I am utterly besotted with these little guys and it is definitely such a fun age and stage for both of them. With Tiras talking more and more, we get that much more of a glimpse into his personality and how he thinks. Micah is in Year One now and it’s amazing to see him navigating longer school days and his social world so independently. Another great dynamic is how much Micah and Tiras enjoy spending time together. Yes, the squawks and outcries of dismay do occur at times, but there are far longer stretches of companionable chattering and boisterous and giggly wrestling. Love it!
And now, just a bit of a snapshot of Mr. Tiras at the present time:
The Talker – Tiras chats away in sentences and paragraphs these days. Some words are clear as a bell and others I can’t quite discern. He also has a grand old time playing make-believe with his toys and I’ll hear him talking away to them and he reminds me of Andy in Toy Story (and of his big brother when Micah first started pretend play in earnest).
Some of my favorite words are the words he doesn’t quite say correctly yet, such as “hopter” for helicopter. I just love that one! I also love how he adds his own exclamations to things now, “Good gwief!” and “I cannot bewieve it!” are two I hear fairly regularly and they always make me smile!
The Charmer – I have noticed that Tiras has definitely caught on to the “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” principle. He will sometimes smile brightly and give us hugs before asking for something he wants. He is also quick to burrow his head into one of our shoulders if he thinks we need extra hits of adorable for one reason or another, including to smooth over troubled waters. Troubled waters caused by another facet of his personality…
The Scowler—Let’s keep in mind that he is two and it is utterly age appropriate to be a bit mercurial at this age. That said, Tiras is embracing his age and very much exhibiting some of the age two drama. If he doesn’t like the answer he gets or if he doesn’t appreciate being misunderstood or if he generally thinks something is just not quite going as he likes, that boy can scowl like nobody’s business. It’s hard not to smile a bit because even his scowls are cute. It is less hard not to scowl when he adds some vocals to those scowls. He’s got some good lungs and he is not afraid to commit to the part of “two year old throwing a tantrum”.
The Awwww Maker – Still, the much more overarching dynamic and facet of Tiras right now is the little boy who constantly makes me go “awwwwwwwwwwww”.
• One morning, Micah was getting ready for school and scraped his back on the doorfame as he was coming into the bathroom to get lotioned up with CereVe. Tiras immediately came rushing over and asked “Micah ok?” and then hugged his brother to comfort him.
• Micah and I often hug Tiras when he successfully uses the potty and we will say “I’m so proud of you.” Tiras has shown a decided lack of interest in the potty since we got back from the U.S., but I still think that in his mind, the phrase, “I am so proud of you” is a nice and loving thing to say when you hug somebody.
That’s the background for the following encounter I had. I took a semiprivate yoga class with a much more fit friend. I came home sore, tired, and more than a little haggard and light-headed. Tiras came running to greet me and said, “I’m so proud of you, Mommy.” It was wonderful timing and lifted my spirits and soothed any dismay I might have felt over my dismal performance quite a bit.
He got such a great reaction from me that he has repeated it several times and it is always nice to hear, even if I am not so sure he knows what proud means. He has definitely placed that phrase in his “charm and awww” arsenal and just a couple weeks ago when not sleeping at two-ish a.m., he rolled over to hug me as we snuggled and said with a smile, “I’m so pwoud of you, Mommy.” He eventually did fall asleep and when I went to get him out of his crib much later that morning, he hugged me and sweetly said, “I’m just so pwoud of you.”
And, at the end of September, I sent this email to the grandparents:
I've told you how Tiras will hug me and say "I'm so pwoud of you, Mommy." While realizing full well he was unclear on the meaning of "proud", it always made me smile! Last night it made me laugh.
Tiras has taken to snuggle time before going to bed. I was wearing my blue cargo pants as I got him ready for bed. They are a bit loose, but not so loose as to sustain my large stretch to get onto the twin bed with Tiras in arms. I heard and felt a huge rip occur along the seam of my pants. I must have groaned or gasped because Tiras asked: "What happened, Mommy?"
I laughed as I answered him, "My pants ripped."
Tiras rolled over to hug me and tenderly said, "I'm so pwoud of you, Mommy."
I am still laughing every time I think of it! :-)
The Loyal Little Brother – Tiras may fuss at Micah if he doesn’t get his way sometimes, but just let ME try and do something Micah doesn’t like and Tiras emphatically defends his brother’s position. Just recently I had said no to something and Micah was not pleased. Tiras put on a determined scowl and drew himself up to his full (less than a yard) height and loudly declared, “Yes, Micah (do whatever something to which I had just said no)!”
The Getting Bigger and Bigger All the Timer – Tiras is showing so many signs of becoming more and more of a little boy and leaving the baby/toddler stage behind.
• He has casually been tossing out colors as if he’s known them forever and as if he did not refuse to engage in any “what color is this” games with Mommy. (a lot like Big Brother in the whole learn it on their own preference)
• As mentioned before, his pretend play has really increased and come into its own. One especially cute example was when he decided to dub his canister of wipes “Baby” and carried it lovingly around the house and insisted I give it Aquaphor after its diaper change.
• Watching Little Einsteins is a favorite activity and “Rocket” and “Big Jet” are his two favorite characters. He seems to have also taken in the music sheets they show at the end of each episode and has repeatedly pointed out music notes in other contexts (a picture in our friend,Aria’s, house and a Barney plate with music notes on the border) and commented “Music”
• He loves drawing and will often announce what the subject of his drawing is. Micah remains skeptical that the scribbles really are eggs and such, but does not rain on Tiras’s parade and say anything to this effect. (In fairness, Micah is not being unduly critical of Tiras--during Micah’s own abstract years, he never called any of his drawings anything but drawings and if an adult asked what he’d drawn, he’d look at them as if they were a bit out there because, clearly, he’d drawn colorful designs. End of story.)
• He is still not a giant fan of haircuts, but went on a triple haircut run and after his brother and a friend only two months older than Tiras had haircuts with no complaints, he sat down quietly and endured his own haircut without a single tear or protest. A FIRST!
• He is so agile and fearless and runs around the house climbing and jumping as much as he can. He loves to do a two-footed jump off the bottom stair and declare victoriously, “Pie-yah!”
• He loves to play with the “big kids” and it is quite something to see this very opinionated kid mimic exactly what the older kids do and run after them and echo what they say so exuberantly.
• Speaking of mimicry, Micah briefly used the repeated use of “not” to emphasize that he did not care to do something. About a month ago Tiras informed me: “I’m not, not, not going to take a bath with Micah.” He also proclaimed, “I’m not, not, not going to get a haircut today.” This latter was said shortly after his tear-free haircut, but I guess he didn’t want me getting any crazy ideas about another haircut any time soon!
The "Pardner"--Deron was watching Tiras and apparently Tiras said to him, "Slow down there, Pardner!" Later he cautioned Deron, "Careful, Pardner!" We are not sure where he gets this as he isn't exposed to Westerns and neither of us use the term. It's pretty funny. He realizes we get a kick out of it and will sometimes greet us with, "Hi Pardner Mommy!" or "Hi, Pardner Daddy!"
And now, a similar snapshot of Big Brother Micah. There are so many quotes and moments that make me smile that I can’t capture them all in my memory. I did scribble a few down and will just toss out some of what he says, does, and likes these days!
The Loving Big Brother-- Micah can be quite the affirming and encouraging big brother. One example was when Tiras was happily using a hand wipe to wipe the walls in our office. I think he was pitching in in the effort to clean some of his own crayon markings. At any rate, Micah was impressed and exclaimed said to me, “Mom, I think you should get Tiras an extra airplane!” (We have used a rewards system with Micah and apparently the concept came to mind as he watched his brother.) Micah then excitedly said to Tiras, “Tiras, this is what you do to get treats! You’re going to get treats!” He added warmly, “You’re doing a really good thing, Tiras.” (Ok, so the internal motivation to do the right thing played second fiddle to getting a reward, but at least it was in the mix. It’s a start!)
The Realistic Big Brother – About a month ago, after hosting several children at our house during Bible Study, I praised Micah for his excellent sharing. Matter of factly, Micah commented that while he’d done fine with sharing, “Tiras, not so much.”
The Encourager – Micah is often saying affirming things. He was trying to encourage Deron to progress in a video game they both enjoy. He advised Deron, “If you concentrate and practice…” To illustrate his point he did a long jump in the kitchen and then, getting an intent look upon his face, continued to do several more jumps. He then concluded his lesson, noting, “See! My jumps improved!”
He also recently touched my heart when he sent Deron off to work with a loving, “Bye Daddy! Hope you have a perfect day at work!”
The Obliging Helper – Every now and then when I ask Micah to do something, he answers me thusly: “I’d be happy to do that.” It always makes me smile to hear this rather charming turn of phrase come out of my five-year-old’s mouth.
The Perspective Changer – Micah and I were running errands together in a tuk tuk one morning in August. As we exited Nakumatt and made our way over to George, who was parked a bit down the street, a motorcyclist approached me about giving us a ride. Micah did not realize that this was a for fare ride and just as I was thinking that one thing I don’t love about errands is having to deal with all the offers for tuk tuks or motorcycles, etc., Micah said, “Wasn’t that so nice of him to offer us a ride.” He was so sweet about it and even though the mortorcyclist was looking for work rather than offering a ride, I did think it was nice and refreshing to see the world through Micah’s eyes.
The Budding Francophile – Micah is thrilled to be taking French at school. There is a weekly class and Micah loves to use the phrases he learns and sing the songs they sing. He has taken to saying “Au revoir! A bientôt!” when I leave him at school and even when I say good night.
A Few of His Favorite Things
• Micah’s hands down favorite color right now is orange. He eats out of an orange bowl, drinks from an orange cup, wears orange crocs and orange clothing whenever possible.
• Micah loves school and has lots of friends and happy times there. He is doing football (soccer), tae kwon do, cookery, and badminton clubs and enjoying them all. He is also still keeping up with his swimming.
• Cats! Micah continues to love the big cats and the wild cats, such as lions, cheetahs, leopards and cervals. He also very much hopes to see a tiger one day and keeps asking to go to India to so do. Along with the big cats, he loves his feline stuffed animal buddies and he hopes very much to have a pet cat one day.
• He still loves to line up his toys and will sometimes even ask me to take a picture if he thinks he has hit upon a particularly aesthetically successful arrangement. He will also sketch something he has built with blocks to remind him of how it looked so he can make it again after they have been put away (or in cases of being rearranged by his brother, etc.)
