A day in the life of two brothers...: 33 months old!

Thomas is now 33 months old!

Sidenote: I began writing this entry on Saturday night, but just got a chance to come back and finish it now.

As I start to type this, it's just after 9:30 p.m. and I'm hoping that Thomas has finally stopped his crying episodes for the night and is going to sleep. Now that he is 33 months old, I can say many wonderful things about his milestones and development, but one thing remains the same: bedtime is frequently a challenge. As has always been the case with him (for as long as I can remember), he is a wonderful napper (even though sometimes these days it takes him a while to get to sleep), but he continues to fight going to bed at night. It's the one reason I am not rushing to put him in a big boy bed. Right now, the one saving grace is that he is confined. He can whine and cry and play with his toys within his crib, but he's not coming out of his room every time we close the door!

With all of the craziness of Christmas, I never managed to post a monthly update last month. Of course, at this point, not much seems to change from month to month; or maybe it's just because milestones at this point are more gradual and not always completely obvious ("He's speaking in 10-word sentences." is not the same as "He is WALKING!", you know?).

At 33 months, Thomas has many loves. He loves all things with wheels and he loves to watch the wheels go round and round. He is fascinated by it. If we are riding in the car and he cannot see a car's wheels he sounds nearly upset when he tells me worriedly, "I can't see the wheels!" He loves reading books and watching Calliou on tv. He prefers oatmeal raisin cookies to any other kind (mainly because he likes to pick out (and eat) all of the raisins). He absolutely adores his little brother. When we are out in public, he will tell anyone who will listen, and even those who don't, "This is my little brother Parker!" He constantly tells me how much he loves Parker and that Parker does love him, too. He also seems to love school, the two half days he goes a week.

I really need to do a better job of writing down the funny things he says. He makes me laugh all the time. Today's funnies were when he told me, "OH BOY! Did you see that train?....(thinking for a minute) Are you a boy, or a girl?" It was as if he thought he couldn't use that expression because I'm not a boy. He was trying something on yesterday and said to me, "Can I try this on?...Don't laugh at me." Not sure what that was about. :) And last night, on the way to dinner he told us what he wanted to eat and it ended up being this: "I want a sandwich. I want french fries. I want a..a..a..(thinking for a moment) french fry sandwich!" He loves to laugh and he loves to make us laugh, too. He will say something that makes me giggle and then say, "Am I funny, Mommy?" Yes, you are.

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That is where I stopped this entry the other night. I stopped because Thomas' cries changed and escalated and I knew something was wrong. We'll just say that I had a stomach bug earlier in the week and by the end of the weekend EVERYONE in this house had a touch of it. And Saturday night I had to strip down Thomas' entire crib (even the crib bumper) and he didn't really go to sleep until nearly 1 a.m. Thank goodness we are all on the mend now. It was a rough little time for a while there.

Back to Thomas' update, he really is a good child. I do wish he would eat better. And I hope he will give up his paci at some point in the near future (he pretty much only has it at naptime and bedtime). He could be a better listener (or rather, I wish I could get him to listen without having to bribe or threaten him!). But all in all, he is a joy and I cannot believe 33 months have already gone by. It's so sad to think that not long from now we'll have to start thinking about kindergarten. I think I want Thomas to become Peter Pan so he can stay a little boy forever.

I'm so glad my little boy loves me almost as much as I love him. I love you Thomas, to the moon and back again, and again, and again, and again!

As an aside, one new hobby of his is using our camera. Sometimes I don't know he has used it and when I go to use it I find telltale pictures like these: