2 1/2!

Monkey-see, monkey-do is the name of the game right now. He does--and says--everything that his big brother does and says. He even repeats Nico with the same inflection. This has been great in a lot of ways. Like Nico, he takes off and puts on his own shoes, hangs up his coat and hat, carries his dirty dish to the sink and attempts to dress himself. But now I have a two year old whose even sassier than the one I had the first time around. Didn't think that was even possible. Some of my favorite lines he's picked up from big brother include:

"I'm not your friend anymore." Said at ten-second intervals some mornings when I've managed to wake up on his wrong side.

"Go away!" and "Just a second!" I'm sure you can imagine to tone with which these are shouted. At least the teen years won't be a total shock to my system.

Regardless of what he's says, he is talking more and more every day. His language picked up considerably this past fall, but it seemed to really take off just this week. He went from speaking sentences to speaking paragraphs. Pages sometimes. The more the better--his little baby voice is so cute and I can't get enough. My favorite thing is to hear him say all of the characters from his favorite movie, "Cars 2", from "Carla Veloso" to "Francesco Bernoulli."

In addition to language and vocabulary, he's stellar with his alphabet, counting and shapes. Colors? Ehhhhh, not so much. This cracks me up, because we experienced the same thing with Nico. Nico practically could count to 20 before he knew (or would say) basic colors. I was constantly asking Mark, "Do you think he's color blind? How do you tell if they're colorblind when they're this young?" Nico turned out to be fine, obviously, so I have no anxieties about Rocco. It is funny though.

Me: "See this yummy orange, Rocco? What color is this orrrrraaaannnnnggge?"
Rocco: "Pumpkin!"

His favorite television shows are "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Bob the Builder," his favorite foods are apples, applesauce, peaches, cheese and yogurt, and he is 110 percent boy. He is obsessed with cars, trucks and trains and really enjoys sticking his foot in my face and saying, "Stinky toes! Smell my stinky toes, Mommy!" Nico, by the way, is 120 percent boy. When stripped down to nothing when changing clothes, he often likes to say, "Wanna smell my bottom?" He's usually backing up his back-end toward you as he's saying it, barely able to stay on his feet because he's giggling so hard. If they do this when they're two and four, what are they going to be doing when they're ten and twelve? Boys...it's going to get gross, isn't it? Yeah, that's what I thought.



Measuring himself...



Measuring me...



Celebrating 30 months of "Roc Star" with frozen yogurt...