He's an awesome independent player and makes up all sorts of stories with his trains, cars, and trucks. It's fun to watch him set up his train track in a particular way, get specific train cars, then voice what his cars are saying. "Oh no!" as he crashes one into another. "You go to the hospital, Sir Topham Hatt." He's got easily 50 train cars from the Thomas collection and he knows the names of all of them, and he always knows exactly the one he wants. Same with his mix of trucks that number over 30.
He gets "winded up" (as Caroline would say) and just chatters, chatters, chatters. He's kind of like that commercial for the new search engine, Bing.com, where a person just spouts off random statements triggered by a specific word.
He loves to run. After not walking until he was nearly 18 months old, I find it amusing that he runs nearly everywhere now. And when I find a photo of him in mid-stride I think to myself that he's going to make a pretty darn good distance runner when he gets older. I just hope he's as interested in the sport as his Mommy!
After all that mental and physical activity, he crashes hard. Most afternoons he takes a 3 hour nap. And then he'll sleep 11-12 hours at night.
When you catch him doing something he knows he's not supposed to (like crawling across the top of the bookshelf in his room), he looks up with this "uh oh, I'm caught" look and then bursts into tears before I even say a word. At least he knows the rules, even if he can't remember to follow them all the time!
He's been testing his boundaries much more in recent weeks. When I ask him to do something, instead of complying (like he used to) he'll sometimes look right at me and say "no!" For now, if we tell him he has to do it before we count to 3, that works. I wish I understood the toddler mind better. . . he didn't want to do it, but somehow just by saying three numbers, he decides he will.
He taps his middle finger and thumb together (on each hand, simultaneously) and we can't really figure out why. Sometimes he does it when he's sitting, sometimes while standing, usually while he's in thought. We asked him why he does it and what it means and he just giggled and said, "Mommy's gonna do it! Daddy's gonna do it!" and we all three sat at the table tapping our fingers together, laughing!
His favorite foods are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, goldfish crackers, and graham crackers. He's also developed quite a sweet tooth and loves cookies and cake. His favorite treat is M&M's.
His favorite shows are Thomas the Tank Engine, Curious George, and the Planet Earth mini-series on the Discovery Channel.
He loves his books and has spent hours in his room "reading" them himself. Although he'd still prefer to sit in your lap and have you read them to him.
At times, he drives me completely crazy, but then he'll turn around and say, "I love you, Mommy" at the most unexpected time and completely melt my heart. He loves his baby brother and is patiently waiting for Benjamin to grow big enough to play cars and trains with him.
And we just can't imagine spending these last 2 1/2 years without this dear boy in our lives. We love you, Hayden!
