Look at this guy--how cute is he? As Davey quickly approaches turning 2 at the end of this month, I want to remember little details about him at this stage in his life.
David has this halo of crazy strawberry blond curls that float in the air, a quick smile and blue eyes that turn down at the corners and crinkle when he laughs. He is friendly with everyone he meets and is quick to make buddies with adults and kids. I jokingly refer to him as the mayor of our town because he knows way more people around town than I do from his outings with our nanny to preschool, story time at the library, the local pet shop, etc. More than one time someone has recognized Davey around town and said to me, "Oh, you're David's mom!"
He has an adorable habit of scrunching up his lips and wrinkling his nose when he is mad or doesn't want to do something. The face reminds me of Arnold on Diff'rent Strokes, the tv show from the '80s, when Arnold would say "What you talkin' about, Willis?" to his older brother.
David also has a hilarious laugh. He has been quick to laugh since he was 5 months old and is still this way. His laugh takes people by surprise, though, because the first time you hear it, the laugh is so boisterous that it is often mistaken for crying or him being upset. "What's wrong with David?" someone will ask when they hear it, and we explain that he is just laughing. It is a bit of a maniacal laugh that reminds Joe of the comedian Jim Carey's crazy laugh. It wouldn't surprise me if Davey ends up being a class clown some day.
Davey definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. He is amazingly able to focus on whatever it is that he finds interesting despite repeated interruptions from his brother, and he can play alone for 30 minutes to an hour at a time, content to amuse himself with various toys around the room. I often find AJ imitating some play that David has initiated.
In terms of interests, this one is easy--Davey is obsessed with trains, and specifically with Thomas the Train and all its characters. He knows them by name and squeals with delight as soon as he hears the theme music from the cartoon. He asks us to turn it on for him by singing "deet deet!", which are the first two bars of the theme song. He enjoys music and will often start dancing as soon as he hears a tune. One Saturday he amused himself for a half hour by playing his toy guitar, clapping for himself and saying "yea!!!!" after every song finished. Maybe a future rock star?
He is also pretty people savvy for his age and is focused on making people happy and making sure he is in their good graces. When he gets in trouble, he quickly comes over to whomever is disciplining him and pats their arm while saying "nice, nice" in an attempt to make up for his bad behavior. I think this is partly his sweet, peacemaker temperament and partly the beginning realizations that he can manipulate people with sweetness. If he had a motto, it would be kill 'em with kindness. He is often a peacemaker with his brother and will offer AJ trains and other favorite items in an attempt to calm AJ down during tantrums.
Speaking of tantrums, despite his generally sweet demeanor, David is capable of some legendary tantrums. When he gets going, there is no stopping it. The other day he had a tantrum in music class and was hitting our nanny. She took him in the hall to calm down, then outside, but it raged on and on as David threw himself off a park bench onto the ground and flopped down boneless in the middle of the street. He raged all the way home and after being deposited in his crib, managed to muster some herculean strength from his rage to climb out of his crib and thump onto the floor, still screaming and raging 45 minutes after the tantrum started.
Quirky things that I want to remember about him always include the way he claps his chubby little toddler hands and says "yea!" whenever he hears applause (even if he has no idea what is being applauded), the merry look in his eyes when someone tries to make him laugh, his love for snuggling while rubbing someone's arm, his over-the-top enthusiastic squeals and leg hugging whenever I walk in the door and his obsession with getting "agua" 10 times a day by pulling open the freezer, loading ice into his cup, supervising the pouring of the water and slapping the cap on his cup with deep satisfaction at a job well done. Things I am looking forward to him growing out of include the tantrums, his dogged focus on applying stickers all over our hardwood floors and his drama king tendencies when he is in a certain mood to scream melodramatically when AJ even looks in his direction (it's as if he is trying to say "mom, he's looking at me!"). As he progresses from single words and a couple of two-word phrases into more language in the next year, I am so curious to hear more of his thoughts and to see how he changes and grows.
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