Sal, lately.

Age: 27 months

Stats: 13.5 kg, not sure how tall.

Clothes: 2T pants, 2-3T shirts. His favorite shorts are basketball shorts handed down to him from our friend, Aiden. He refers to them as Aiden shorts. He also loves his Mickey ringer tee and his new "muscle shirt". 

Food: Does juice count? He would drink diluted juice 24/7 if allowed. He loves "ficey Pisa" (spicy pizza), " fickles" (pickles), nuts, "waisins" (raisins), toast, chips, nachos, green beans, cucumber and tomatoes. He's not much of a meat eater, unless it is steak. 

Verbal ability: Who let my kid swallow a parrot? He repeats EVERYTHING, and I mean, EVERYTHING..especially the things we let slip from our tongues. Some of our favorites are, "for EVER!!" said with mucho gusto, "what a bummer", "no big deal", "fix it", "put the water in it", "clean it up" & " not too much". I can hear these words coming out my own mouth every time he says them. There's definitely a theme there. He's shy when others talk to him, but is very vocal when it comes time to say goodbye. He says quite audibly, "bye guys!", and "see you next time". I've been trying to teach him how to greet people with a handshake, but the only person he has tried it on is his sister. He grabs her hand and shakes it forcibly, saying "nice to meet you."  When people cough or sneeze, he says, "salud!". It's darling. 

Activities: Sal's go-to toys are definitely Duplo blocks and his wooden blocks. He sits and organizes his wood blocks by shape, and stacks same shape duplos into tall towers. Pretend play has begun a little bit, with him often talking to his stuffed yellow lab, Pluto (formerly known as Tess), and his beanie baby bull "fuh-da-nan"(Ferdinand) at nap time. I love this age and watching his little mind wrap itself around ideas. 

Things he does: Sal still loves the song "Whistle" by FloRida, and will hijack my iPad to play it in the dining room where he proceeds to stand on top of his Duplo box, while holding a table leg and getting his groove on. He does the same with Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem". I credit his love for J.A. to the fact that I had that song on repeat while he was in utero. It's engrained in him. He HAS to love it. 

He has mastered a mean somersault now, and is really good at jumping with both feet off the ground. His valley girl-esque way of saying "forEV-er!" makes us laugh every time, and he gives some really good kisses goodnight. 

Our elevator has a no smoking sign posted--the kind with a red circle and slash over a cigarette. One day he asked, "whassit?" So I explained what it meant. Ever since then, when we see a no smoking sign, he yells " no smokeen". He loves finding the "don't " signs wherever we go now and is constantly asking, " whassit?". 

Proudest mom moment: He does so many things each day that make me proud of him. I think my favorite moment lately came when the phone rang as I was nursing his sister and couldn't answer it-- by the time I got in the room where our landline is, he had already answered "HehWhoa, hehwhoaaaa? Wong numba. Bye guys." And hung up. The phone rang again. This time I answered and he was in fact right--the caller had the wrong number. I just loved his little voice and was surprised he knew the correct phone etiquette of answering a call. 

                             

Proudest dad moment: NZ says one of the things that makes him proudest, is when we are getting ready to go, and Sal comes running out saying, " dada, hat?" wanting to wear a Dodger cap like his.