Phew

Hello sweet Succotash. I'm sorry it has been so long since I have updated your baby blog, but I have had my hands full attending to your baby self. No sooner did we get you sort of acclimated to your new school than you were felled by a heinous cold, which means that today we were sort of starting from scratch on the going to school front. You were very brave, though you did your best to persuade me that you were too tired to go to school and needed to take a nap first and also nurse and then probably go to the zoo to see more faffs.

"Faffs" are giraffes, and are one of my favorite Succotashisms. Tied with "toot toot," which is Succotash for train. In the mornings you get up and we read your toot toot, which is a Fisher Price flap book about various cars and trucks and trains and airplanes, which you like to read while on the toilet. 

My other favorite Succotashism is "hop," which still means rabbit. You are very excited that you and I are going to dress as hops for Halloween, and Daddy will be a "ca-ot." We will sneak back to Marblehead to trick or treat with our neighborhood baby friends, which I am looking forward to.

What else has happened? Your second birthday dragged on so long, with so many friends wanting to send gifties or otherwise wanting to mark the passage of time, that sometimes now when someone asks you how old you are, you say "thee." 

You are not thee. You are two. 

Other things: you love Muppets! We caved and showed you "The Muppet Movie" while home sick because we just couldn't cope and you LOVED it, especially the scene when Steve Martin serves Kermit and Piggy "sparkling muscatel - one of the finest wines of Idaho." This cracks you up enormously. You also love the Busby Berkeley style synchronized swimming scene in "The Great Muppet Caper." Now when you wake up in the morning, instead of craving Mr. Rogers you want to go read your toot toot and then watch "Puppets! Puppets!" 

You enjoy painting at school and love cars and love visiting other friends' houses and playing with their toys. Dev and Ravi have a car that you covet and love tooling around their apartment in. Cecily comes over and entertains you while her parents battle through their ugly divorce and we pretend not to take sides. Yesterday we went to Queens and played with Clara, and you most enjoyed a pretend suitcase of hers, which you would wheel behind yourself to the airport in their kitchen to go visit Poppop in Orlando. Then you would wheel it back and say "I'm back!" and be showered with kisses. 

You are officially three feet nearly two inches tall, so still tracking to be a tall drink of water. You have started shrugging your shoulders in a way that makes your dad worry you might have a tic. This is only for the last week or so, so I'm not worried yet. It could just be how you shake things off. We'll see. 

You still refer to yourself largely in the third person, though you have started saying "I." Like "I did it!" and "I back!" I will miss the developmental moment of you placing your hand on your chest with great gravity and saying your name to indicate that you want something or should have something or should do something. You'll say your name while waiting your turn with a toy suitcase so we don't forget you want to have a turn. You'll also say "hold it," which has largely replaced your pointing into the palm of your hand to indicate that you want to touch or handle or have something.

And you refuse to let me cut your hair. Your summer towhead is starting to darken at the roots, a deep auburn now that we are spending less time in the outdoors and the pool. I always wanted auburn hair. I never knew that I wanted to have it on the head of my growing baby son.

My growing two year old boy. I love you so.