Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Brothers: One Month and Two Years

Louis is two years old and absolutely adorable. I would have to blog on a daily basis to keep up with the amazing strides he is making in his speech and cognitive development.
He is an active boy and loves to run (even in circles), jump, and wrestle (especially with his dad). He is taking a greater interest in kids his age and will copy them (or they’ll copy him) as they play with each other. He is surprisingly good at sharing and taking turns (most of the time). He is becoming more independent in his play and will play with toys by himself for a half hour or so. In the morning, one of the first thing he says is “play toys” as either a request or just to inform us that is what he will do next.
Louis loves a party, partially a party with live music and the opportunity for dancing (which we have documented on this blog previously). He has a great memory for these events and if we pass by a location where he has danced (for example, a church that hosted a Greek Festival, or our downtown plaza), he will remind us of the party we attended and the music we heard and how he danced. We have been fortunate living in Silver Spring because of the number of events happening. Several times we have been on a walk downtown and stumbled on a festival or public performance. Louis takes full advantage of these opportunities
Louis is rather extroverted with strangers but will also get shy and hide in our legs. He is observant of people around him and will ask about their activities by saying, “Man doing?,” “People doing?” or just, “Doing?”  He says “thank you,” “your welcome,” and “I’m sorry” all the time, and even says these things when it’s what the other person should say – that’s just how polite he is! One of his favorite phrases is, “I love you” as in “Mommy, I love you,” and “Daddy, I love you so much.” In a given car ride he might say this more than a dozen times. How lucky are we?
Louis loves his little brother and is very gentle with Andrew. Sometimes he treats Andrew as if Andrew could respond, which is heart-meltingly cute. For example, after coming inside from a walk with his Dad, Louis will run to Andrew and excitedly tell him about what he just saw or experienced. Every time Louis sees a newborn, like in a book, or even in another stroller, he says “Andrew.”  If Andrew is having tummy time Louis will lay on the carpet and talk to him, encouraging him to “crawl.” Louis is also helpful in pointing out if Andrew has spit-up. When Andrew cries in the car, Louis and I both ask him nicely to please stop crying. Louis asks to hold his brother and tries to offer him a pacifier from time to time.
Below are some pictures from when Andrew was almost 6 weeks old and Louis was a week short of his 2 year birthday.
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For his part, Andrew is a wonderful baby. He is becoming much more alert and has started smiling at us. Of course, he could sleep a little much at night, and he makes noises like a farm animal (baby pig) but we expect he will soon grow out of that. At his one month check-up he was 90th percentile for height and weight. We’ll see how long he manages to stay on that growth curve.

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