Happiest of birthdays to my Little Dude! I can’t believe that you’re two years old already – and in a matter of days you will, in fact, be a big brother too. But this post isn’t about you being a big brother – it is a reflection of how far you have come in the past 6 months and how you have lost your baby face {which makes me very sad}.

I think having an older brother has always made you reach milestones a little faster then your older brother and those around you. You are very active and love to run and jump and play with the older boys.

You just wanted to be in the water whilst your brother was having swimming lessons and we are keen to see what you can do when summer rolls around this year. In fact, we have been swimming in the bay when we moved to Sydney recently – you know you have to kick your legs, and scoop your arms and blow your bubbles. You love to blow your bubbles in the bath.

Unfortunately, the other day at the beach you also thought it was a good idea to drink the water like ‘Shimmy’ {Nannie and Pappie’s dog} drinks the water from his bowl {and sometimes the pool}. It made you very thirsty.

 

You love to go to the cafe and have a babycino and a ‘mellow’. You are greatly disappointed if the babycino comes without a marshmallow. You formed the strongest friendship with the people at Doubleshot in Deakin and we were so sad to leave. We are yet to form a really friendly relationship with any of the cafe owners in Sydney – but I am sure that this will come with time.

You continued to nap and sleep in your cot way passed your brother {who was able to climb out at 15 months}. You did actually climb out once at 20 months and I thought, ‘oh no, there goes nap time’ but you actually never did it again.

In saying that, your nap times have begun to slip – even though your older brother will take himself off to bed now and again during the day. You will fall asleep after lunch if we go for a long walk in the pram or a drive in the car, but you fight a day sleep more then your brother ever did.

Just like your brother you love structured activity – like ‘paint and play’, ‘gymbaroo’ and ‘creche’ {whilst Mummy had a little me time for the week at Yoga} whilst we were in Canberra. And then when we moved to Sydney we kept up ‘creche’ time and tried out ‘story time at the library’, a music class at Kirawee primary school and a regular playdate with an old school friend of mine.

You are definitely an outside kid. It is wonderful being in Sydney because we are certainly able to embrace the outdoors more and more {even though we did embrace the Canberra outdoors – which required being rugged up in 50 layers}.

We loved your cute cute long hair – but you didn’t, always complaining about it being in your face. So we invited Uncle Dane around for dinner and he cut your hair nice and short. I feel like as soon as your hair was cut – we lost your baby face. You are showing interest in using the potty and I am sure that we will start toilet training soon.

In fact, when September hit you made real progress at sleeping through the night in your own bed, and when I commented that you were such a big boy you informed me that you needed to go to the toilet to do a wee. We sat there for 20 minutes without anything actually happening, but you were so proud of yourself for being a big boy.

Your vocabulary has definitely improved in the past 6 months and you are no longer our ‘little cave man’. You love watching ‘Paw Patrol’ and anything with dinosaurs in it. You love to play ‘hide and seek’ and if someone does something ‘naughty’, you call ‘hide, hide’ to your brother {which is cute – but I am trying to get you to stop}.

You are also fiercely protective of your brother. If something happens to him, you always rush over to give him a hug and if someone is getting cranky at him, you will run over at stomp your feet and wave your finger to let them know that no one can get angry at your brother.

Happiest of birthdays my little dude. I love you to the moon and back and I can’t wait to see you grow and develop into the strong, loving, independent boy that I know is inside of you. It will be interesting to see how you will change with a new addition and with your big brother going to preschool next year.