Thirty Months
Thirty months - or, as Peter likes to say "toonahaf".
Peter's current obsession is the Cars movie - he loves all the characters and talks about them perpetually - Sally, Doc, Mater. He loves it when I tell him a story about Lightning McQueen coming to his house and taking him on a ride to Radiator Springs. He also has an imaginary cat named "Joshua" who he always stipulates be included in the story. Joshua is blue, black, grey and purple and has his own carseat.
Peter is potty-training. We have been at this some weeks now, but I feel we've had some major breakthroughs recently. Namely, he will take the initiative to go to the bathroom himself. Afterwards he'll talk about how went "all by myself" and brag smugly about how "babies can't go peepee on the potty. Babies go peepee in the diaper. Only big boys go peepee on the potty." We still average approximately one 'accident' a day, but things are moving. I'm quite motivated to have him out of diapers by the time his sibling arrives.
Peter is also in a "why" stage: Why Matt and Lark go home? Why they eat dinner? Why I eat pasta? Why everyone bouncing on the bouncy castle? Why I have bath?
As you can imagine some of these questions lead me down a chain of inane explanations - i.e. you have a bath because it's almost bedtime. It's almost bedtime because it's getting late. It's getting late because the sun has gone down. Er, I have no idea really.
Another big phase Peter is in is an "I don't like" stage. He doesn't seem to know how to say "I don't want", or maybe he just realises he gets a better reaction from "I don't like." So if you've given him the wrong thing, there's a toddler tantrum and "I don't like my car!" (which was his "favourite" 10 minutes ago) or better yet "I don't like Mummy! I don't like Daddy!" At other times he's very clear: "I like Mummy. I like bunnies. I like Daddy too." (Hopefully not in that order.)
What I'm loving about this stage is the story-telling. The most interesting details come to light. When telling you about a trip to the park, the highlight is talking about the plastic flamingo he saw. When you innocently ask if it was pink, he looks at you blankly and says "No." Sure enough, on viewing it, the flamingo is so sunbleached it's not actually pink.
He also doesn't totally get that we might not remember things if we were not actually present. "Sethie fall down in the park - cry cry. 'Member dat?" Um, no my dear - I have to be there to remember things.
Overall he is such a loving, hilarious, confident little boy (except when it comes to Easter bunny viewing.) We just love having him around.


