2 years, 3 months

Dear K,

Lately you are obsessed with bees. "Want to go outside and see the bees!" you tell us, several times a day. And you repeat the advice we have given you: "Look, but don't touch a bee. It can sting you!"

You also like singing "Happy birthday" to everything. Today it was "Happy birthday to tomatoes," which you ate for dinner.

A few days in a row you kept saying, "A bean! A bean!" and laughing. I couldn't figure it out. Then Daddy came home yesterday and told me that you had gotten in a fight with Amin at school because you kept calling him "a bean" and he kept insisting his name was Amin. We straightened that out, and now you know it's "Amin. NOT a bean." Hopefully now you two can be friends. You said he wasn't your friend because "he tackles you." But Armaan is your friend. Why? "He NEVER tackles you." Somehow I do not believe this is your criteria for friendship, since I've seen you and your best friend at school push each other down on purpose and then laugh.

When you were a baby, you developed a habit of waving at me from across the room and calling, "Hi!" to signal that you were about to do something wrong. A few months ago, you would look shifty and say, "Mommy go away." Your latest is to scowl and say, "Want to kick!" or "Want to dump it on the floor!" I appreciate the warning. Sometimes it's even early enough to stop you.

"Want" is how you start half of your sentences these days. At school they told me that your "intentional speech" is very advanced for your age. If this is what they mean, I believe it. You are not shy about telling us what you want. Mostly I think this is good, because often if I ask you to stop whining and tell me what you need, you do. And I'm happy to read you "The Grouchy Ladybug" yet again once I know that's what you want.

Despite your constantly demanding things, you have excellent manners. You've got "please" and "thank you" down, and you even share! I was worried there for a while, because when kids approached you while you were playing with a train you used to yell at them, not yell anything specific but more of a sort of primate shriek warning them to back away, and it generally worked. But for the past few months? "K, that girl would like to play with the yellow truck. Would you give her a turn?" And you hand it right over and don't look back. Amazing.

You are such a little boy these days, and I'm enjoying being able to have entire conversations with you, hear your jokes, and learn about your what's on your mind. You are BIG, as you like to point out, and I'm glad.

Love,
Mommy