Rhys J Larsen
... is two years and nine months old, and excited to be three in April.
... is also known as "Rhysie", "R", "Mr. R", "Rhysie-Piecey", "sweetie-pea" and "snug-a-bug".
... love to snuggle, be held, be carried, sit on laps, give kissies and huggies.
... is very sensitive and cries when people he loves aren't around.
... loves, loves, loves trains. He will spend hours building intricate track sets and pulling long trains along them with the wooden train sets we've bought for the boys.
... knows all of his alphabet letters and their sounds and loves to watch Tallis do his "reading program".
... is an impressive breakfast eater. His favorite is oatmeal, the old fashioned kind, and he will eat twice as much as any of the rest of us, plus food on the side. Where does it all go?
... doesn't just love breakfast, but is a big fan of lots of "foo-foo" (his baby word for "food" he still uses). Apples and all kinds of fruits, broccoli, rice, quinoa, chicken, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, yogurt, popcorn, potatoes, but no milk please, unless it's flavored! He always prefers lots of water to drink.
... is a light sleeper in a small house with a big brother, but thankfully is usually not badly behaved when he's sleep-deprived - he just gets clingy and somewhat emotional.
... gets sick more than any of the rest of us. Poor guy!
... is deeply attached to his tricycle and is a devoted rider, rain or shine. In August of 2012 he rode for about 2 miles, up hills and against the wind without complaint.
... just got big and strong enough to start peddling Tallis' bike. He declared "I'm big! I'm big!" with a huge smile on his face. Time to upgrade from the tricycle!
... will shovel snow for hours on end, happily. When the first light dusting of snow started falling this year he woke up and saw it and the first words out of his mouth were "My shovel! Where's my shovel? I need to shovel!" He remembered from the previous April when the last snow was on the ground! We went hiking in the first snow and he carried his shovel the whole way, and shoveled the boardwalks for us. Devotion.
... seems built to be tall and athletic someday. Big head, big hands, big feet, only about 2 inches and 4 pounds smaller than his brother who is 21 months older than him.
... will play basketball ceaselessly, with a full-size basketball and a hoop at least twice as high as he is, and makes a good 1/3 of his shots.
... hit 3 of the first 5 (plastic) baseballs pitched at him, with a narrow (plastic) baseball bat. Hand-eye coordination!
... likes to unload the utensils from the dishwasher and sweep and vacuum. Mommy's helper.
... is potty trained, day and night! As of the last month or so. Whew! No more diapers at our house.
... usually responds to a question with "I don't know" before he considers it and come up with an answer under a little prodding.
... adores his big brother, "Toddis" (he can't say his L sound yet). Wants to do everything he does, watches his every move, does most of what he says.
... can get dressed mostly by himself, with a little help to get his head through the neck hole on his shirt, and things like starting zippers and buttons.
... is a ham, making funny faces, doing silly dances, pantomiming and acting crazy just to get attention and a smile from others. Very expressive.
... is relatively fearless with regards to people, unless he's in a sensitive mood. Warms up quickly, when not too tired, to the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus - strange people in weird costumes a lot of kids are scared of.
... can write his name, when he gets some reminders about the shapes the letters make. Is most proud of the letter H, which is easiest to draw, and points it out all the time ("that's in my name!"). He sometimes adopts other letters into his name, his favorites being C ("C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me!) and D (for Dada, his favorite fellow).
... is a little more mischievious than his brother. He's been caught unraveling rolls of toilet paper and surveying tape, and drawing on things he shouldn't. But he's still amazingly controlled with his impulses, unlike most two-year-old boys.
... hasn't had any fear of the touch tank at the Alaska Sea Life Center. He likes the urchins, crabs, sea stars, etc.
... didn't really like the ocean in Hawaii, although the sand was A-OK. The surf and its unpredictability scared him. When we visited a beach with fewer waves, almost like a pool, he enjoyed it.
... likes Cooper Landing. Likes Alaska. Seems to like winter and outdoors.
... sleeps with few covers. He tends to kick off blankets. But he does love his blue blankie.
... thinks green is the best color, but maybe just because blue was already taken by somebody else!
... adores Curious George. He had a Curious George costume for Halloween that he wore to a Saturday trick-or-treating event. The hood on it kept twisting around and flopping so he couldn't see, so come Halloween itself the next week, he refused to wear it again. He was a skeleton for the second year in a row instead.
... loves waving at people and will tell anyone who's leaving "Bye-bye! Be safe! I love you!"
... grew from a "baby" to a "boy" in about 6 weeks at the beginning of last summer. Several people who had seen him in May and didn't see him again until July were shocked at how his appearance had changed in just a few weeks. He took on a whole new look.
... weighs 31 pounds and stands 38 inches tall.
... has never had any baby fat to pinch, no little rolls around his wrists or elbows. He's a lean, mean machine!
... thinks he's a cat. Meow, meow! Lick, lick! (yuck, yuck)
... always wakes up from his nap before he's well rested.
... has a good sense of humor.
... knows how to sing lots of primary songs and might even sing them for you. If you're lucky.
... prefers helicopters over airplanes. Always wants to go in one.
... has super-sweet blood. The mosquitoes just LOVE him!
... likes to wrestle and play rough.
... likes the sounds he hears in his head when he's getting the shampoo rinsed out of his hair, laying back in the tub with his ears in the water. He hums and sings and babbles all the while to hear it.
... loves to go to preschool and play with his friends.
... knows more names for construction equipment than I do. His favorite is the front loader. He sometimes messes up and calls an excavator an alligator. They sound alike, right?
... watched the Olympic high-divers and kept saying "I want to do that!" He's got an adventurous, slightly adrenaline-fueled spirit.
... talks back to the characters when he watches kids' shows on TV.
... loves seeing the octopus at the Alaska Sea Life Center almost as much as his Mom does.
... likes to help dump and stir when I'm cooking.
... is okay at the dentist as long as he doesn't have to sit in that big chair all by himself.
... gets attached to certain articles of clothing and is sad when he gets too big for them and they are given away.
... seems to have an affinity for animals, particularly birds.
... does not like anything intense or scary in a movie or TV show.
... loves to have stories read to him, snuggled on your lap. He also reads two stories (maybe more that I haven't noticed yet) to himself: The Hungry Caterpillar and Birthday Monsters. He has them memorized just well enough to do an adorable recitation by looking at the pictures.
... has a deep and gravely voice (for a two year old). I've joked before that when he hits puberty and his voice changes, it will be so low we won't be able to hear him anymore.
... will still fall asleep in his carseat, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so much.
... brings a lot of life and love to our home. We love our Rhysie!
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