Sometimes as parents we have this bad tendency of comparing ourselves to each other or even to other parents. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about how Luc and I are really different when it comes to the things that we like to do with the boys. I'm so grateful to have an active partner and see the boys picking up things from both of us.

Luc is great at inventing games, building elaborate ramps and forts, he's rough-and-tumble with them, and is great at doing boy stuff with them like going to the park and playing in the dirt. He's especially good at just letting them BE KIDS and explore their personalities.

Me? I'm the singing, dancing, goofball, arts-and-crafts person, let's pretend kind of person. I can't tell you how much I love that they're getting into colouring. In the past week, they've both really gotten into colouring books. On Saturday, we went out and got a fresh new stash of crayons and some more colouring books, and the boys did a LOT of colouring all weekend. There was more colouring than cars.

Caleb is starting to really "get" colouring and is learning how to colour inside the lines. I can't tell you how amazing it is to see your kids get into something you enjoy. I guess that's why so many parents aspire for their children to grow up to be just like them.

Dear Noah,

You are now 20 1/2 months old. Going on 2! Sometimes I forget that you are JUST 20 months old, because you communicate so well, but there are moments where we are reminded that you really are under two years of age.

We are happy to report that you are finally easy to put to sleep! For the past month, your bedtime routine has been so easy - story time, teeth brushing (more like me wrestling you to brush your teeth), you grab your bunny (whom you call "Lapin" meaning rabbit, or sometimes just "Pin"), tuck him under your arm, we put you in bed, you snuggle up to Lapin, we tuck you under a blanket, you remind me to take off your socks, we saw goodnight, and that's IT! You are usually snoring before your brother is, but it's usually about a five to ten minute race at most.

Now, staying asleep and sleeping in your crib all night continues to be a real challenge. It has always been a challenge with you, but I figure if we can change the way you fall asleep so dramatically, there's still hope for us! You usually wake up two to three times a night. Sometimes you're just looking for a few cuddles, sometimes a sip of milk, and usually you're good to go back to sleep. But if it's past 2am and you wake up, usually you stand right up in your crib, with Lapin tucked under your arm, ready to be taken out of your crib.

We've stopped letting you sleep between us in bed. This was just a bad scenario, which usually involved one or both of us parents getting kicked in the head or the face. You tend to drift over to your father's side, inevitably stealing his pillow and forcing him to sleep in the bottom quadrant of the bed. Your dad would wake up stiff and sore and tired and no one would have really slept well.

Now when you wake up for that last stretch, one of us will sleep with you in the double bed that is in your room. We've installed a wooden rail on the side where you tend to roll (still looking for your dad, I imagine). There's lots of room to let you sleep in any which direction you please, and the person who serves as the physical barrier on the other side of the bed tends to sleep quite well. That is, until we hit the 7am mark where you roll over and say "ALLO MAMAN!" in the sweetest little voice. You will attempt to rouse whoever it is that is sleeping with you on that day - with kisses all over our face, with demands of drinking milk ("boire lait!" meaning "drink milk!") or going downstairs ("en bas!" meaning "downstairs") or you will simply start calling out to wake up your big brother ("ALLO CALEB!"), who usually gets up around the exact same time as you do anyway.

So unfortunately, while you aren't sleeping a full, uninterrupted night's sleep in your own bed, we're making really good progress month to month. Something tells me that what you really want is to sleep in a toddler bed. A few weeks ago, you climbed into your brother's bed and wanted to nap there. (Your brother was gracious enough to let you sleep there for the afternoon, but he was pretty clear that the bed was just on loan.) We're looking at getting your brother a big-boy twin bed, so realistically I suppose we could get you to sleep in a toddler bed soon, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to think about how you'd crawl out of your own bed and wander into our room and stick your fingers up our nose. Which I know that you would, because you're just a bugger like that.

We recently phased on the high chairs in the kitchen. Your brother was long overdue to be transitioned into a table and chair, though you're probably not quite ready yet. We are getting a wooden table for the kitchen in a few weeks but in the interim, we have a plastic table with small chairs, though you're not quite ready to sit on the chairs just yet so you're sitting on a small step stool. It was a pretty crazy first couple of days when you realized that you could stand up in the middle of your meal and start running around with a fork in your hand. It can still be a little tricky at meal times, and I know I am looking forward to getting a real table so I can strap you into a small booster and keep you relatively contained, and not have to worry that you will poke your eye out with a fork.

You are still a very finnicky eater. Picky, picky, picky you are! You truly follow the advice that your doctor gave me months ago - toddlers eat one big meal a day and if you see they're eating, get them to eat as much as they can! There are meals where you graze, and others where you are making up for lost time and eating your big brother under the table. But we never really know what you'll eat or when you'll eat or even IF you'll eat.

Your favourite foods? There are a few sure-fire favourites - like Greek gyro meat or chicken nuggets. You'll eat just about any fruit, though your favourites include grapes, pears, and apples. You love your crackers and cookies, and you still love your Goldfish. You love to eat cereal with milk, and lately you've been loving waffles, which we cut up into little pieces and let you dip in maple syrup or honey.

Actually, I should just state for the record that you love to DIP. It's all about the dipping. I tried to leverage your love of dipping to get you to eat some vegetables but you saw through that whole charade. Your dad got you to eat some veggies swimming in vinegar last week, but your cheeks broke out in a big rash and we think we may have identified vinegar as that mystery substance that makes you break out in a rash.

You love to watch TV with your brother, and it's great that we have good quality TV shows we can show you guys that you both equally love. You watch Caillou, an animated series about a 4-year old boy, and you love Poko, a stop-motion animation series. You especially love the simplicity of Poko episodes - there are some that you watch where you break out in laughter - "HA! HA! HA!" since you find it so funny.

Your vocabulary is amazing. You eagerly narrate the world around by pointing to things and exclaiming their names. You have started saying so many two-syllable words, like "bouillon" (broth) or "poisson" (fish) instead of just saying the second syllable. You can repeat almost anything. I love making you say pineapple in French ("ananas") because we inevitably make a big joke out of it and you will say "nanananananananana" in a sing-songy way. You can easily state what food you want by name. You've even started putting two or three words together in little sentences. This past month, you learned to say your brother's name properly, and instead of calling him "A-leb", you say "Ca-leb".

You've started putting together mini-sentences too - two to three words strung together, like "voir Caleb" (see Caleb) or "viens, Maman" (come, Mommy). You have also developed an ear for English. Whenever we ask you anything in English, it usually seems like you understand, and you respond back with "Yah" instead of "Oui". You know quite a few words in English, especially animal names.

You love music and dancing. You are happy to sway to the music, do the "running man", and crank your arms like you're doing the chicken. Your favourite song is "Old MacDonald", which you request by asking for "Moo moo here". You love your animals!

You love to sing and even though you may not know all the words to the song, you hum along until you know a word, then promptly throw it in at the right time. You have always had an affinity for drawing (much to my delight). You developed a love of colouring long before your brother did - he only recently got into it a few months ago, but you've always loved to doodle. You love to sit with Caleb and colour.

You recently went out on your first trick-or-treating experience with Caleb. You were dressed up in a cow (or more accurately, a bull) - a costume I threw together with an old fleece jacket and pants, with felt patches sewn all over it. You couldn't say "trick or treat", but you knew the routine and you held out your pumpkin to get candy, and left with a charming little "Merci! Bye bye!" which brought a smile to every house.

Sometimes I am reminded that we are headed right back into those terrible two's with the little tantrums you pull. You are a happy go lucky guy most of the time, unless I tell you that you can't have any more Elmo crackers, and then you just lose it!

You have a very special connection with your Papie. You two share the same sense of humour, it seems. When the two of you are together, it is like watching a two-person slapstick comedy routine. You have picked up all his little quirks and sounds, and you make it pretty clear that he totally rocks your world. Poor Mamie is often left in the dust as you make a run for Papie as soon as you arrive at their house.

I'm pretty sure you are going to be a little athlete. You are steady on your feet - a friend recently described your walk as one with "tremendous purpose". Given your love of balls, it's no surprise that you've become quite good with them. I've seen you toss a tiny ball and hit it with a plastic toy ladle like you're serving in table tennis. It's absolutely mind-boggling to see you do it.

You and Caleb get along famously. You guys have a lot of fun together. Even though you watch what he does and you often imitate and learn from him, you definitely don't just follow him around like a puppy. He's often the one trying to rope you into playing some game with him, to which you will sometimes respond with an enthusiastic "OK!" or a definitive "Non, Caleb." Either way, you two are always laughing about something and I love seeing you spend time together.

Did I mention that you can smile on command for the camera? We're still working on getting you to keep your eyes open, but I just love that little hamster face.

You love to talk on the phone, but mostly it's all about the hellos and the goodbyes. You will clutch the phone and repeat "Allo Maman" about twenty times, and intermittently answer my questions between telling me hello. Then there is a whole routine of saying goodbye that involves me saying goodbye about another 20 times before someone has to hang up for you. My coworkers even sometimes start yelling "BYE!" from their cubicles. I especially love it when I ask you "Comment ca va?" (how are you) and you reply with "Bien" (good).

You are my special little monkey, and while Caleb and I have a special bond that only a mother and her firstborn can share, you and I have a special bond that only a mother and her littlest baby can share.

Love,
Maman

The boys went out trick or treating for the first time last night. Caleb was a real pro - saying "Crick or treat!" and making conversation with everyone at the door ("You have a big dog!" or "I like this house!"). Noah followed along well and while he couldn't say "trick or treat", he managed to say "merci" and "bye bye" to everyone.

Dear Noah,

A few weeks ago, you turned 19 months old. We have still been recovering from your brother's third birthday, so my apologies for the lateness of this letter. Plus, I've been busy spending all my spare time soliciting kisses and hugs and munching on any and all exposed skin, so all this really cuts into my free time.

You are an awesome, funny little bugger. Sometimes you blow us away with how smart you are, to the point where we really cannot believe that we have a toddler on our hands. And other times, we are reminded that you are still very young and sometimes still very much a baby. It's a strange transition period where you are too big to do certain things and too small to do others.

Let's start with the sleep department. This continues to be a bit of a struggle, but we've made tremendous progress in getting you to fall asleep on your own. Naps are a breeze now - we put you in your crib, there may or may not be some complaining, but usually you stay lying down and will ask for your blanket. You'll whine if we forget to take off your socks. You may call out for us or cry a little, but usually by 1pm you are so tired that there is little resistance to napping. You usually sleep for about an hour to an hour and a half. Bedtime can be a little trickier - you, like your brother - seem to be able to stay up late and probably would if we didn't shut down the fun.

We have a little bedtime routine now where Caleb goes to get the toothbrushes, you both sit down on the rug in our bedroom (modeled after "storytime" routine at Caleb's preschool where everyone grabs a little square carpet and sits down on it) and while you two "brush" your teeth (mostly just chewing on the brush), I read a story. Lately you boys have only wanted me to read one particular book about a pig named "Petit Curieux" (Little Curious). It's about an overly curious and nosy little pig whose curiosity often gets him into trouble, but he happens to use his curious nature to save his cow friend when she gets her head stuck in a fence. When we get to the part where the pig hugs his crying cow friend, you promptly get up from the seated position, remove the toothbrush from your mouth, point to the cow ("vache!"), plant a big wet kiss on the page, and then sit back down. Sometimes the pig ("ochon!", cochon - meaning pig) even gets a kiss. Your brother usually follows your lead and also kisses the cow and/or the pig. That poor library book has never seen such juicy lovin' and probably doesn't want to go back to the library it will sadly remain on the shelves, unkissed.

Once the storytime routine is complete, we put your brother down to bed first and then you. Some nights it goes very smoothly and you'll occasionally call out "Maman!" or "Papa!" just to hear us shush you and reassure you that we're still in the neighbourhood. Other nights it is more challenging - you'll refuse to lie down, or you'll stand, clutching the rails as you wail in protest, or - my personal favourite - you'll sit down with your legs hanging between the bars of the crib, kicking away while crying. Eventually, you'll go to sleep. Some days we take you out to wipe your tear and snot covered face, and other days we just let you wail until you give up. I'm looking forward to the day where we put you down and you go down and stay down!

You are known to wake up two to three times during the night, sometimes as early as an hour after falling asleep. Once we cross the 4:30am barrier, you will wake up and call for me, greet me with an "Allo Maman!" and refuse to go back to sleep unless you are lying in a big bed with a minimum of one parent to kick, poke, and provide hair you can pull. Caleb is usually the first to wake up somewhere around 7am, and I can't remember the last time it was just your father and I in bed. Inevitably, you are sandwiched in there, hogging the pillows or sleeping sideways across the bed, kicking someone in the throat, or banging your head on the headboard. While this can be incredibly annoying, there are nights when we have trouble getting to sleep and I swear, we joke about going to get you from your crib so that we can snuggle with you. Your father particularly enjoyed the stretch of several weeks where you preferred sleeping cheek-to-cheek with your arm wrapped under his chin and around his face, while showering me with the occasional loving kick in the face.

Some day, hopefully in the next ten years, you will learn to fall asleep on your own and sleep a full night in your own bed. Some day we'll even miss it a little. Caleb was never much of a co-sleeper, as much as we wanted to snuggle with him. Boy did we ever get our wish with you!

And then there's the eating. You are a picky, picky eater. You're not a fan of meat, though fish sticks can be a reliable source of protein and provided there's ketchup, chicken fingers or nuggets are occasionally accepted. You've gone through phases of eating homemade macaroni and quesadillas, but lately you'll have nothing to do with either. Last week, you agreed to be served some macaroni, except all you wanted was to eat the parmesan cheese. Your father gave you a small bowl of cheese to sprinkle on your macaroni, thinking it would be fun enough to incite you to eat it, but in the end you just ate the cheese by the spoonful. Please. Pasta is for chumps, and you totally knew I'd pureed a cup of vegetables into that tomato sauce.

You haven't eaten many vegetables lately. In fact, other than fruit - there aren't many healthy things that you will eat reliably, which really drives us nuts. You'll eat cookies, crackers, and recently you discovered yogurt-covered raisins (hello, it's like CANDY). You love your blueberries, grapes, watermelon, pears, and dried apples. You love getting yogurt with the little pieces of fruit in it - you love hunting around for the fruit. You love to eat Shreddies with milk, sometimes eating it with your hands. Your father thinks perhaps you are a future vegetarian. Some day we're probably realize that you are a total food snob and we should have been trying to feed you blue cheese and caviar.

Now that we have your areas of improvement out of the way, I get to go on and on about what a perfect, lovely, delightful baby you are! You are really our little ray of sunshine with all your funny little tricks and the endless hugs and kisses. You are always the first to greet me when I come home from work. I open the back door and instantly hear the pitter-patter of you running from the living room to the kitchen, screaming "MAMA! MAMA!" and when you see me, you flash your million-dollar smile, exclaim "Allo Maman!" and jump into my outstretched arms for a long and sweet hug. You shower everyone with hugs and kisses. It's almost as if you know that this gets you all kinds of special treatment with your grandparents - your brother's so busy doing his own thing that he barely stops to say hello, and there you are, dishing out the hugs and kisses at the door like our official greeter. You are always particularly happy to see your Papie - you two have a very special bond. When we arrive at his house and you see him waiting at the door for you, you will run as fast as you can while screaming "Papie! Papie!" with your arms outstretched. It would probably take the Jaws of Life to separate the two of you during the first five minutes in his presence.

You are not only affectionate with people, but also with your little animal friends. You love animals! In addition to kissing your animal friends in your favourite book, you also kiss your little animal figurines that we bought you recently. You will often hold out the cow or the horse to me and say "Bec!" (kiss), demanding that I also kiss the animals. And then there's the little white rabbit doll. Your grandmother (Mamie) brought this to the house over a year ago when we first moved in and Caleb didn't want to get in the bath at the new house. Lapin (rabbit) was thrown into the bathtub with Caleb and Caleb washed him while we washed him. Lapin spent much of the past year hanging out, untouched, in the bathroom but a few months ago I threw him in the washing machine and put him back into circulation. You call him "Pin!" (short for "lapin") and in the past week, you've started taking very good care of him - you give him sips from your sippy cup, you try to feed him cereal, and of course, there are lots of kisses.

You love to point out any animals you recognize and know most of their names. You can say "vache" (cow), "val" (short for "cheval" meaning horse), "singe" (monkey), "phant" (elephant), "seau" (short for "oiseau" meaning bird), "coq-coq" (rooster - but you use this for chickens too), and "quack-quack" (you refuse to acknowledge the real word for duck, ducks are quack quacks). You love to make all the animal noises, and surprise! The quack-quack goes "quack! quack!"

You know so many words and you express yourself really well for a little guy your age. You have started stringing together words and this past week you started saying "Allo Maman" and "Allo Papa", and thanking us with your version of "merci", only you say "Aah-see Maman!" You really have great manners. You are decisive with your opinion - providing "yes" and "no" answers when asked if you want something. Your father is convinced that you even speak English, and there are certain things we can ask you in English and you'll respond with a resounding "Yeah!"

You know almost all the parts of the body - hands, legs, feet, toes, nose, cheeks, head, hair, etc. You are a big fan of your own bellybutton - you often have your finger poking around in there and you are never shy to pull up your shirt and point to your "daine!" (short for "bedaine", meaning belly). The other day I was sitting in a restaurant with you and your brother when you pulled up your shirt, proudly showed me your belly, which led to your brother doing the same, and you two were totally egging me to show mine. Which I did not! I am such a party pooper, I know.

Your vocabulary is truly stunning at this age, and even when you can't say the words, we can sit down together with a book and ask you to point out various things and you point to them with your chubby little finger while saying "la" (there). Your favourite book for this is the point-and-tell Sesame Street book that your Aunt Sarah bought us. You love pointing out Elmo and his friends, as well as all the various animals and objects in that book.

This week, you learned to say your own name! When asked what your name is, you no longer say it's Bob, but you say your name! (This is also something you respond to when asked in English.) You call your brother by his name, except you call him "A-leb" instead of Caleb. It is quite funny to hear you running through the house calling "A-leb? A-leb!" as you look for him.

You love to talk on the phone. You hate to hang up. You call me up at work and most of the conversation consists of saying hello, and you will sometimes say "bye!" about twenty times before hanging up.

You love to sing! You know the words to various parts of various songs. We sang happy birthday to Caleb for the entire week of his birthday and even recently we will hear you singing happy birthday to your brother. The other day you did a pee in the potty and you stood up, clapped your hands wildly, and started singing happy birthday to your brother. I guess you'd gotten used to that being the theme song of celebration lately.

You have always been a great fan of music in general, and you have excellent musical timing and rhythm! Your best dance move is when you bob up and down in an aerobic/hip-hop style squat. You stomp around to the music, lifting your legs one at a time, swinging your arms and clapping your hands. If only we could all look this cute while dancing like this.

Speaking of toilet training, you have always had a real interest in what goes on in the bathroom. You'll often waltz right up to one of us while we're sitting on the toilet and push our legs apart in an effort to see what the heck's going on in there. You happily exclaim "pee-pee!" or "ca-ca!" when you figure out which of the two we're doing. Sometimes you sit down on the potty (fully clothed) so that you aren't left out of the action, and start to dramatically grunt away - an imitation of what we do to try to convey that sometimes you need to push! When we put you on the potty right after you wake up, you'll often pee in the potty, and your eyes will light up with happiness as you hear the sound of your own pee. You are always SO HAPPY to stand up and look at the result of your work.

You love to follow along with whatever your brother is doing. The other day when your father dropped off your brother at preschool, you made a mad dash into the classroom and tried to jump into the action. You weren't too happy when you realized that he was staying back while you were leaving with your father. I know you'll be more than ready to go to preschool next September!

You love to draw with crayons and markers. You've always been great at this and your brother didn't start really doing any colouring until he saw you doing it. You have even shown some flair for painting! One of your favourite things to do is to paint fences and walls with water when we're outside.

You've learned how to swish milk in your mouth like you are rinsing before you spit (thankfully no spitting, sometimes it just dribbles out the side) and to make a delightful gurgling noise by talking into your glass of milk. Your brother has no idea what you're doing and wonders how you're making those noises. It's been some time now, but you've been drinking in plastic cups, using grown-up cutlery and dishes like a big boy.

Your absolute favourite toy continues to be a ball. Any ball. You LOVE balls. We are always looking under the furniture for missing balls. You love to run around the house with a big plastic kitchen spoon, and I've even seen you hit a small ball with your spoon like you're serving in table tennis. You are incredibly coordinated with a ball, you kick a ball better than your older brother and you love to throw. You love to hit the big balls with your small baseball bat and run after it. Some day you are going to be a great ball player of some kind and we'll look back to this and say yup, we surely knew this would be the case.

It's amazing to see you show such aptitude for certain things like painting or ball sports, because these are often things that your father and I enjoy. That's when we look at each other and say "That's MY son!" At first when you were born, we thought you'd be much more like your mother, but lately we're thinking that you are much more like your father. Only time will tell who you most resemble, but you definitely have traits from us both.

You are growing up fast and becoming more and more a little man with each passing day. We couldn't be more proud of you.

Love you lots.

With love,
Maman

Dear Caleb,

Happy third birthday, my dear sweet boy. It's hard to believe that three years ago today, we were going through the single most life changing event in our lives – we were becoming parents. It was a mixture of tremendous joy and pain, but at the end of that journey, we came out of it with a truly amazing gift – YOU!

I can safely say we are out of the terrible twos and we are into the terrific threes. You are sweet and affectionate. You are trustworthy, reliable, and when you choose to be obedient (about 80% of the time), you are a real gem. Sure, the remaining 20% is a bit of a struggle, but most of the time it's just because you're reluctant to follow along with the program – you're not really in the mood to go in the bath, or go to the grocery store, or put on your shoes, because you're in the middle of some elaborate game with your cars and you'd rather do something else.

You love to be the big boy and you want to do everything yourself: get your own tootbrush (and Noah's), brush your own teeth, pour your own milk, turn on the lights in the kitchen, serve yourself some yogurt from the big container to your own bowl, choose your own slice of watermelon, wash your hands, cut up a slice of watermelon, spread cream cheese on your toast, etc. You are constantly saying "C'est moi qui va faire" (It's me that will do it). On the positive side, you require so little supervision now and there are many things you can do now. On the down side, some of these new big-boy things you can do are more dangerous and thus do require constant supervision, and it's a slippery slope between giving you a little responsibility and letting it become a big free for all.

Thankfully, your father is a totally laissez-faire kind of guy and he doesn't get flustered by much. Pour your own glass of milk? Go for it. Oh, you spilled it milk all over the floor? No problem, we'll just clean it up. Which is totally more your style than the Mom perspective – I'm so not in the mood to clean up milk off the floor so what do you say I pour you a glass of milk and we call it a day? I'm so not any fun. It's no wonder your happy to send me off to work while you stay home with your dad and have tons of adventures.

I think switching it up has been great for everyone – this change has been great to kick us out of the rut we were in with our routine. It's so easy to stick to what you know, and shaking things up is the only way to encourage us to change things up. Going back to work has helped change my perspective on things and it was a welcome change of scenery for me. Even though I miss you guys terribly during the day and I live for those hilarious voicemails you leave me throughout the day, I appreciate my time with you all the more and I had far more patience now. My drive home is always feels like the longest part of my day, because I cannot wait to open the back door and hear the pitter patter of running feet and the chorus of "MAAA-MA!"

Your day to day is completely different now that your dad is in charge of the day shift. You guys embark on all kinds of adventures – playgroups, museums, parks, and plenty of awesome activities. There is playing in the dirt, hands in the mud, stomping in puddles, riding your bike, building of ramps, spraying the hose, and eating of popsicles. You know, BOY stuff.

You go to nursery school three afternoons a week. The first day at school was about learning the routine, some of which you weren't so fond of. (Story time? Uh no, I'd rather go play with this computer I've just discovered.) Your dad was there with you on that first day to help you get adjusted. The second day at school was the first time you were alone somewhere without a family member around, and you didn't quite understand the situation. There was some crying, but through the experience, you built a trusting relationship with your teachers. On the third day, you cried for a few minutes when your dad dropped you off, but within minutes you were off playing. Now, there's no crying and you're loving every minute of it. Apparently you're great at story time and you're happy to come home and tell us the story they read and how there was a squirrel looking for snacks. (There was a time where you preferred eating books to reading them, and more recently, you only enjoyed books about trains/cars, so we're happy you've starting showing a real interest in the actual story.)

One of your teachers knows sign language and teaches sign language as she speaks. The other day you told me you wanted a cracker and signed the word, and told me there was a story about bears who loves apples, and signed the words for bear and apple. Apparently you've picked up signing quite quickly and it's amazing to see you learning these new things. You come home with collages and paintings which I proudly hang on the walls of my cubicle at work.

Yesterday I met your teachers for the first time and thank goodness your father forewarned me that I should be there early to pick you up. Your routine at nursery school ends with outdoor play in an age-appropriate, gated playground and your father told me that you are often there waiting at the gate when he arrives to pick you up. The sight of you clinging to the bars of the gate while the other kids ran around playing was enough to make my heart melt. I knew you were particularly looking forward to me picking you up from school, and that you were anxious to get home because your grandparents were there babysitting Noah… but boy were you EVER ready to go home that day.

I spoke to your teachers, who told me that we should be really proud of you because you are a sweet, sweet boy. I can't tell you how much this comment makes me proud, because it's not like they were commenting on something you learned or something you did, they made a really accurate comment about the kind of person you are and the kind of sweetness that you radiate. (Also, they mentioned that you are really good with the toilet routine and love washing your hands. Which you totally do, it's practically one of your hobbies.) You were happy to show me your hook in the classroom where you hang your knapsack, how your fellow classmate, Jackson, has a Lightning McQueen backpack, where you guys sit down for story time, the collage that you made that day, and where the toilets are.

You play really well with other kids. There's never any drama or problems. You're easy going and you go with the flow. Recently, you've been really great at sharing your toys with Noah, especially when you see that he really really wants something.

You've always been a great eater and you continue to be. You are almost at the point where you eat just about anything, though you are still fairly reluctant to try anything new. It took me almost two months to convince you to try eating your cereal with milk, but yesterday you finally decided you'd give it a shot. (This is where I realized that my own pet peeve of hating soggy cereal was being passed on to you guys, so now we ALL eat our cereal with milk. That's right, motherhood is all about sacrifice.) You love popsicles and ice cream cones. We just started letting you eat nuts and I think you enjoy them mostly because for years it was the forbidden fruit, so to speak.

You're still a good sleeper. Once you fall asleep, you sleep like a rock and I can't remember the last time you woke up during the night. Sometimes getting you to fall asleep can be a little bit tough – you are so active up until the minute before going to bed, so I imagine it's hard for you to settle down quickly once you're in bed. There are days where you quite literally pass out from having too much fun. You wake up around 7am – sometimes earlier and sometimes later. Occasionally you will fall asleep in the car or in your high chair around dinnertime when you are particularly tired, but most days you go the full day and go to bed between 8 and 8:30pm.

I've noticed in the past week that you've started to ask why. I think this is perhaps the start of the dreaded "WHY WHY WHY" phase. Your English is incredible and while originally we were worried that you would be behind your peers at school in this department, apparently your teachers feel like you are just as good as the norm. You love to speak in English, perhaps it's the novelty of learning a new language, but you'll talk to anyone! You speak in these beautiful, lovely sentences and you've started listening in on our conversations and asking us "Qu'est t'as dis?" (What did you just say?) Your father and I used to be able to speak in English in front of you and have it be our secret language, but now since you understand everything, we've started spelling things out, but we know even those days are numbered and before long you'll jump in and say "Yes, I would like to go to the P-A-R-K!"

Sometimes I feel like we live in an episode of "Kids Say The Darndest Things". You are truly funny and witty. The other day when it was time for bed, I invented a song and was singing "It's time for bed, it's time for bed" and while you love to sing along, you giggled mischeviously and improvised with "It's time to play, it's time to play". Smart little bugger. There's no fooling you.

You've always been great at learning new songs and I'm always amazed when we sing along to songs and you keep up with the lyrics and the melody. We recently picked up a couple of Thomas & Friends CDs with all your favourite songs featured in the DVD series and there are a couple of songs that you're happy to listen to ten times in a row. Or more. Your dad got tired of having to back the CD up to play the same song over and over again, so he found the remote control and taught you how to use it, so now you grab the remote, turn on the CD player, and select your favourite song. And then you replay it over and over again.

One of your current favourites is a song called "Let's have a race", and in the chorus, it goes "Let's have a race, have a race, have a race…" Your current favourite game is to put on the song, race your cars on a predefined path around the couch and the pouf, around and around and around while singing along to the song. This game is called "Race-a-race-a-race" and you are always looking for someone to play with you. It can be a little bit dizzying (and frankly, after several dozen laps, a bit boring) but you're always happy to race with anyone. Sometimes Noah likes to just run around doing laps with you, and sometimes he doesn't even race a car, he just likes running after you.

We've spent weeks thinking about your birthday. I've been plotting your birthday cake for weeks now, and despite many commercially available Cars-themed cakes being out there, I've decided to make my own cake for you. Partially because I just enjoy that kind of thing, partially because I'm just against multicoloured icing (that quite frankly, no one loves to eat), and partially because I'm just so looking forwarding to ROCKING YOUR WORLD with a Lightning McQueen cake. I will post some photos of the cake later, but suffice it to say I have happily plotting away. It turns out that we're having two small family get-togethers to celebrate your birthday – one with my parents and one with your father's family, so now I'm thinking about how I might do two different cakes for you. I know, I know. I'm crazy. But I know it's going to totally knock your socks off.

It's going to be a very Cars-themed birthday – most of what we've recommended that people buy you for presents has been in that vein. I am reluctant to have you receive so many gifts on your birthday, which is part of the reason why we've tried to spread out the celebrations. I don't want birthdays to be about the presents, but to be about spending special time with the family, so we're hoping to start doing this now. After this week, though, there is going to be a whole lot of Cars in our house – more Cars friends, more Cars-themed clothing, more Cars-themed toys. It's kind of strange the last year was all about Thomas, and you've even started showing an interest towards Bob the Builder recently, so we know that there are going to be these phases of things you love that come and go.

Yesterday after having opened a few birthday presents early (we are trying to spread out the deluge of new toys), you looked at me and asked me what I had bought you for your birthday. The conversation went something like this, except it was in French:

"Mommy, what did you buy me?"

"I'm not telling you, because it's a surprise. But you have a gift from Mommy and Daddy, and one from Noah."

"What did Noah buy me?"

"I can't tell you, it's a SURPRISE."

"Did you buy me some CARS?"

"I can't tell you, it's a surprise."

"Is it CARS, Mommy?"

etc.

It was hilarious to see you find ways to ask me what I'd bought, like you were trying to trick me into revealing my secret. You love a good secret. Except when you can't be in on it!

I'm going to try to keep writing these newsletters, perhaps not monthly but close to it. You are doing such amazing things every month that I feel obliged to document them all so that when you're a big boy, we can look back on it and say "I have ZERO recollection of that." Thankfully we had it all written down.

Caleb, happy birthday my little monkey. We love you so much and we couldn't be happier to have you in our lives.

Love,
Maman

p.s. Credit goes out to Dad for thinking he should be now responsible for writing this newsletter, but acknowledging that perhaps he should work on doing things like groceries before signing up for newsletters, so instead he'll contribute ideas. Thanks for all the ideas, Luc!

Dear Noah,

You are now a year and a half old. There have been some truly magical changes with you these past few weeks. You are really, truly no longer a baby. You walk, you talk, you dance, you run, you jump, you assert your will. I really think our baby is gone. I mean, it's hard to imagine that just a few months ago, you didn't eat and you were a breastfed baby.

You are nothing like that plump little baby from a few months ago. Now you're just this slightly chunky, watermelon eating machine who today ate his lunch, then ate his brother's leftovers. You eat that one square meal a day and the rest of the day, you graze and snack. You're pretty unpredictable as to when that meal might be, and we never know what you'll be in the mood to eat. But whenever the mood strikes, we attempt to feed you as much as you'll eat!

You eat with utensils - you have from a very young age, probably due to the fact that you want to do everything big brother Caleb does. You drink out of a cup, though you tend to get distracted and there are still lots of spills. You wake up in the morning and demand "LAIT!" (milk), though you often call it "jus" (juice), even when you are pointing to a glass of milk or water. Perhaps you're not confused at all - you're simply pointing out that this is not what you want, and what you want in that glass is juice. You really are a little talking genius, so I won't put it past you.

You love your crackers and your pastries. You have a definite sweet tooth - you can eat a mini ice cream cone faster than your brother, and you shovel spoonfuls of gelato down like someone's about to take it away from you (which is true). You love grapes, blueberries, watermelon, raisins, and occasionally you'll go for some pear and strawberries. You're still pretty limited in the vegetable department, but you'll entertain the odd potato or asparagus, and lately you've started enjoying eating salad. You eat sushi! Avocado rolls, that is. You have your moments when you'll try new things without hesitation - even if it's just a bite, but other days you'll give a definitive "NO!" with a shake of the head to tell us you are just not interested.

You love eating cereal with milk for breakfast. You rarely eat toast, unless it's raisin bread, and you will meticulously pull out all the raisins until your toast resembles swiss cheese. You are a fan of ketchup, there's never really enough of that.

You sing! You dance! You have always been a huge lover of music. Your dancing repertoire is quite impressive. There's the chicken dance, with wild flapping of wings and all. There's the running man, where you dance on the spot like you're jogging. There's the random lifting of the legs, doing the wave, and your specialty, spinning around in circles while saying "tourne! tourne! tourne!" (turn, turn, turn). You just started running this week, and you are getting to be quite fast and nimble. This will come in handy when you hit the dance floor!

You ask for music ("sic!") and you sing along to some of your favourite songs. You sing parts of the alphabet - the best is when you say "Q R S, T U V, wuh-wuh-wuh X..." You count to five. When you call me at work to talk to me on the phone, I say to you "Allo mon Noah" (Hello my Noah) and you repeat it back to me, only your version goes "Lo lo (random babbling here) Nwaaahhh..."

You scream "marche!" (walk) when you are in our arms and you want to be put down on the ground to walk. You say "main!" when you want to walk holding someone's hand. You greet your brother with an enthusiastic "ALLO!" when you see him first thing in the morning. You tell your brother "bouge!" (move) when you want him to get out of your way. You say "bas" (down) when you want to go downstairs, and "en haut" (upstairs) when you want to go upstairs. When asked where are your nose, cheeks, eyes, teeth, hair, head, tongue, and mouth are, you can not only say the French words for them, you can also point to them and say "là" (there).

And oh. Diaper changes are always entertaining. The minute your diaper goes off, you point to your manhood and exclaim "meh-mis!". Repeatedly. As if we didn't know what it was and hey, have you seen my meh-mis? I try to correct your pronounciation, and you repeat it back to me the same way all the time. Meh-mis. Yeah, Mom. Meh-mis. MEH-MIS. Uh huh. I got it. Meh-mis.

Your dad told me that the other day, you spotted your brother's meh-mis when he was going for a pee, and when he got up from the potty, pantless and without his underwear, you exclaimed "MEH-MIS!" while pointing to the meh-mis in question, and Caleb started backing away from you. You started following him with your finger outstretched, and proceeded to chase your half naked brother around the house while crying "Meh-mis!" It was quite the sight, I wish I had seen it.

You love animals! You make all kinds of sweet animal sounds, and you recognize many of them when you see pictures or photos of them, or even when you see them in the flesh. You do not, however, like dogs. If you are put at eye-level with one, you will scream and cry with fear. You love to see them from far, and say "woof woof" when you see one, but that's about as close as you want to get.

You have the benefit of playing with all kinds of toys that are not exactly age appropriate but way, way more fun than baby toys. You love to play with all your brother's big boy toys that we have in the house, from the make-believe tool set to the many trucks and trains. You make vroom-vroom car noises, you respond with a "choo choo!" when I say "All aboard!" and pump your arm like you're pulling the whistle. Your favourite toy is a ball. You LOVE LOVE LOVE balls. I think someday you are going to be great at ball sports - because at the tender age of 18 months, you throw a ball better than your big brother. You invented a game this week that I like to call Spoonball. You have a big plastic spoon which you stole from my utensil drawer in the kitchen, and you either run around with a ball in the spoon, or you hit the ball with the spoon like you're playing hockey. Actually, I'd have to say that Spoonball resembles lacrosse quite a bit, so perhaps someday you'll be an excellent lacrosse player. Your dad thinks that you've inherited his knack for sports (yeah, definitely NOT from my camp).

The biggest development from this past month has got to be the sleeping. A month ago, you were spending most of the night in our bed. It would take sometimes 45 minutes of rocking and walking and patting to get you to fall asleep in my arms, and then potentially even longer to put you into your crib without waking you up. when your father started being the stay at home parent, he couldn't duplicate the routine and had a lot of trouble putting you down for naps. Your father is always the one to take the bull by the horns and make the big changes around here - thank goodness for him because otherwise, we'd get stuck in our crazy do-what-it-takes routine and never make any progress.

It has taken about a week and a half to change things up, and while not all days are successful, we've made amazing progress. We can now put you down in your crib and you'll go to sleep on your own. Sometimes there's some crying, sometimes there's some convincing to do, but lately there hasn't been as much. Since you've started falling asleep on your own, you've been sleeping better through the night - probably because you're able to fall back asleep without us. Last night, you fell asleep on your own and you slept the entire night without crying out for us, NOT ONCE. It was truly amazing. By the time we write your newsletter next month, I imagine bedtime will be as simple as putting you down, blowing you a kiss goodnight, and walking out the door. Already the routine has gone down to just a few minutes, so it can only get better from here.

You've always had an interest for drawing. You love to scribble with crayons. You can't be trusted with them unsupervised, as you'll inevitably start throwing them or drawing on something other than paper, but I have a feeling that while you have your sporty side, you also have a little of your Mom's artistic side as well. I can't wait to see you turn into a total artsy jock.

You have a big, big heart. You have a ton of love to give in the form of big, sloppy, wet kisses, and your kisses are truly the best. You're always up for giving a hug. You especially seem to love your Papie - when you see him, your eyes light up and you reach out for him to take you in his arms. You wrap your arms around him, nestle your head into the crook of his neck, and you sigh with happiness. While you sometimes need to warm up around certain people, with your Papie, there is never a need.

You love to babble on the phone. You especially love to call your Grandmother (my mom, whom you refer to as "Ba Ngoai", meaning maternal grandmother in Vietnamese). You'll often go pick up the cordless phone, give it to us, and say "Ba Ngoai", as if to say "Dial it for me. Now." I love hearing your little voice on the line when I'm at work, even if you're just randomly babbling away in your sweet little mix of French, English, Vietnamese, and baby talk.

You seem to have really flourished since your father started staying home with you. You have developed an even stronger bond with him, and these days it seems like you're all about your Dad. Some days I come home from work and while you greet me with an enthusiastic "MAMA!", there are moments where you only want to be with your father. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt a little, especially since I haven't seen you all day, but I couldn't be happier that you are enjoying your special time with your father and that you love him so much that you don't want to give him up. (I know what you mean, I feel the same way.) Your dad always has and always will be the hero in this household, and he definitely is WAY more fun that I am.

You love to climb things. You've taken quite a few tumbles this past month. You're a monkey, what can we say.

When you turned one year old, we were in the craziest part of our renovations, and we kept meaning to have a birthday party for you, and things just kept getting crazy.

We finally got around to celebrating your 18 months. Maybe we're not the best at planning parties or keeping our house in a state where we can have guests, but what we lack in organization, we make up for in love. Whoa boy, did you ever love that cake. It was love at first bite. You dug your fork into the cake (because, puh-lease, get my hands dirty? I think not.) and looked at me like, "This is my piece, right?", meaning, THE WHOLE CAKE. (That's my boy.)

Promise you'll get a party when you turn 2.

Noah, I miss you SO much when I am at work. But I know you're having fun and learning new things and doing really boyish, awesome things with your Dad, and I'm so happy he gets to share some of the amazing experiences of your childhood. You are amazing. You have a sweetness that cannot be described.

We love you so much, my sweet little Noah.

Love
Mama

Dear Caleb,

You are a month shy of turning three years old. Lately I've been looking at a lot of baby pictures and I can hardly believe you were that mohawked, potbellied little baby who was so fat that you grew cheese between the folds under your chins. Seriously, how did this:

Turn into THIS:

Such is the magic of parenthood, I guess.

You are an independent, imaginative, witty, cheeky, and sweet little man. There is nothing left of that baby in the photo. You are fully toilet trained. You sleep through the night. You eat three square meals a day (OK, maybe more like 1 square meal and two where you graze.) You get in and out of the car on your own. You climb into your own high chair. You wash your hands with soap. You pour your own glass of milk. (Mostly into the glass, sometimes not.)

Gone are those terrible twos, and it feels like we're very much into what I've heard characterizes the age of three. Mostly angelic. Your not-so-angelic moments are really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but there is such a contrast between your loveliest and your not-so-lovely moments that make things more apparent. This morning, you went from giving your little brother a "magic kiss" (Mom's invention - to take away the pain that comes with a boo-boo) on the arm, to shoving him so hard that he fell because he was getting too close to your trains. I like to think that we all have our moments, and the way we are for 80% of the day should be what defines you. And if I were to look at your 80%, it would tell me that you are a trustworthy little fella, that you are happy, creative, logical, caring, and incredibly funny.

You are able to speak in these long, lovely sentences. Sometimes you get lazy and you start barking out sentence fragments ("want milk!"), which can be really frustrating considering it sounds rude and you're totally able to ask nicely. Your English has really come a long way in the past month. While French is still our primary language at home (and hopefully will always be), sometimes we speak in English just to give you some practice. You're doing really great and we are feeling so much better about sending you to an English school knowing that you will be able to get by just fine. Sometimes when you don't know the English word for something, you just put in the French word, which makes for some pretty funny sentences. ("Mommy, I want the caresse..." when you want a hug)

You've become a pretty good eater. Breakfast is always a little tricky, but you're usually happy to eat lunch and dinner. You're great in a restaurant, and you eat from all the food groups. Still working on those vegetables, but you're starting to be better with that. With your dad at home, I'm sure you will start eating all kinds of new things. You love to try eating with real chopsticks.

You love "your" computer (my old laptop). You play puzzles on-line, you surf the Disney Cars website, you play on the Starfall alphabet site, and when I left you with a colouring game on the Thomas The Tank Engine website, you somehow managed to find the Videos section of the website and started watching clips of Thomas episodes. Which reminds me, your father taught you how to turn on the TV and select a recorded episode of Caillou (a children's animated series), so now when Noah waddles into the TV room, points to the TV and says "Aillou", you say "OK, Noah!" and you go get the remote. Until Mom the party-killer catches you in the act and breaks up the fun, that is.

You have been in heaven for the past few weeks with your father now at home with you and Noah. Not only is your father your hero, he also takes you guys out for way more fun activities than I ever did. You go to the park almost every day, most of the time while riding your two wheeler bike. You guys have been doing the museum tour - the Museum of Agriculture, the Museum of Science and Technology, and the Museum of Cilivization, which is by far and away everyone's favourite. He even took you guys to the War Museum, thinking there might be something of interest for you boys, but it ended up being pretty gory and non-age-appropriate, so now you tell me, as we drive by the War Museum, that "This one not fun Mommy. Not the toys here, Mommy."

Speaking of your bike, I never took you out on your bike because when you originally got your bike, you needed a lot of supervision on it as you were just learning to ride, so I was never able to run after the bike while having Noah with us. Well, now you're older and much better with your bike, plus your Dad is much more fearless with this kind of thing and frankly, just a whole lot better at it, so you've since become really, really good with the bike. Going to the park is mostly about getting to ride your bike. Your dad tells me that sometimes you get to the park and barely stay there 5 minutes before you ask to get back on the bike to go home.

You love watching the movie Cars and it's amazing that you can watch the entire movie from start to finish. You love the characters, the story, and sometimes you like watching it in French and tell me that Lightning McQueen in French is "Flash McQueen". Even though you are really into Cars, you still continue to play with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. You showed a renewed interest in Thomas after having met the train in the flesh, so to speak. Strangely enough, a few days before the big date with Thomas, you started telling us that you didn't want to get on board for a train ride, so we ended up needing to bribe you with a new toy to get you to go for a ride. Weird. Who knows, being almost-three is complicated, I guess.

Every day, you send me to work with one of your cars. It started with the red Jeep, then it was the orange fire engine, and lately you've been giving me some real precious cars, like Fillmore and Luigi, character cars from your favourite movie. Some day if you give me the Blue Lightning McQueen (your favourite car), I'll know I am #1.

Next week, you start nursery school. I am anxious and nervous about it, but I'm sure it will go great. I hope you'll enjoy the new environment, the new people, the structure, and the change of scenery. I can't wait to hear all your stories from "school". You've always been imaginative, and you're so great at making believe.

You're really great with Noah. You help him down the stairs. You love to run around the house holding his hand and trying to rope him into playing with you. When you go to pour a glass of milk, you take out two cups - one for you, one for him. You love when it's his nap time, because you know that's when you get a little one-on-one time, or get to do something special like have a popsicle or watch a bit of TV.

You usually wake up around 7am - though lately you've been getting up around 6:30am, which is really tough because you start to get a little cranky in the afternoon. It's rare, but sometimes you'll fall asleep in the afternoon while watching TV, or if there's an afternoon car ride. You go to bed, reluctantly, at around 8:30pm and you fall asleep like a rock. I could play the drums in your bedroom and you probably wouldn't wake up. You're a good sleeper.

You are an awesome little guy. You're well adjusted, you have all kinds of love in your heart, and you are just hilarious. We love talking to you and laughing with you, and we still go to bed every night talking about all the amaizng stuff you do in a day. we love you lots.

Love,

Maman

Dear Noah,

Hey, little Jellybean. You are losing your baby fat, growing longer and leaner with every passing day. Everyone keeps commenting that you have lost your infamous chipmunk cheeks, and as your Aunt Sarah described it - the rest of your face finally caught up with your cheeks.

You are 17 months old now - the same age your brother was when you were born. You continue to wow us with your sparkling personality and cheeky sense of humour. You love to laugh (and still get the hiccups when you laugh too much) and you are always in a good mood. Except when you're not, and when you're not, WHOOOOAA baby watch out. It's headbutting, thrashing around, big crocodile tears, and crying so loud that my ears will be ringing.

I find it pretty amazing that you're able to talk at this age and that you know so many words. Sometimes you only say the second or last syllable of a word, but we know what you're talking about. Amongst the words you know: Mommy, Daddy, chien (dog), 'seau (short for "oiseau", meaning bird), avion (plane), 'lon d'eau (short for melon d'eau, meaning watermelon), biscuit (cookie), craquelin (cracker), lait (milk), eau (water), pipi (pee), caca (poop), lélé (your version of "télé", short for television), dodo (sleep), bain (bath), nez (nose), tête (head), yeux (eyes), pied (foot), 'teil (short for "orteil", meaning toe), chup chup, (ketchup), livre (book), raisin (grapes), toast, van, taxi, and ca (that). Add to that the half-dozen words that you know in Vietnamese! I swear you can count too - you know several numbers between 1 and 10 in three languages.

You say yes to just about any question, and sometimes just to mess with you, I will ask you something completely made up, like "Did you have a bad dream about hippopotamuses again?" and you'll moan "Ouiiiiiii..." (yes) This is a far cry from a few months ago, when the answer to every question was no. You're able to understand a great deal though, even though you may lack the words to respond.

You also know a ton of names for various people and toys - you can say many of the names of the characters from the movie Cars, including 'Queen (Lightning McQueen), 'Mone (for Ramone), and Sally. You always ask for James, the red engine, and 'Rold (Harold) the Helicopter, from Thomas the Tank Engine. You recognize our neighbours and even some of their pets - "Lelen" (Helen), "Ma" (Emma), and Max (their dog). You love to call out for your grandparents - I swear, if I had a dime for every time you said Mamie, Papie and Ba Ngoai, we wouldn't have to work for a living.

When asked what your name is, you tell me that it's Bob. You've been doing this for a few months now. We hope someday you'll go by your real name, but hey, nothing wrong with Bob for now.

You are a bit of a picky eater and I feel like you should be eating better, but I know this will come with age. There are a few things that you will reliably eat - chicken strips or nuggets, Greek gyro meat, French Canadian meat pie, Lebanese meat pie, and anything from the pastry/cookie/cracker food group (what, not a food group? are you sure?) You're pretty good with your fruits but you're not a huge fan of vegetables. You'll entertain a piece of asparagus or cucumber from time to time, and possibly a french fry or roasted potato, but that's about it. You've started eating cereal with milk in the morning, which is always a bit of a mess but you eat a lot of it. You love yogurt, though it tends to be part play thing by the time you're through with it. You, like your brother, love ice cream. In fact, I'm pretty sure you down it faster than he can. You love to dip everything in ketchup! Even somethings things that aren't meant to be dipped in ketchup, which is why I never eat any leftovers off your plate. Not after I had a leftover piece of watermelon with ketchup. Blech.

You've recently learned to twirl around in circles (then dizzily fall over), you throw your arms in the air and do little mini-leaps into the air, and you can kick a ball better than your older brother. You have always been great at throwing - balls, toys, food. You playfully call out the name of a victim and stumble towards them with a mischievous smile, your fingers wagging, doing what we call the tickling fingers. I love it when you do this from the backseat of the car.

You've been sleeping a good part of the night in bed with us, and for the time being, it doesn't bother us and allows everyone to get some sleep. We'd love it if you would go to sleep easily and sleep the entire night, without interruption, in your own bed - but there are really no two babies alike and you'll do your own thing at your own pace and whenever you're ready. You still nap in the afternoon for an hour or two, and you go to bed around 9pm, usually after your brother's already been put to sleep. You usually wake up in the morning around the same time we do, and sometimes you wake up demanding that we serve you some milk.

You love doing all the things that your brother does. You want to sit on the potty. You want to wash your hands. You ask to have your teeth brushed. You love being able to roam free when we're out and about, and it's starting to get a little bit easier going out with you and Caleb. I find that I'm taking a stroller less and less these days.

You make all kinds of wonderful animal sounds. You love fish ("wiff!"), ducks ("quack quack"), cows ("moooo"), birds ("cheep cheep"), dogs ("woo woo"), cats ("meow") and sheep ("beeeeh"). You love to see city buses ("bus! bus! bus!") and planes. You even get a little excited when you see trains, though I think because you see so many of them at home, it's kind of old news to you. When you walk backwards, you say "beep beep beep" like a truck does when it backs up. You are able to recognize many of the characters when we are out and about - you'll recognize Thomas the Tank Engine, Caillou ("you!"), and even Cars-themed stuff.

You're a rough and tumble kid. You love climbing the two-step in the kitchen. You can go upstairs on your hands and knees, but you love trying to walk up them by having us hold your hands. You're pretty stable on your feet but you still have the occasional tumble. A few weeks ago you fell while in the bathroom and landed face first on the ceramic floor. You have a teeny tiny chip on one of your two front teeth - so tiny that only I would notice it, and I'm pretty sure it hurt me more than it hurt you.

You are a super affectionate little guy. You love to hug and plant juicy open mouthed kisses on our lips and cheeks. Often, when I am trying to rock you to sleep, you will lift your head up off my shoulder, say "Mama", plant a kiss on my lips, and go back to snuggling on my shoulder. You will grab our faces with both your hands, and plant kiss after kiss on our cheeks until we are soaking wet. (And loving it.)

You have a really expressive face. You have this great expression where you raise both your eyebrows and open your mouth in mock surprise - something you surely picked up from your mother. A bit like this:

You are starting to sing along with your brother and I! It's amazing. You are chiming in with the odd word and you happily clap your hands together during and after a song. There is always a huge round of applause and a chorus of "YAAAAY!" after the alphabet song or Itsy Bitsy Spider. Lately, we have been singing this one Thomas the Tank Engine song about a duck, and there is one part in the song where there is a big long high note that we all howl at the top of our lungs - and this is your favourite thing to do now. You will howl the words "sooooooo happy!" along with us when it's that moment in the song, and chime in with "quack quack choo choo choo" when we get to the refrain. You have always been a huge music fan, and we love to see you dancing in your own personal style.

You love to play with your big brother Caleb and I often hear you howling with laughter as you two are inventing some game. He likes to build train tracks; you're all about destroying them. You hold your own with him - if he tells you to do something and you don't want to, you shake your head and say "NO!" I really love seeing you two being play buddies. Your dad isn't sure that you two will continue to stay close because of your distinct personalities, but regardless of that, I know there will be lots of time and opportunities for adventures together.

In a few days, I will be starting a new job and spending my days away from you. I can't tell you how much I've thought about this in the past month and a half since I accepted the job. I will definitely find it more difficult to be away from you than your brother; it's not because I love you more than I love him - it's just that you are, in my mind, still my precious little baby. However, I take a great deal of comfort knowing that your father gets to share in experiencing some of these precious, fleeting baby moments.

You are a sweet monkey and we absolutely adore you.

Love,
Maman