Just Your Garden Variety Update

Pi's a thriving, happy, healthy two-year-old. We are very, very lucky to have him and are so enjoying watching him grow up.

One of his favorite games now is "Daddy Tickle". He asks me to pick him up and then screams "Daddy Tickle!" which is my signal to run through the house at top speed to find a place to "hide" from Daddy, who of course eventually finds us and tickles the bejeezus out of Pi.

He plays for hours with his Thomas trains, and narrates all of their adventures on the coffee table. "'Be careful!' cried Mavis, 'Look out!' chuffed Gordon, Duncan on suspension bridge, pull freight cars, 'Well done!' said Thomas." He also mixes Thomas characters into his new favorite song, as in: "On top of spaghetti, all covered with Rhenaeus and Duncan and Skarloey, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed."

I love how he says that "sn" sound - he blows it right through his nose and just pushes the word out - I can't even really replicate it phonetically. I should try to post a little audio clip of it - it's too cute.

He also loves to sing "Let it Be", which made me cry the first time I heard those lyrics come out of his mouth.

There are so many more cute anecdotes and stories that I can't even remember now, so I'm really going to try to get better about this blog so that all of these wonderful moments don't get lost in the deep chasms of my memory.

Pi learned to swim this summer! We took him for lessons at the Y last year, when he was just over a year old, and there's really not much you can do at that age besides blow bubbles and refine your "Wheels on the Bus" techniques for the aqueous environment, but I decided to blow the $100 bucks again this year anyway. After just three lessons, the whole "reach and pull" and "kick your feet" thing just clicked for Pi. He swam right out of my arms and never looked back. Of course, he's still wearing a floaty belt. I tried to see how he would do without it, and he dropped like a rock, so I figured he'd better keep it on, but he's got the moves down!

Also, going to sleep before midnight is for chumps, apparently. He's had a lot of trouble settling down at night for the past few weeks. He turns his light on, plays in his crib, and talks to himself for well over an hour after I put him down. He always was a night owl (he usually goes to sleep at 9:30 or so), but this is getting crazy. He never cries, just has his own private hootenanny until he feels like falling asleep with the overhead light on. I don't know - I hope this is just a phase.