I'm so glad Teddy is no longer two. The melting, the whining, the yell-crying... they are mostly starting to recede, and we're getting a somewhat familiar little boy who can do all kinds of astonishing things.
He can run and jump and stand on one leg.
He can say the Lord's Prayer and sing responses in church without prompting.
He can make the sign of the Cross without prompting.
He helps with the laundry and the dishes.
He asks for permission before leaving the table.
He makes his sister laugh on purpose.
He knows the alphabet, the long vowel sounds, and the short vowel sounds.
He can sing on pitch. In fact, he can sing all the time. Did you know that the alphabet song, "Baa baa, black sheep," and "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"
all use the same melody?
He can hold his ukulele properly and strum and sing along. (The two don't necessarily have anything to do with each other yet, but it's still pretty darn cute, especially when he sings to his sister.)
He pretends to be Raffi, and encourages us, using his "microphone," to sing with him.
He can count at least up through 20 on his own without getting confused; he can even count backwards (although this includes "zero" and "go!" and a race:
obviously necessary).
He can write his name.
He just loves numbers and letters.
He can dress himself, including socks (if they're not too long) and shoes (without laces: with laces are hard to find these days).
He's getting more consistent about using the potty ... unless he's preoccupied with something more interesting, but he can clean up his messes with a little prompting.
He can put blocks together to make shapes.
He can do real puzzles (real big puzzles) all by himself. He can even (easily) do the camel puzzle (which gives Mommy trouble; those pieces do not cooperate).
He knows when it's time for bed.
He can match pictures, especially in the middle of a book when he sees the same picture inside as what's on the cover.
He can put his toys and clothes away.
He can buckle himself into his own car seat.
He can (usually) close the car door after he gets out.
He can pause and restart a DVD using the remote control.
He can pretend, and tell us about it.
He's interested in reading (even if it's not necessarily the words on the page when he reads by himself).
He's just started to learn Irish dancing, and is showing quite a bit of grit, getting through his frustration at not already knowing how to do things. (It
is hard to figure out right-and-left in English, although he's got it down cold in Romanian... if only Mommy could remember which is which in Romanian when we're facing each other).
He
loves the Hokey-Pokey.
He can throw or kick a ball.
Of course, he can swim, but now he can retrieve one or two items and swim back to his start.
When he wakes up thirsty at night, he can get his own milk out of the fridge, drink it, and put himself back to bed. Sometimes he even turns off the light again.
He can say: Please; no, thank you; yes, ma'am; no, sir; you're welcome. (These are used rather effectively, because he does them so well.)
He can brush his teeth by himself.
He can climb a tree (a little ways; it's a little tree).
He can put away the flatware in the right places.
He can almost color in the lines (mostly red, mostly Lightning McQueen).
I do wish, however, that the phase of insisting that everyone in the family be a character from
Cars (the movie) be over soon: Daddy is Doc, Mommy is Mac (I
did carry him), Teddy, of course, is Lightning McQueen, and Lucia is Mater (at Mommy's suggestion, because if she has to be Mac, then Lucia wasn't going to be left out, and who else should she be other than Lightning's best friend?). It's pretty cute when he tells her he's going into the cactus. I have to help her pull him out, and then he says, "Thank you!"
He really is getting to be someone who is fun to have around. Thank you, God, for your ready gift.
