2.5

It seems like all my friends post pictures of their kids' birthdays and such with captions like, "It seems like he was a babe in my arms just yesterday!" or "One minute you're a brand new mommy, the next minute you're taking them off to college."

Well. Kekoa will be two and a half this month. And I can assure you, he was not born yesterday. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say he has been two for no less than six years.

But oh my goodness, the laughter. Fortunately for him, I have a rule against posting super embarrassing things, or this post would be full of potty humor. But there is plenty of laughter otherwise. It's a fun stage, just not a particularly speedy one.

One time he lost his yellow dice, which had fallen behind me. I made the mistake of magically pulling it out of his ear. Now every time he loses a dice, he comes running to me while digging in his ears: "Mommy, find my dice!"

Ellie will be an expert in trucks by the time she's one.

He's very loving and affectionate.  If he is eating a favorite food, he always checks to see if Ellie can have some too.  He likes to read to her (but he doesn't quite understand her shakiness when sitting up). If I ask him to take care of her, he will sit next to her and hold her hand until I come back.


He's a control freak. Bags are the best containers for his toys because he spends too much time lining things up in bins. Cleaning up takes forever because everything has to be just so. He will not tolerate putting on the left shoe first, or praying for Mommy before we pray for Ellie. If he has perceived an order to the universe, then he expects the universe to always follow that order.

He's a huge truck fan. Every week we check out books from the library on dump trucks and fire trucks and bulldozers, and he spends hours with his Duplos.  I think his most impressive creation so far is a car transporter:

He loves to sing and can spout off all four verses to "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Pentatonix is his favorite band, and he has all the words memorized to most of their (clean) songs. He also enjoys beat boxing (a.k.a. spitting he can get away with) and clapping rhythms.

Like his father, he (unfortunately) doesn't need a lot of sleep. Like his mother, he (unfortunately) falls apart rather quickly if he doesn't get enough. If he sleeps in past 6:00 am, then he doesn't need an afternoon nap. If he takes an afternoon nap, he's up by 5:00 am the next morning. Mommy can't decide whether she prefers sleeping in or peaceful afternoons, so we compromise with neither.

He sees no need for baths but takes them to prove that he is as brave as Ellie. He hates socks but loves mittens. He spent all summer sweating in bed under three heavy fuzzy blankets, and now spends his nights curled up and shivering in the cold while his three blankets languish beside the bed.

Summer...that is sweat glistening on his face

Winter

He believes that almond butter is synonymous with honey, which we shamelessly use to our advantage. He loves fruit. Blend that fruit up and call it a smoothie, and he won't touch it. Add some chicken broth to the smoothie and call it fruit soup and he'll devour it.

Yeah. He's a weird kid.

One day he was reading a Pepsi machine.
"P-E-P-S-I," he read.
"That spells Pepsi," I said.
"Oh," he said, and looked at the logo. "And red, white, blue spells....JUICE!"

He's a paradox who believes in alone time but not personal space. He is both our wild child and our thoughtful one. It would be easier, of course, to have a kid who didn't hold his opinions quite so....passionately. But it is so, so rewarding to watch him develop self-control and self-discipline, stopping tantrums mid-cycle and even initiating discipline. He puts himself into timeout and has started apologizing without prompting. My proudest parenting moment to date was the day he found himself on the brink of a tantrum. He took a deep, shudder-y breath, closed his eyes, and said, "I'm sorry, Mama. Big hug, please."

Heart. melt.

And that's our Koa....or as we most often refer to him, "Oh, that Koa." He is something else, and we love him oh so much.