- He is particular. For example, when he brushes his teeth, he has to be the one to pick up his toothbrush. If I hand it to him, he screams until I put him back and let him take it. Another example: when I offer him goldfish crackers, he insists on holding them in his hand ("mano!") and refuses to eat them out of a bowl. And this carries over into being kind of bossy because he wants things done exactly how it makes sense in his head. (As I type this, I realize it sounds just like me. What a surprise!)
- He hates messes. If he's eating and gets food on his hands, he'll ask for a napkin and won't continue until they're wiped off. If he spills something, he says, "Oh no, mess!" And then he'll wipe it up. Once, I had him wipe up water that he spilled. He spent the next 20 minutes wiping the entire floor. I didn't stop him. :)
- After not talking for so long, his vocabulary is really picking up. It seems like he learns a handful of new words every day. He's pretty good at saying short phrases and stringing things together (like "ball head papa" if he wants Hyrum to bounce the ball off his head) and a few days ago said his first sentence. I held up a donut and asked him, "Do you want this?" He reached out and said, "Me want this!" Not perfect, but very cute.
- He looooves playing with other kids, at least when he's in familiar territory. (In strange settings he can be a bit reserved still.) If he sees kids outside our house playing, he goes crazy looking for his shoes and yelling, "Niños!" Then he runs outside and starts waving both hands saying, "Hi! Hi!" It's endearing when the kids are nice back to him, because usually they're at least a few years older. It makes his day when he can play outside with neighborhood kids. Then he usually cries when they go home.
- He's figuring out numbers, shapes and colors. He'll count "1, 2, 3, 8" (usually in spanish). He loves 8, and recognizes it in books. It's cute how he pronounces corazon (heart) by saying "co-zone". He learned the difference between "grande" (big) and "pequeño" (small.) And he said the first in a deep loud voice, and the second in a soft quiet voice. I'll hear him going around the house repeating both words to himself. When he sees a bus or vehicle, and points it out to us, we ask him if it's big or small, and what color it is. So he usually says, "Bus! Graaaaaande. Blanco!" After we took him to see the temple, he kept saying, "Templo! Blanco!"
- Besides scrubbing my floors for me occasionally, he also helps out taking diapers to the trash. Some days he's all on board, and will take all of them to the trash can, and other days he honestly wants nothing to do with it. But we appreciate when it happens.
- There is a lot less indifference with his sisters than there used to be. Sometimes they'll play together for well over an hour. He'll spend time just making them laugh or playing peek-a-boo. (Of course they love it.) But also, when he's mad, they're the first ones that he takes it out on. He pushes them over or smashes them against the wall just to make a point. We're working on that!
- Hyrum taught him to say "ay ay ay" when he hurts himself, and then gives him a kiss. So if he sees a cut or bruise on someone else, he'll point and say "ay ay ay!" and kiss it.
- Going back to him being very particular, when he leaves a room he usually turns around and closes the door behind him. I don't know why it bothers him so much to leave doors open...
- He's obsessed with hot chocolate, and going to the park (probably because there are kids there.) He loves candy and cookies and cupcakes.
- We realized (again) while we were at Disneyworld that Tiago is a very sensitive kid. He got scared while we were waiting in some lines, and got very scared when he saw Malificent on stage. I think sometimes when he watches movies he gets more scared than he lets on, and usually points and says, "Oh no! Oh no!" It's good to have that innocence around here.
- It's getting better, but for the last month or two he's been waking up in the middle of the night. It used to be every night, now it's a few nights a week. He'd start crying, and either stay in his room until we came for him, or come into our room to find us. In a state of being half-asleep, he'd ask for hot chocolate and be completely unreasonable. I'm glad it's happening less often because he's pretty miserable in the middle of the night. He's also not the happiest kid when he first wakes up in the morning. (I think he takes after Hyrum). Sometimes he wakes up at 5:30, but if we're lucky it's more like 6:30. He doesn't take a nap regularly, but still falls asleep occasionally in the car. By 6:30 pm he's completely wiped out. He pretends to fall asleep in the bath tub and then breaks out with a big smile on his face.
- He eats more than he used to. He likes green beans, apples, and goldfish, of course. He loves Pringles and everything else is hit or miss.
- Lastly, he still loves dancing. He'll request that we put on music (usually a latino dance station on Pandora) and he starts shaking and spinning. He'll also request, "Step-a-time!" (Step in Time" from Mary Poppins) and even if it's just us singing it to him, he always starts dancing. He's learning a few songs of his own, including "Popcorn Popping" and "Book of Mormon Stories" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He'll follow along with the hand motions, and sings some parts that he can pick out. Sometimes if I start singing though, and he doesn't want me to, he'll scream and say, "No Book-a-stories, Nooo!" Like I started, he's particular.
Seeing him get older makes me a little anxious for the girls to get to his age, so I can enjoy them even more. So much personality comes out when they can communicate and operate more independently.
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