o/ And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain o/ Well, not the FINAL final curtain, but this week ends Moriarty’s life as an only child. Overall, he’s doing really well with it. He’s thrilled that Lorelei will be here soon. He likes to rub my belly and lay his head on me so he can “hear her”. But I think there’s definitely some anxiety under the surface. He’s needed to snuggle us more, there’s been more baby talk, and he needs to fall asleep near us. His nightly routine now involves falling asleep on the couch near Pip then being moved to the floor by my bed. He just needed to be near us and we chose to accept rather than fight that given all the change in his life.
He got a huge (15’) trampoline for his belated birthday (thanks Grandpas). Now he jumps most days and plays games he made up that involve throwing balls or doing somersaults. It’s great to have more physical outlets where I can just sit and watch (that was my selfish motivation for choosing this present). It’s been a big hit with Pip and other little people who visit the house.
He has chosen his career path. He felt a strong need to help people, so clearly he has to be a firefighter (still pronounced fiter-fighter) but he is enamored with concrete mixers so he has opted to be a firefighter who drives the concrete mixer truck. He’s less interested in being the guy who pours the concrete. I love how specific he is! Correction. He caught me writing this and I told him what I’d written. He corrected me that now he wants to be a “real” construction worker who just drives the concrete mixer truck.
Two hysterical things happened recently. Firstly, he’s obsessed with Christmas music. It’s what he wants to listen to at breakfast and during bath time, usually. He’s also getting good at memorizing lyrics, but is thwarted by his limited world experience. We were getting dressed for school this week and he burst into song (he gets that from ME!) o/ On the first day of Christmas my true gave to me, an ostrich in a pear tree. o/ I had to shut myself in the bathroom I was laughing so hard. He has seen ostriches in his nature magazines, but has no idea what a partridge is! There are also traits he’s getting from Pip (and me). At dinner every night we talk about his day, and often our days. So, “Moriarty, tell us about your day” is a common conversation starter. He also always has milk at dinner, and we forget to give it to him some nights. This particular evening we asked about his day and he replied with “I will when you bring me some milk” in this deadpan snarky voice. It was surreal to hear Pip’s and my snarky voices come out of him, but also hysterical. Yes, they copy EVERYTHING we do. Overall, though, he’s incredibly sweet and respectful. He’s gotten great at asking questions (with a please) instead of making demands. That’s a boundary I hold very tightly. We’re also making progress on not interrupting people and waiting patiently for our turn. Progress, not perfection.
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