Emilio - 2 Years Old

Emilio, bichito. I have been trying to write a post about you since you were 1 and a half, but you have kept me so busy, it turns out this one is going to have to be about your 2nd Birthday.

I just cant believe we are at this stage of your life. I have vivid memories of when your brother turns two, just before you were born. He seemed like such a big boy, or at least that's how I remember it. Yet I see you at this age and you are still sort of a baby. Except you can cause soooo much more trouble, ha! I look back at when you were born and it feels like you were born in the middle of a whirlwind. Your daddy had just started a new job, your brother just started staying at home with me, I had two jobs, one part-time job in downtown and another contracting job at home. We were moving across the country with this family and a tiny little baby, we were going to Mexico for a month!

Phew, then we finally managed to move here to Ottawa and that first year of your life was SO TOUGH on me. Living in a new city had not much to do with that. But just the amount of craziness I had to deal with being at home with you, a brand new baby, and your brother, the two-year-old. 

Last year your brother started school and you instantly became my little sidekick. You are such a sweet heart little boy. You have become quite the trouble maker lately (which I will talk about in a moment) but in essence, you are such a sweet boy. 

Superficially, you are just over the top handsome. You turn heads everywhere you go and people always comment on what a beautiful boy you are and what a knock out you will be when you grow up. You have the widest, brightest eyes, and the most beautiful smile, with all teeth but half a molar in it. 

You are such a happy, loving little boy. If you wake up in a good mood, which used to be almost every day, you just run around, you dance, you scream and jump in happiness. You light up a room. you are a loud and cheeky little monkey. You are also VERY affectionate. You give the best kisses, cuddles and hugs. You are the most affectionate with me, and will come up to me and just give me a big kiss in the mouth. you are so sweet. You have also become quite attached to your daddy in the last few months, and you love giving him big hugs, climbing on him and just rough housing in general. But when you are tired or hungry, you want no one but mommy.

Speaking of tired and hungry, you are still nursing, mostly at night. You always nurse to nap, and sometimes when you wake up cranky. You always nurse to sleep at night and still wake up tons in the night. You have gone through months of terrible teething pains and that basically destroyed my sleep and sanity, since you were latched on to me every minute of the night, scratching my chest and just doing all kinds of annoying things that drove me to the point of deciding to night wean you. We started to try and it was so tough, and then you got sick with pink eye and a cough and it all went out the window. At the moment you are going through some bad days again and I am just anxiously waiting so we can start over with the night weaning. 

Your latest most annoying quirks (besides the fact that in general, you entered the terrible two's full force, as if you didn't have a strong head already) are that you HATE wearing a diaper at night, to the point that if I put one on: a. you will cry and scream so loud you could probably throw up b. you wake up every 30 mins of the night pissed off because you are wearing a diaper. 

The other annoying thing about you lately is that you have decided that you HATE winter and everything about it. You want nothing to do with going outside, getting bundled up, and on top of it, you want me to stay inside with you at all times. I cannot tell you enough what a pain in the butt you have been in the last month, ha! 

You started Playschool in September and had a rough start, but now you are used to it and I think even enjoy it, except for the fact that I am not there. You were handling it okay until this recent bad phase you are having, and now you are having huge separation anxiety issues, even with your Nana!!! who you had no problem staying with before.

On good days, you will  wake up around 7 a.m., sleep no more that 1 hour and 15 mins, from about 11.30 or 12 to 12.45 or 1.15 p.m. and then go to sleep around 7 or 7.30 p.m. 

You are definitely very different that your brother in your likes and dislikes (even though really, you want to do EVERYTHING your brother does), which makes sense because you have had basically the life of an older boy, following your brother around. 

some of the things that describe you at 2:

- Your language skills have exploded!!! you were kind of a late talker compared to Paulo, but once you did, about 6 months ago, your just made yourself very articulate and understood right away.

- You are a very domestic boy (probably from being around me all the time at home). You love sweeping, dusting, cleaning things, "fixing" things with your tools; you love babies and loving on people. Your favourite games involve shopping carts, dolls, strollers and pots and pans. Besides anything physical such as running or jumping on beds.

- You LOVE animals, especially cats, which is what comes more available here.

- You are not much of a book reader, unless you are alone with me or your daddy. If your brother is around, you are just not interested.

-Your physical skills are over the top, insane, You are fearless, you are strong, coordinated, meticulous, refined with your hands.

- You are Paulos absolute, loyal, #1 fan. Even though like a typical 2 year old, you are starting to make your voice heard and have become a bit aggressive lately, you just love getting your brother's attention, doing everything he does, the way he does it, and just bend over backwards to get a laughter out of him.

- You are amazing at sharing. Sure sometimes you just wont share. But most of the time, if people ask you politely, you will share.

- You are a very polite little boy. EVERYTHING is please and thank you and bless you with you.

That's about everything I can think of right now about you. We love you so much it hurts little guy. I am so glad you will always be my baby boy.

Paulo - 3.25 years

Paulito,

 

Munequito. You are such a sweet boy. I have so much to say about you, but I will start by saying, you and I have become such good companions. We like our time together and we understand each other very much at this point. That has sort of always been the case, but you grow so fast that every time we're getting comfortable with each other you up the game again, haha. And I mean it in the most normal way.

 

You are such a little boy right now I want you to stop growing so badly. There are so many things you do on your own now, like going bathroom unassisted (except for pulling up your pants) and ask me to leave and shut the door sometimes.

 

You are great at playing by yourself. I'm proud inside that I feel like I introduced you to imaginary play, making up pretend friends and pretend food and pretend dialogues and you are having so much fun with it. You have imaginary dinosaur friends and imaginary Ninja Turtle friends. You can play for long periods on your own, having little dialogues and pretending you're in certain places like the ocean, etc.

 

Meals are always such a battle with you, especially if Dad's around. Definitely one of my least favourite times of the day. You have too much energy, and you like getting up and run around in the middle of it. But at least I am glad we have kicked the habit of you watching videos on the Ipad while you eat... for now. Sometimes I will even see you turn of the TV on your own and play other things, which is great.

 

You love your playschool and you are so excited to be starting school in "the big school" in September. You are excited that you will see our 6 year old neighbour Kayden there.

 

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, we're spending more time outside and its amazing how much your behavior changes. All of a sudden you want to help me cook, do crafts, read more, etc.

 

You are also a very determined, smart, little boy. You know what you want, and once you do, you're not letting it go. Just like your mama.

 

Paulo, you are sweet, super smart, funny, friendly, confident and a bit weird. I love that in you. And we love you so SO much.

Emilio - 14 months

Emilio,

 

you are 14 months today. I know I skipped the 13 months post and I am not sure that I will continue writing about you every month. Life has been way too busy and any chance I get to have without the two  of you (which doesn't come often AT ALL) I don't want to spend it thinking or writing.

 

However, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to write about all the fun things you are doing now. I will probably forget a bunch, but I want to write what I can remember right now that you are sleeping.

 

Just to get it out of the way, your sleep has SUCKED. For months. I don't even know when was the last time you had consistently good sleep. For that reason, you and I seem to permanently have moved to the downstairs room and your brother and Dad sleep upstairs. I think it has been a combination of tons of things. Starting by the fact that you and I sleep together and you still nurse, so you like to visit the restaurant every time you roll over or move. However, it has been much worse for different reasons, such as teething (first all molars, now your canines) and also when I introduced cow's milk and it was giving you a horrible time at night. I'm just hoping that when all your canines come in we will finally be done with the circus and I may attempt to night wean you then.

 

As for all your other skills, you are EXPLODING. You have started to run, which is incredibly cute because you do it clumsily, with your chest all out and your arms bent at the elbows. You are not as proficient with your words as your brother was/is, but you definitely try and some are more or less understandable. Your motor skills, however, are out of control. Gross motor skills are insane --- you climb on the table, you try to jump, you twirl, you skip, you dance like there is no tomorrow. You LOVE LOVE LOVE music and everything to do with it. You dance at any chance you get and I've noticed you try to sing, although I never have any idea what you're singing. Your fine motor skills have also gone through the roof. You have figured out how to unscrew caps, which is NOT GOOD. You can brush your teeth and you even spit for me when I ask you. You are a great eater still, and have recently started to proficiently use the spoon, sometimes the fork.

 

Potty wise, you are starting to be more consistent in peeing and you can last a whole morning without a diaper if I can pay attention to you, although many times I just put you in a diaper if I' m getting breakfast ready and getting your brother ready for school.

 

You are such a sweet boy, I feel like it's a shame that  our families don't get to see you, because they would get such a kick out of you. You are funny, noisy, you love cuddles, you are mischievous and you like to get in trouble. Like you will go and take out all the pots and kitchen utensils from the cupboards. I am not too hard on you just because I know you are trying to stack them, fit them inside each other and find the matching lid.  You love screaming with excitement when daddy comes home or when Paulo is happy or playing. You copy EVERYTHING Paulo does. And the other day for the first time I saw you playing with your brother nicely but about 30 minutes, giggling away, running, chasing each other.... BEST SOUNDS EVER.

 

Emilio, we love you so much. What would we do without you???