Emilio - 2.5 years

Emi, Emi, Emi...! You are a handful!!! You have always been very intense, but the last little while has been full on toddler energy!  and it hasn't always been easy, but the hardships definitely don't even begin to define your sweet, happy, smart and vivacious self.

No doubt you are the life of the party when you are happy. You are affectionate, full of joy, a chatterbox and super sociable. You give, hands down, the BEST hugs in the universe. You are so affectionate and such a sweet heart, you just can't hide it. You are also so enthusiastic about everything, you always want to be in the middle of the action, and the words "exhausted", "rest" and "quiet" mean nothing to you. You are just not interested in being calm or taking a break. Instead, you want to be part of all the action at all times, and that 90% of the time means being near your brother and sticking your nose in his business at all cost.

You are also a super strong, athletic little guy. You are like a tiny body builder. Your physical ability is impressive, people always comment on how fast, strong, and coordinated you look for your age. Your fine motor skills are also amazing, and the things you are able to do with your little fingers blow my mind.

All this energy and personality, however, sometimes seem to come at a high cost, ha! don't get me wrong, you are so cute and sweet it hurts just to look at you. But I think toddlerhood sometimes is just such a miserable time for little guys, with all its frustrations and inability to communicate them verbally, it just makes ground for perfect storms in a lively guy like you. 

One of the challenges we deal with on a daily basis is that, added to your strength, you have developed the most annoying and loud screams on earth. Meaning every time you don't get what you want, how you want it, you just go ballistic, and I have a hard time coping with that, sometimes for an entire hour, on and off throughout the day. If you wake up in a bad mood, you can be a pain all morning and not compose yourself really until after nap time. 

Some nights you don't sleep so well and you wake up crying as if in terrible pain, or have night terrors that make you act like crazy screaming and rolling around all over the floor, and nothing will make you stop.  We haven't quite figured out what is going on there. And sometimes it happens night after night, to the point we are starting to think there might be a food allergy involved. Those days you are no fun to be around during the day.

Too many bubbles...

This brings me to breastfeeding and why we, or I, haven't built up the courage to wean you completely. You still nurse to have a nap and to go to sleep at night, and when you wake up through the night (which is still often). I am so ready to stop nursing, since you are now pretty demanding and you just like to treat my body as if  I am made of Playdo, which is not very enjoyable. But I am just scared of your reaction if I just refused to nurse you :S. I am also so afraid you are going to be heart broken, but I guess everyone feels like that...

Other little quirks you have developed are having a banana every morning, but it has to be an unopened one (even if you have already had part of one minutes before), and you have to say when, where and how we opened it, or else we will have to pick out a new banana and start over. You are following Paulo's steps in the quirks department, as you start to demand milk a certain way, in a specific bottle. You also hate wearing shoes and sweaters (which makes for INTERESTING morning routines), and you are OBSESSED with the word "dangerous/peligroso)" as well as actual dangerous objects which you want to always have, such as blades, knifes, screwdrivers, etc. 

Last, some of your favourite things are eating, running wild, watering plants... and your brother. You guys are on each other all the time, but you are just crazy in love with your brother. You have to say all the same things, imitate everything he does, wear the same clothes, to the point you want to wear his clothes even if they don't fit. You always want to sleep in his bedroom at bed time, right until the last minute when you bail and just come to your own bed to nurse. And when you two do get along and play, you play SO WELL. You giggle and run and jump around so much, my heart could explode.

I could go on and on for pages so I will just stop here. I love you more than I will ever be able to say. You are my little bichito :).

Paulo - 4.5

Paulo, Paulito, Muneco,

You have grown so much! you are such a little boy now. You have just finished your 1st year of Kindergarten and you have moved on the Senior Kindergarten and French Immersion in September!!

First I want to say I am so proud of everything you have learned and the big effort you put into that school year. You had such a positive spirit about it. Not once did I hear you complain about not wanting to go to school, and even if some days you were a little sad and not staying at home, you still went and had a good time.

You have learned all your letters, to read and write them, and are starting to notice what words start with which letters. You can count to 100 with some assistance (basically all the 10s, 20s, 30s, etc, instead of saying "twenty-ten" for example), and you can also write most numbers, with the exception of the same ones I used to have trouble with, like switching the 2 for the 5, 6 for 9 etc).

But despite all the academics you learned, that was not the most important achievement in my eyes. I think you kicked butt at learning to make friends and coming out of your shell. You started out this quiet little boy, very shy and a bit afraid maybe of those older boys. But by the end of it you were just part of them and made some really good friendships like your best friend Jayden. You were also known with your teachers for being very kind, polite, sweet, and inquisitive.



And with age also comes a bit of light of what growing up will be like. You are indeed very inquisitive, very observant and analytic. You want to know why EVERYTHING. And you are now starting to notice what people do and say. You will often apply my logic when I am arguing with you. You will ask me what are "good words" and "bad words", why people use them, etc. You will ask things like "what happens when someone dies" and "is death like sleeping", "why does so and so have 2 moms", you will ask about body parts, and private parts :). For a while there you were OBSESSED with smoking: what is smoking, why do people smoke, why do they smoke if it makes them sick, can boys smoke, what happens if boys smoke, why do people throw their cigarrette butts on the ground, etc. Needless to say, some of your questions throw me for a loop, give me anxiety or just plain scare me.

One of your biggest challenges right now is to cope with your brother. When he pokes you, hits you, yells at you , etc, which is often, you just take it, and then come to me crying. It is hard on all of us because it happens all the time. So we are trying to work on getting you to express your feeling to your brother and to stand up for yourself by telling him to stop, and work out those little issues between the two of you. A big job and not easy. But sometimes you are very patient, and it is evident to me that even if he drives you nuts, you always look out for your brother and you do enjoy playing with him.

 One thing I have noticed lately and which I love, is that you have developed a little positive dialogue inside. As in, when I spill something on the floor and get mad about it, you will say "don't worry, it won't stain the floor", or if your dad breaks something by accident, you will say "don't worry daddy, it still works".

On the flip side, another thing we are working on is on helping you cope when you get a "NO". You are just not very used to hearing a no and accepting. You are always negotiating with us and you are so persistent, we have gotten used to giving in to a degree. However, we have realized that sometimes this is a bit harmful, since you just can't cope with a no, when we finally mean it. This is a tough one for you, but I trust we will eventually teach you there is life after a "no".

Finally, some of your favourite things are definitely sports, building toys, and art. Most of your time is spent either riding your bike, which you LOVE, playing soccer (which you are very good at), swimming, etc; You also spend a lot of time playing with your Lego, Plus Plus, Magna Tiles, or any kind of building toy; also, painting, making collages, or folding/taping paper is also right up on your list of things you enjoy doing. All this has developed your little imagination and I can proudly say that you prefer any of these things way more than watching TV, and you will often ignore or flat out turn off the TV to go play one of these things.

Paulo, I could have a job talking about all I love about you but I will finish here, just to tell you, you are a sweet, silly, happy and smart little boy. You are persistent, friendly, confident, kind and easy to get along. I love you muchisimo my little guy :).