"You love me and I love you too!"

NJ's constantly asking for us to read to him. When I told him that I needed to finish eating and washing the dishes, he opened up the books and said the story almost word for word, page by page. It was cute and funny. Pretty good, he knows the stories well!

He likes to randomly belt out the ABC song just about anytime, anywhere. Yesterday, he made up his own variation of it. He made it up on the fly, which we thought was interesting. It went a little like this: "A-B-C-D-E-F-G- alright! H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P- alright! Q-R-S-T-U-V- alright! W-X-Y-Z- alright! Alright, alright!" We don't know where it came from, but it had us laughing.

Seeing me snack on kettle corn, he asked for some too. With the gigantic bag we got, there was plenty left. He saw the bag and said, "I'm going to eat aaaaalllllll that!" Is that right? Once he was done with a handful, I said no more since we'd be having dinner soon. And he says, "May I have dinner please?" During dinner he randomly said to me, "You love me and I love you too!" Aww, what a sweetheart.

I finally started to put away the Christmas ornaments and decorations today. NJ saw me and helped me put some away. Later on in the day, I heard him making all kinds of noise in that room. I peeked over and he was dragging the box of Christmas stuff around. I asked him what he was doing and he says, "You need help!" Hmmm. Such an odd thing to be hearing from my little one. I said, "I need help?" He says emphatically, "Yes!" Ok then! Just please don't say that to me when I'm old...

"For food?"

We went to get some groceries and looked at some shelves that were on sale. NJ saw the ones we were looking at. I told him it was for storage and he says, "For food?" That made us laugh. I said, "Do we need more storage for food?" His answer, "Yeah."

On the way home, we picked up some Chick-Fil-A. We asked him what he wanted. He said, "Nuggets and sauce." Then he adds, "And I want fries, it's good for me!" Baba and I busted out laughing. Oh really? And what gave you that idea? I guess I tell him all the time to: "Just eat it, it's good for you." Ha, ha. The three of us shared one order of fries and nuggets. I gave a little fry to him and I took one too. He saw me reach for another and said, "No, don't get it! I want some too! Don't eat it, Mama, don't eat it!" Oh my, does this kid think about anything other than food?!

Fun Snacks

His dinner was definitely spoiled by eating way too much kettle corn, peanuts, and parmesan fries. It doesn't happen often, but we got hungry walking around. It was cute how he'd look up with his hands open looking for more kettle corn. And his girlfriend was nice enough to crack open the peanut shells and feed him the nuts. Ha, ha. He had his first pony ride and petting zoo experience thanks to the generous Uncle Tristan. Poor guy was freaked out at first being put on a horse and then cried twice over big goats getting too close to him. Oh dear. But he seemed to enjoy it. On the way home he told the story over and over about Gaby's skirt being eaten by a goat and Uncle Tristan saying, "No!" Yes, so we've heard. Silly.

Date Night

Walking together....

Sharing...

Some dinner and drinks...

Dancing...

Horse back riding...

And a sweet hug goodnight. Thank you for the invitation, but NJ cannot go to your house tonight.

Maybe I mentioned it to him a bit too early today because he was asking to see his girlfriend all day long. He also talked about her all the way over to meeting her and her parents. We had to ask him to be patient since he kept asking, "Are we going to Gaby's house? Are we almost there?" It was too much! Baba said to me, "I feel like we're driving him to a date." So we joked that night about him and Gaby having their first date. During dinner, she whispered in her mom's ear that she still wanted NJ as her boyfriend when she's a teenager. Ha! Silly little ones!

"Is it go time?"

Petal, petal, petal...

I took him up the street to the end of the cul de sac to ride his little borrowed tricycle. Usually he only puts his feet up on the petal while I push or just scoots with his feet. But finally today I got him to petal on his own. I wanted him to get some energy out, but really it took more energy out of me! It's so tiring to keep my hand on the back to make sure he doesn't tip over or to steer him at times. Even if we're along the side of the street, he goes all the way to the curb and gets off the trike until a car passes. At least he's got safety sense. Today he stopped at a rock, got off the trike to pick it up and throw it out of the way before getting back on to keep riding. How strange.

This morning, I was still in my pi's or sweats as we ate breakfast. He says to me, "Mama, why you keep wearing this?" As if he disapproved. They're my pajama's, I wear them everyday, who cares?! What are you, my little fashion police? Sheesh.

Taiwanese Thomas the Train

Over and over, we read the same five or so books. His favorite today was a Thomas the train story. After about the 15th or 20th time, Baba said, "Ask Mama to read it to you in Taiwanese." What? Between the two of us, he has the better Taiwanese! So I pushed it back onto him... He took the challenge and I was laughing already. About two pages in, I was in tears... trying to translate a Thomas the train story into Taiwanese was a lot more challenging than I even thought. You don't realize how little you actually know until you come across any words other than basic conversational ones. Even better, the whole time NJ was wandering around the room, bringing me other books to read, and asking Baba to: "Read the story!"

"Is it food time?"

Yesterday, he heard me putting away dishes and came running into the kitchen. He says, "Is it food time?" Baba laughs. Where did he get that? First time we've heard him say it. He's asking for food and snacks all day, so it shouldn't be a surprise it just sounds funny.