To my one and only silly Badger,
It happened shortly after your little sister was born. Lexi had been teasing you and calling you ‘Bood sculpture’ and you were not a fan and would regularly yell at her ‘I not Bood Sculpture!’. One day, Daddy responses by saying, ‘Well what should we call you?’ and you said ‘Daddy!’. Daddy responded, ‘No, I’m daddy. Should we call you Bill?’ ‘No’ you stomped. ‘Should we call you Gary?’ you stomped ‘No’ again and ‘Daddy ask, well what should we call you?’ and with your eyebrows furrowed, arms crossed and as serious and straight-faced as humanly possible, you responded, ‘BADGER!’ And so it began, your nickname as Badger. You even told the nurses at the doctor’s office that you’re name was Badger.
I feel like this story represents everything that life is like with you at 2 and a half. You’re silly and serious and stubborn and comedic and creative and sweet and just full of life.
About two months ago, you added ‘Big Brother’ to your list of life accomplishments and so far have been playing your role spot on! You love your little Beatle and are very gentle with her, but prefer to spend your time with, big ‘Sis-tar’ as you like to call her, AKA Lexi.
The two of you play so well together. She has taught you all about the world of ‘imaginative play’ as you regularly talk out loud what your ‘characters’ are doing and the conversations they have with one another. Your characters range from the ‘little people farm animals, to the princesses, to the frozen dolls to squinkies to cars/trucks to the doll house people to your Tsum Tsum’s. You love to play the ‘boys’. You and Lexi will sit downstairs at the doll house and play for over an hour together.
With that said, you LOVE to play with cars and trucks and trains. You’ve always loved to lay down and play and you still love to do this–especially with the truck and boat (you love to back it up or sit on it and pretend to drive. You call it the Trailblazer and often ask where it is.
Over the summer, you’ve also gotten really good at riding your Strider bike. You regularly pick up your feet and glide down the driveway and scoot all the way down to the stop sign and back and just really enjoy riding your bike! You love to be outside running around, playing on the swing set, playing in the pool or at the watertable or going for walks!
At 2.5 years old, you know all of your colors and are VERY particular about them. Blue and Green are your favorites and you request/demand that you use those colors for your plates or bowls. We’ll be walking down the stairs in the morning and you’ll request, ‘Mommy, please have a green bowl?’ I usually abide by your requests, but occasionally I’ll say no as I’ve already poured the milk and you fall apart into a tantrum on the floor and have been known to take the food and throw it. Terrible Twos I tell ya!
You’ve also become very keen of ‘The Beast’ from Beauty and the Beast. You ask daily to watch, The Beast and get giddy when you see him. You’ve also been known to roar at people (mainly Lexi) when she does something you don’t like as that is what the Beast does. You have a Beast little people character and a squinky and love to play them or put them in your boat and drive them around.
Your language and vocabulary have gotten pretty good! Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is second nature to you and you don’t even think about it. My heart just melts when you request, ‘Mommy, please get me some milk,’ and then so politely respond, ‘Thanks Mommy’. You do a great job using your pronouns correctly of, ‘I, me, you, mine etc…’ You don’t pronounce your ‘C’s or ‘Ks’ and will replace them with ‘T’s. My favorite of this is ‘Baby Tate’ You also have a hard time with the letter ‘G’ when it is in the middle or end of a word like Bag, it often sounds like ‘Bade’
We’re working on the concepts of rewards and consequences. I’m not sure if you don’t get it, or just can’t articulate it, but whenever we talk about why you got a time out, you just respond ‘Why’ or when I ask you why you did something you put your head down and shamefully say ‘Tause–AKA Cause’.
You love to be a work helper and always have a hammer, screwdriver or drill at the ready. You love to inspect the way things work and are put together. You’ll examine things like hinges or swivels on chairs and ask ‘Whacha doing Daddy?’ over and over and over again.
Just before Baby Tate was born, we pulled you and Lexi out of daycare to be home with Mommy while on maternity leave and then Daddy when mommy goes back to work. You’ve adjusted really well and love to be home every day.
Most days, you still nap, but if we have something going on you are able to skip a nap and not be a complete hot mess. However, you seem to have inherited mine and your daddy’s night owl tendencies as you’ll stay awake in your bed until 10:30 or 11 if you’ve taken a good nap. You’ll be put to bed around 8:00-8:30 but lie in your bed and look at books, play with a little toy or just talk to yourself and almost never come out of your bed. You almost never sleep on your pillow or have a blanket cover you up. You sleep sideways, backwards, at the end of the bed and usually have a book opened next to or on you. You also transitioned out of your crib and into a bunk bed in May and share a room with Lexi. This has really streamlined the bedtime routine as you read books together and go down at the same time. It has also eliminated the daily requests for Daddy or I to snuggle with you and Lexi every night. I think having each other in the room makes you both more at ease.
William, you are the sweetest little boy with a heart of gold. Your big green eyes, assortment of expressions, innocent and polite little voice just kill me and I can’t get enough of you. I can’t wait to see how much you grow and learn over the next 6 months.
Love, Mama
Peanut Smiles 