The little things I hope I never forget…- Daniel helping me fold the laundry, then throwing my pink undies over his shoulder like a purse, waving "bye-bye" and blowing me a kiss before walking away.
- After his recent mastery of the word “yellow”, Daniel became convinced that the sky was yellow. I sat down and read him a farm book featuring big blue skies… Me: “Daniel, look at the blue sky!” Daniel: “Yellow sky!” Me: “Daniel, the sky is blue!” Daniel: “Yellow!” Me: Giving up and closing the book. Daniel: “Bye-bye, yellow sky!”
- His (really good) Ray Charles impression, first discovered at a family lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. That soulful sax just does something to the little man!
- How he’s adding a “y” to everything… all of a sudden “snack” became “snacky snacky” (which sounds more like “nacky nacky!”), duck became “duckey” and “max” became “mackey”.
- How when I was sick, he crawled into my lap in the recliner, and watched an entire Veggie Tales cuddled up with me. (This NEVER happens!)
- Animal noises are becoming old hat for Daniel. He does an excellent pig noise, a very realistic cow noise (thank you Fernando) and instead of “bah bah” for sheep and lamps, he does this ridiculous Beavis & Butthead laugh, convinced it’s the right noise.
- Goodnight Moon is nightly ritual now, and he delights himself in finding the mouse. (Otherwise known as the “mousey mousey”).
- I love cooking dinner at night, and having Daniel hang out in the kitchen. He pulls out all of our place mats, arranging them usually in a big circle. He then pulls out each of the big mixing bowls, a few plastic pitcher, then stacks and unstacks the bowls, occasionally wearing one as a hat, and encouraging me to do the same. When he’s finally had enough of entertaining himself, he wedges himself between my legs and whatever counter I’m facing, stretches both arms up and says “up, mama!” As I am unable to resist those big brown eyes, he ends up on my hip, observing what’s left of preparing dinner.
- He now prays before each meal, repeating after us, “Thank you God – Amen!”
- Every day, he leans out his crib and searches the side yard for rabbits, calling “money money?” with his little arms up as if to say, “where’s the bunny?” He looks for lizards too: “tu tu? tu tu?” If he doesn't see any bunnies or lizards, he says "ni-night... bye-bye money, bye-bye tu tu!"
- His dancing techniques are expanding, and he’ll pretty much imitate any moves we do. He especially loves dancing with Fernando to “popcorn”, one of the Crazy Frog remixes.
- His latest favorite book was a gift from his cousin Lucas: “I Love You, Stinky Face!” He wants it read repeatedly, and follows along with all the details, learning new words each time through.
Every day I find myself wishing I had a video camera on auto-record all the time. It's the little interactions, the little glances, the small yet hilarious expressions that I wish I could capture and preserve forever. The little things ARE the big things.
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