(To the tune of Jingle Bells): “Squirt squirt squirt. Squirt squirt squirt. Put the fire out. Spray the water on the fire and put the fire out.”
This is what I overheard my 3 year old singing to himself from the other room this week. There were more verses! They didn’t usually rhyme, or fit the meter quite right, but this was some impressive on-the-fly rewrite from a tiny kid. His language has leveled up in general. He’s started saying “mommy, I need your attention”. Yesterday we were discussing what he wanted for breakfast (he still pronounces it breastfik). “I want all the things in my breastfik. Except apricots. Do you know what ‘except’ means? It means I don't want the things I don't like. Just the ones I do.” Vocabulary is built over years even when the kid isn’t paying attention so we don’t simplify our language much around him. But I do stop and define words I think are accessible a lot. He seems to have noticed that part!
We took him for his first pho which he seems to enjoy saying more than he enjoyed eating but that’s OK. But the first that made me laugh hardest was the first time he corrected someone who misgendered him. He wears a LOT of pink. Pink boots, often dresses, fluffy pink coat. It’s expected that strangers will get his gender wrong. Some of the parents of his classmates also think he’s a girl. He’s never acknowledged caring or even noticing the misgendering before. I don’t make a big thing of it. We were in the grocery store, just the two of us. I’d told him he could buy this fire truck toy he saw and he was very very excited about it. A lady came down the aisle and he started talking to her about the toys and showing her what was left that she could choose, and how his truck had this feature, and this friend in his class like fire trucks……… you get the picture. He’s 1000X more social than I am. The lady seems to think he’s charming and is talking to him and eventually I try to cut him off so we can move on and let her move on. She closes by telling me what an extroverted young lady I have. I’m smile and say thanks and turn the cart to head off. Moriarty looks over his shoulder and casually says “I’m a boy”. Not even to correct her. He wasn’t upset and he wasn’t talking loudly enough for her to hear. He just seemed to want to clarify. I had to stifle my laughter in the aisle.
Now, I admit I buried the lede. The most exciting news in Moriarty’s life this month is that he’s going to be a big brother. We took a video of telling him (FYI it’s long). He’s been asking for a baby brother or sister for many months. He has told us he wants to watch a baby grow. And wishes he could be a mommy and grow a baby in his belly. He asked for a baby doll for Christmas that laughs, cries, and opens/shuts her eyes. He stops to smile and wave at every baby we see in public. He’s INTO babies. Now he tells everyone that there’s a baby growing in my belly and likes to listen to the fetal doppler with me. It’s a new chapter in our adventure. She’s due at the end of May.
For posterity. Dancing, more dancing, laughing (by some definitions), and using his fire extinguisher.