Oh Little Boy...

Can't believe how big he is getting!

A just said to me today as we snuggled and laughed with Little t before we laid him down for his nap, “I love this age, it is so fantastic! He is so fantastic!”

I couldn’t agree more. 

I have decided that a boy this special needs his own special blog post once in a while. Or maybe it is just that my blog and writing needs to lighten up once in a while.  Or maybe it is simply that there are many friends and family members back home who miss the little fart and love hearing about him.  Either way, this is another one of those posts where I am going to shamelessly brag about my kid. 

Little t is 21 months old now and loving life.  99% of the time he wakes up happy and 90% of the time he stays that way all day long.  He has turned into a singing, dancing, tamborine playing, copy-cat socialite.  He is constantly singing something and usually bopping along as he does.  His tambourine ended up in his bed one night and he sang and played to his hearts content (and our deep deep amusement) for about an hour before falling asleep.  He goes out to the chowkidar’s room and will put on concerts for kAkA.  He particularly likes to find the most ridiculous Hindi music he can and then sing at the top of his lungs to that.  The women A works with get a kick out of his visits because they always involve singing and dancing. He loves singing along in chu.rch and will throw in a dance move or a twirl for good measure.

He is still quick to pr.ay at the table and now says ‘eesus’ followed by a string of jabber with his eyes squinty closed. Then he says ‘men’ as the throw his hands up in the air before digging into his food. 

Speaking of food, he is still much pickier than his momma likes to admit…or to cook for.  He is a very happy man when he eats pancakes, scrambled eggs, naan, chicken, hot dogs, meat (of any kind, really), apples, peaches, oatmeal and anything covered in curry (yes, you did read that right).  He is s.l.o.w.l.y. learning to try new things…but 99% of the time he refuses to eat what we eat and we have to resort to pancakes or eggs or naan. We make a BIG deal about that 1% when he tries something new. It is a constant battle that I hate, but he is definitely not wasting away, so I guess it could be worse. 

Little t has decided that wearing diapers is a trend that he is not fond of.  He would much rather go without a diaper all day than keep one on.  For as many times as he has gone without, he has had very very few accidents.  He has yet to actually go to the bathroom in the toilet (his little potty chair or the big one) though he sits on them countless times every day and watches us all the time.  I think he mostly gets what goes on in there, but it just hasn’t ‘clicked’. We tried making a ‘psssing’ noise when we sat him on there the first time and now he does that every time he sits on the pot…or sits his baby/stuffed animals/trucks, etc. on the pot.  One day I asked if he wanted to have a tea party and he got all excited.  I said I would get the tea pot out. I did and put it on the floor.  I turned around and heard him making the psssing sound.  When I turned back around he had his pillow pet sitting on the tea pot and making the sound like he was going to the bathroom.  Silly boy!  I think the first time he does go in the toilet it will kind of click.  Even now, if he has to go when he doesn’t have a diaper on, he will say “owie!” while pointing to himself, but then won’t do anything while he is sitting on the toilet.  The other day he was saying that a lot while I got him ready for his bath/swim in his tub.  I kept putting him on the toilet and he wouldn’t do anything.  Finally he sat down in the nice warm water, let out a big sigh and pooped in the water!  So that was the end of the bath, and obviously we have a ways to go!

"HI! Let's be friends!"

Little t is VERY social. He has loved having our British teammates back because he LOVES their kids and follows them around everywhere.  He plays really well with the local kids here and that is really good for him. (Though it totally wears his momma out!)  Once a week he spends an hour or so with our German teammates while A and I take a break/go shopping in the bazaar.  He has come to really like this couple (they are wonderful and he would be crazy to not really like them) and talks about them a lot.  He loves to visit the office where A works and is the life of the room.  He will open the door to a room and very dramatically say “HI!” before going around and shaking hands with everyone in the room.  We went to a party at the UN the other night and he did that.  Wriggled out of my arms as soon as we entered the room and said, “Hi!” to a roomful of people he had never met.  He then proceeded to go from one to the other and chat with each person.  He went crazy when we visited people for Eid (the big holiday we just celebrated here). Not only did he LOVE all of the snacks/cookies/candy, but he loved seeing new people, playing with new kids, etc.  Right now our neighbors have knocked down the wall between our yards down to build a new one and Little t is fascinated. He wants to be watching all the time and talks and talks to the sons who are working there.  Every time we walk by he says ‘HI!’ and blows them kisses.  He is also very into talking on the phone and has very intense conversations.  He frequently laughs at his own jokes.  He will jabber away and then just crack up…doing this full body belly laugh at whatever he just said. It is very humorous.

Little t and Romeo the rabbit

What else is he up to these days?  A family gave us a rabbit for Eid and he and Little t have become good friends.  They chase each other around the yard and Little t gets so excited to see him.    He loves drawing and coloring, books and his trucks.  He would watch t.v. all day if we let him (we don’t) and interacts with whatever is on the screen.  He loves to help me in the kitchen when I am cooking (making bread is his favorite).  He gets pots and pans out and stirs and puts lids on. He insists I put them on the stove and then wants to check if they are done.  We worried about cannibalistic tendencies for a few days when he insisted on putting his baby doll on the pressure cooker all the time…but he seems to have gotten over that fetish!

He makes a mean garlic and tomato soup.  On another subject - this is his old man golf outfit. Hilarious!

We have heard that maybe it is just a thing for this age, but I keep joking that he has a few little twitches that drive me crazy.  We use old 1.5 liter pop bottles for our filtered water. He can’t handle if there is one in the house without a lid on.  He will point and cry and whine until we find the lid and let him put it on.  He also can’t leave the bathroom without seeing what is in the washer…don’t ask me where this came from, but he throws a huge fit if we don’t let him look inside before we walk out the door.  I think they are just little control issues, but things like that (there are others I can’t think of now) drive me nuts.  Part of it is that he isn’t communicating as much as we all would like, so he doesn’t have words to express what he wants...even though he very definitely knows what he wants.  

His language is coming along though. New words include: helicopter, oatmeal, birthday, Iris, Isaac, apple, water, hair, door, window, dump truck, bunny, counting (1,2,3,) using up and down, etc.  

His comprehension amazes me. He was looking at a photo from Thailand the other day.  It is a little boy riding a water buffalo. He pointed to the buffalo and said, “cow, moo.” 

He pointed to the cow’s mouth that was full of grass and said, “cow, nom nom nom” as he acted like he was eating and then licked his lips (what he does when he talks about eating).

He pointed to the boy (who was barefoot) and said, ‘shoes, no.”  Accurately stating that the boy didn’t have shoes on. 

He pointed to the boy and said, “cow, up”  Yes, the boy was up on the cow. 

A few weeks ago we had chu.rch at our friend’s house. After, she took Little t out behind the house to show him the baby kittens that were there.  All day he talked about the kittens.  Two weeks later we were at the same house and after chu.rch Little t made a bee-line for the door and walked right back to the same spot saying ‘meow’ the whole time (he hadn’t been there in those two weeks).  He went right to the spot and then said, ‘oh no, Momma, meow meow no!”  And he was right, the kittens were gone.  He was so sad and kept repeating it over and over again, ‘meow meow no!”

The day the majority of our team was returning from their summer breaks, I was busy getting supper ready and telling Little t about it as I worked. I said, “tonight, we are going to have some people over for supper, that will be fun, won’t it?”  Little t shouted a very convincing NO!  I told him that it was okay, these were our friends that we were going to have over.  He threw his hands up in the air and with a big smile on his face ran around the room clapping and saying, “friends, yay!”  And he did in fact have a wonderful night with his friends!

Two days ago Isaac (our british teammate) turned 9. I told Little t that we were going to his party for his birthday and we were going to sing to him.  I started singing happy birthday and he started joining in.  Now he walks around singing birthday birthday, Isaac. He especially sings it when he sees Isaac.  Speaking of Isaac, the two of them have the best time.  They play and wrestle and laugh. It is really fun to watch them interact.

This morning as he was singing happy birthday angel khAla asked when Little t’s birthday was and I told her.  I told her that he would be two.  I then turned to him and said, ‘You will be two on your birthday!’ as I held up two fingers.  He put up his two fingers and marched around saying ‘two! Two!’  So funny!

Wow, this is really long.  As you can tell, we are loving this stage of life and it is so fun to spend every day with this ball of cuteness!

This was in anticipation to  his father pouring a bucket full of water on his head. He hates it, as you can tell!