Every day is a celebration in our house. There are costumes with homemade capes and winter gloves; neon necklaces and bracelets made of pipe cleaners and Cheerios; rolls of wrapping paper used as magic wands; glow sticks and balloons. But I decided to make this day even more special. Because today is your half birthday, buddy!
We baked a cake together. With lots of sprinkles. And I let you lick both the beater and the spatula. It was half of a cake for your half birthday, and when Daddy came home, we cut slices and poured big glasses of milk. We continued the little celebration with dinosaurs(!) and a super hat(!). We definitely know how to make you happy.
Two-and-a-half is a fantastic age. You’re creative and imaginative and resourceful. You’re independent and opinionated. You repeat everything we say. You sing, and you dance. You love race cars, diggers, and airplanes. You also love your tools and spend hours “fixing” things around the house. You still request to wear a “super shirt” every day, and you commonly add safety goggles or a bike helmet to your ensemble. And when you’re wearing your superhero “suit,” you introduce yourself as “Super Sammy.”
You are busy, busy, busy. You are confident in crowds and have no fear when it comes to running, climbing, swinging, or sliding. Sometimes you “exercise” with Mommy and Daddy, and I think you can hold a plank longer than we can. Although the “jump rope” is your favorite. You’re quite good at dribbling a soccer ball and can now catch a basketball when we throw it to you. We can’t wait to enroll you in sports this fall!
You absolutely adore Nora. You bring her toys and hold her hand and give her lots of kisses. And the first thing you say when you get out of bed in the morning is: “I wake up Baby Nor-wah” and “I hold Baby Nor-wah and watch George.” And when Mommy and Nora spent a weekend away, you sang songs to her and gave “pounds” over FaceTime. I’m pretty certain that you missed her more than you missed me. But that’s okay.
Speaking of that weekend away, you and Daddy had SO much fun. But you exhausted him. You constructed and painted a birdhouse and made banana pancakes and played soccer and went out for ice cream. You sure do love your Daddy!
You love your Lucy, too. Though you torment her relentlessly. I’m grateful she’s so tolerant of your toddler antics! You hide her bone and put her toys just out of reach. You pull her tail and chase her around the house. But you also always let her out of the crate when we put her in. You feed her bites of food from your plate. And sometimes you lay beside her and give her big hugs.
Bedtime continues to be the most challenging part of our day. You make ridiculous requests for “my blue car” “my gloves” “one more book” “I need a bandaid” “more water” “pretzels.” And this is after a snack, three books, and three songs. Sometimes you just say, “I need something.” And when I ask “what?” you say “ummm I need something.” You insist that the light stays on. And before we say goodnight, you say “no little dinosaurs” “no big dinosaurs” “no bugs.” You’re too young for nightmares, aren’t you, kiddo? You come out of your room at least five times every night before you finally fall asleep, which is often close to 10pm. I’ve been anxiously waiting for you to outgrow this phase since December!
Despite the bedtime shenanigans, I always look forward to sneaking into your room to turn out the light so I can steal one last kiss. You will always be my love bug.
You have an endless amount of energy and just as much affection to share. Happy half birthday, Super Sammy!
we celebrated Andrew’s back in February! Our little boys are growing up so fast! We share some of the same issues. I suppose boys will be boys! Although, I have found that at night after I read his stories, if I rock him for a few minutes before putting him to bed (not putting him to sleep, just cuddling and rocking for a few minutes and putting him to bed awake) helps to keep him from getting up multiple times. 🙂