-I overheard you say from downstairs calling upstairs to dad: "Come play with me dada! I'm cute!"
-Dada tried to give you a shower and he turned the water on to get it warmed up. You said "I can't go in shower. I'm serious dad! It's too cold!"
-When I put you in the swing at the playground it always seems to lull you into a trance and put you in a much calmer and better mood. Sometimes you will swing for 30 minutes! You still talk about the dragon park slide in Seattle. You have become very brave with slides! I'm actually the one who gets scared at times! And you tell me "It's not scary mama. It's fun!"
-You tell lots of stories now. My favorite was when I asked you "Alistair, where were you before you were here with mama and dada?" you said "I was floating. On a space ship. In outer space. With a goose. He changed me. He changed my diaper all day!" (This also happened to be a story during a week where I wanted you to wear your big boy underpants more often instead of changing your diaper!)
-School is still a difficult and stressful place for you. You are always super happy once I pick you up. But there is a lot of anxiety in the process of going. And one day this month you cried "I can't go to school! I go to the beach!!"
-You knew a second trip to Seattle was going to take place in 6 weeks. But every day during those 6 weeks you asked if we were going on the airplane. When the day was finally near, you told Pop Pop via facetime "I have my tickets. Pilot can't be mad!"
-I told you carrots were good for your eye sight. So you stuck the carrot in your eye. That was a parenting fail!
-I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You are an awesome traveler! You LIVE to fly on airplanes! Everyone commented on how well behaved you were!! You are always perfectly well behaved. You napped both times (I put you in the ergo and bounce you in the bathroom since there is no other place I'm allowed to stand up!) The only time you ever get upset is when we land! You always always say "Let's do it again! Let's go again!" and everyone laughs. This past trip when we landed you said "OK we get off and stretch our legs, then get back on the airplam and go again!" Everyone REALLY laughed that time. At the airport you saw the A in Alaska and said "A for Alistair!" Since the Salernos play a lot of card games, you also picked out the A in Ace cards and also learned all the suits (cwubs and spades). You even identified the numbers correctly. I watch you play a toddler numbers and letters program on your ipad and I'm surprised by how much you get correct (lower case a, Upper case B etc). Things that amused you on this flight at 2.5 years: Travel reusable sticker boards; your precious bead collection box; animal stacking dolls; cheap dollar store model airplanes and dinosaurs; a travel magnetic ball maze; and the ipad of course. A funny moment was when you stood up and asked the person day dreaming behind us "Hello! What are you thinking about?"
You bond more and more with Poppy and Gwama Lama. And Uncle Panda and Lisa and Aunt Kimi too. I just love it! Thanks to facetime you are SO used to seeing them almost every day and talking with them. You have always been so comfortable with them and I know it makes them so happy. But anytime I tried to come join you, you said "Go away mama. Go teach!" And anytime a second person approached you, you'd try to get them to leave a little more discretely. You told Aunt Kathleen "Go in the house?" and she said "Oh, you want to go in the house with me? OK! Let's go!" and you said "You go in by yourself Kathleen".
-Tutu and Michael had company one night (the neighbor Mike). You wanted to vacuum, but Tutu said "No, we can't vacuum. We have company over!" and you thought about it, walked over to Mike, patted his shoulder and said "Goodbye Mike!"
-You like to say "I'm thinking about" whenever you are delaying something.
You love watching dada work. And Uncle Johnny. Any tool they take out you go and grab your identical alistair sized tools and work along with them. You love to pretend to build a house yourself.
You are still adjusting to school. Sometimes the idea of going makes you very anxious. I'm hoping it gets easier now that we are back on schedule. You are always very happy when I pick you up. Sometimes you want to go running on an adventure walk through the nature park down the street from your school.
-This month you were playing with your beads and you said "a big angel and a baby angel are sitting beside you me. They can't open my toy box so I help them". Then you said "We are human. We are human. The angel is smiling". We don't talk about angels either! Sort of weird, but sort of cool if you are tuned in to some other realm!
-You love to say "I'm happy to see you!" and also ask "You proud of me?" One time this month I told you I only wanted to play with one toy at a time instead of bringing all your toys to your cozy nest. You pouted and said "Mama, you mad at me?"
-Because of all the traveling and changes going on, you usually wake up at some point in the night and come up to our room. On vacation you sleep in bed with us all night. Sometimes you have a tigger bup bup around 5am and then fall back into the hardest sleep. And nothing wakes you up (not us brushing our teeth, showering, making coffee, blending smoothies, talking....you name it!)
-Eating, pooping, and sleeping are a big more challenging lately. BUT you did poop in the potty once already. And when you are happily nudie or wearing big boy underpants (Grama lama called them big boy panties and you said 'not panties Gwama Wama! Big boy underpants!") you always use the potty when you need to go. You even climb up and off all by yourself! You've discovered a love of banana bread and fresh plums this month.
