J's New Adventures

As a parent, I think one of my biggest joys is watching my son grow and learn all sorts of things. At first it was learning how to roll over, then it was learning how to crawl, then sit, then pull up and stand. Then it was taking his first few steps until he finally started walking independently (just in time for his first stint as a bible bearer!). Along with these general milestones for kids, my little one has also learned a bunch of nice new tricks, and whole host of naughty ones as well! 

• He has learned how to "bless" his elders when greeting them and saying good-bye.
• He learned how to sign "thank you". At least, we tried to teach him the real sign (wiggling the thumb), but he kind of morphed it into his own sign (wiggling his thumb and forefinger).
• He's starting to say "Daddy"  instead of just "Dy". He still won't say "Mama" or "Mommy" though. Boo! (Although he knows how to already. Mama was his first word, but he doesn't say it anymore.)
• He can now respond to our questions by nodding or shaking his head, which makes things a little easier for us when trying to find out what he needs.
• If he sees any one of us without slippers, he'll make us put it on.
• He has a thing about fixing things. If he sees holes in clothes (whether on other people or on him), he'll point it out and won't stop harping on it until he hears you say you'll fix it. We have several cabinets here in need of fixing, because the handles are hanging loose. Every time he sees it, he'll also point it out until I say, "Yes, Mommy has to fix that, right?" Then he'll nod and be satisfied.
• If he's downstairs playing with yaya and he wants to call me or his dad to come downstairs, he'll stand at the foot of the stairs and start yelling, "Ah-Ah-Ah..." non-stop until one of us comes down to see what he wants. His voice is REALLY loud. Imagine, if you will, a pirate's parrot. He kind of sounds like that.
• He learned how to lock a door, which made me rush out and have duplicates of all house keys made. See, one of my nephews locked himself inside a room when he was two and he didn't know how to open the door. Of course, my sister-in-law was in a panic because she didn't have duplicates. That story is now part of family lore and included in the list of warnings my mother-in-law gave me about naughty little boys and their shenanigans. Hence, the immediate need for duplicate keys. Other things he learned how to use? Keys and stools. He's particularly adept with car keys. The stools he uses to reach the things he knows we don't want him playing with. 
• One night, Big C was changing from his work clothes when J walked into our room. J immediately started making his sign for "wala", and making the noises that he makes when he wants something. We were all really baffled about what he wanted, because normally, when he sees his dad, all he wants is to be picked up, but tonight, he seemed to be really agitated about something. Big C put him down and J walks straight to our dresser and tries to open the drawer. We finally figured out that he was saying that Daddy has no shirt on and that he was trying to get a shirt for Daddy to wear!
• He's also finally learning how to play with Lego-type blocks (the big ones) and he learned how to put together the Mega-Bloks cars that Uncle Ian gave him for his birthday.
• We let him play with one of the old celphones here at home and he likes plugging the charger and the headset into the phone. Then he'll get the earbuds, place it in his ears and bob his head like he was listening to music. Even though the phone is turned off and no sound is coming out of it. Hm.
• I'm glad to know that his word bank is increasing by the day. When looking at his books, he can point out cats, birds, balls, cars, babies, the sun and flowers. He's also become really fascinated with motorcycles, probably cause of the noise they make, and he points out every single one we see when we go for a walk. This is in addition to already knowing the names of we gave all his stuffed animals. His menagerie/playpen is now home to Stitch, Elmo, Pooh, Pawi Turtle, Scout, Cuddly Bear, Mr. Bear, Tigger, Giraffe and Barney.

Each parent probably thinks that their child is the most amazing child ever, and as you probably gathered from my post, I'm no different. But for me and Big C, the challenges and frustrations of parenthood disappear whenever J has these wonderful little moments. Now, with Little C coming soon, we can only wonder what it will be like to have two of them and hope that double the kids really does mean double the joy.