend to throw to first, then raise a leg and throw it. Your batting stance has also gotten a lot better because you’ve been watching hitters pivot as they swing!
When you are shooting hoops with Dadda outside, you say tons of hilarious things like, “That’s MONEY right there!” when he makes it, or “AIRBALL!” when he doesn’t. You usually are super encouraging, saying things like, “Wow Dadda good shot!”. You love to point out the free throw line and the 3 point line. A few times, the ball has almost hit you and you’ve looked at Dadda and said, “woah! SCARED!”. This is the first time we’d ever heard you mention being scared when we’re not referencing the “roller coaster” from Happy Hollows!
You LOVE to sing. Your cutest renditions right now are “Old MacDonald” (you love to name all the animals!), Patty Cake, and Happy Birthday (you carry a “cake” around the house and pretend to blow out candles, complete with the “underwater” Cone version). You also like it when we sing to you, and you have a specific order of bedtime songs that you make us follow everytime– “You Are My Sunshine”, “O Theotokos”, “Close Your Eyes”, “O Gladsome Light”, and the tuck-in song, “The Eyes of All”. Whenever music is on, you automatically start swaying your hips to the beat and break into some HILARIOUS dance moves!
You’ve also become a great big brother. You constantly bring toys for Baby Wee, and even when you have a moment of selfishness and take something away from him, you immediately try to replace it with something else. You’ve established a “screech-call” together that keeps you both giggling hysterically as you yell it back and forth in the mornings. Last night, we heard Anthony in the other room crying. When we ran into investigate, you told us that you’d taken the ball away from Wee because it was “too small” and he wasn’t supposed to have it. You seemed concerned, like you really wanted to care for your brother’s safety!
Before bed, you love to wrestle wildly with Dadda, then give big open mouth smooches to everyone (Dadda has to remind you to close your lips! ew!), then ride piggy back upstairs to bed. You also still use a “die-die” (pacifier), but we’re working on that 🙂
You are super affectionate. You sign “I Love You!” to people all the time now, and it’s just the cutest thing ever.
When you don’t like something, you’re very clear about it. For example, when you don’t want to wear a particular pair of shoes, you cry over and over again that they’re “too big! too big” even though the opposite it usually true. It’s just your way of saying you don’t like them. You STILL don’t like swings, and you only occasionally like slides. Now that we’ve started counting to three before giving you a spanking or time-out, you’re very obedient 90% of the time. Everyone’s noticed how much more cooperative you are. Sometimes, as we’re counting, you sit there staring at us, and when we get to three, you end with a shout, “NO SPANKING!”.
You LOVE animals. You get a huge kick out of the deer that come to roost on our lawn, and watch them at the window for hours. You also love the zoo! We’ve taken you to the Sacramento Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo (last summer), our small Charles Paddock zoo (1-2x/month), and Happy Hollows (more of an amusement park).
This last March, you got a new toddler bed. You took to it right away without any transition period. Since you did start waking up super early as a result, we got you an “OK TO WAKE” owl, which you love to show off to everyone (also, as a result, when we ask you what owls say, you reply, “Hoo-hoo”, then sing a little song, just like your owl!). You have a recurring nightmare that you’ve pooped all over the bed, so I often have to convince you that you’re completely dry in the mornings 🙂
Last but not least, you had your first Easter Egg/Pascha celebration this year! You love eating all the food, and we are still slowly making our way through your Pascha candy (occasionally you get one as a treat). You have a cute rendition of “Christ is Risen”, wherein you combine the last three lines of the song into one 🙂
Some of your best sayings/conversations:
Me: Thomas and Percy are best friends!
Gregory: Yeah.
Me: Who’s your best friend?
Gregory: Me! I’M my best friend!
Gregory: “I was NAWty.”
Me: “How were you naughty?”
Gregory: “I got time-out.”
Me: “Yes you did. How were you naughty? What did you do to Baby Wee?”
Gregory: “I took him out. On the carpet.”
Real conversation I just overheard from Gregory: “There’s a bat and a ball! Gregory plays baseball! Homerun! Yay for Gregory! There’s the ball again! The ball is soft. Poopy is soft. Eeeewy poopy. Don’t hit poopy.”
Gregory keeps telling the ice cubes in his cup to “take a bath!”. Seriously, could my kid get any cuter?
I told G that Dadda was picking up a surprise from MissTracy, and now he’s running around frantically looking in every box he can find, saying, “Surprise in there? Surprise in there? It’s a Toby car, I jus know it!”
Me:” Who loves you, Gregory?”
Gregory: “Nana, Awntee Em, Awntee Brookie, Unk-ul Ray Ray…”
Whenever I ask Gregory to do something, he responds with, “Okay, jus-a-minute. Be pash-unt.” So polite in his procrastination. Just like his Momma.
Gregory Singing: “A-B-C-D-S-I-J, Apples and Oranges, Kisses for Roger!”
We love you a ton, Gregory. You are turning into the little boy we’d always dreamed about!
Love, Momma
Slow For The Cone Zone 