27th monthday!

Domingo it's your 27th monthday!
You are entering into the two and a half zone, and I have to say you are a delight.
Not always



but for the most part, you are just a joy to be around.
I have to note some of the really funny things you are doing these days.
You are the make out king of Chicago. You are really into kissing everyone. Not just a chaste peck on the cheek either, a full on the lips long past appropriate length smooch is your style.
You kissed Grandma on the lips for about a minute straight last weekend, and when I told Chris that you had kissed me like that before, he accused me of being jealous. It is no secret that your favorite person in the world is Grandma. I think I'm on that list somewhere near the top, so I have no need to be jealous, but for the record, you did kiss me first.
You also have been saying that everything is "delicious". Beans, popsicles, carrots and cookies are all a rave, five thumbs up. It's really very cute.

You are still totally into music. You sing songs all the time. You sing songs from our cds, hum themes from Totoro, you make up songs, and dance dance dance. You have inherited your father's love of funkiness.
What I cannot get over is how much you love to talk. You are sometimes still a little shy with strangers, but once you warm up to them, you are a non-stop chatterbox. Especially when it comes to animals, and needless to say, DINOSAURS!
Today at the museum you were so excited. You ran around to all the different dinosaurs, naming the ones you knew, and yelling, "what's this one called, what's this one called!" barely even waiting for me to finish before you tried to repeat it. You love naming things, making sure everything is labeled correctly so then you can switch the names around as a funny joke. Nothing is more hilarious than a Tyranasaur-alophus.



Here you are in the "play lab" in the basement of the Field Museum.
I don't want to push you or force you to be into "learning", and fortunately, I don't have to. You are so curious and creative. Here you are having a discussion between the beaver skull and the otter skull. I was over with Amalia and I saw you in a deep discussion so I ran and grabbed the camera. I try to just let you play without cramming all that knowledge down your throat, I know that there will be time enough for knowledge cram, now is the time for play. But I don't need to offer it up, before I can even show you something new, you ask me, what's this called, where does this live, what does this say, what does this eat? And fortunately for me, the why? why? whys? have not started... yet.

We are getting a little better at sharing. I know it's been rough, but there have been a few break through moments of playing "with" other children, of not screaming if someone else takes a toy you had looked at in the previous hour, and of handing over something nicely to your sister. But usually sharing to you means when the other children give something to you not vise versa.

Your idea of playing with your sister:



"What? What'd I do?"


I am so glad that you have each other to keep entertained. She looks at you with total fascination. You look at her and break out in giggles. You always ask me "what is Amalia saying?" when I repeat her groans, or babbles, or giggles, or snorts, you laugh and say YEAH! You love looking at her, holding her hand, you love it when she laughs or smiles at you. And it makes me profoundly happy when you hug her and say "Te quierro mucho mucho muchisimo Amalia."
I know that you won't always be so enamored of each other, but I also know that you will always be there for each other, the way that tia Leticia, tio Gustavo, tia Hez and tia Jennifer are there for us and for you. You will learn, as you have in the last 27 months, that family is everything, and the only thing that really means anything in this crazy world.
Love,
Mama