Two and a half.

Oh, Nicholas, you have my heart.

At just over two and a half, you continue to light up our world. We occasionally fight over you. I look forward to your cuddles in the morning, but your big brothers ask if they can go into your room at the first sound you have woken up. Sometimes they will throw a small party in the cot.

Some days I wonder why I ever worried that your brothers would see you as a burden. Right now, they couldn’t love you any more than they do. They seem to revolve around you, like the planets. I often wish they would love each other as much as they love their baby brother. Often they call me in to their room to show me that you are all having a group hug, or lying together on the floor. If one of them is sad, you are the first to offer a sympathetic stroke on the arm and look into their eyes to make sure they are okay. I hope you always have each other’s backs.

You love to eat, and are happiest with an apple in your hand. I love that, whenever Charlie gets himself an apple, he will always get one for you too. You are happy to sit patiently as long as you have your beloved blue lunchbox in front of you, and will finish every last morsel. It is becoming apparent that highchairs are only for babies and you are far too grown up to sit in one of those anymore, without significant encouragement. We may need to find a fifth chair for our dining table soon or someone is going to miss out on dinner.

I watch you getting up to stand on your own more and more everyday, and you especially love standing to dance when we’re at our music class. You have recently discovered that standing up in my shoes is especially hilarious. This week, we witnessed you take your first few independent, very tentative steps and we cheered loudly. We know that these things take time and you will become a walker when you are good and ready, but we celebrate each of your milestones, whether big or small.

You are my little social butterfly, happily entrancing everyone we meet with your ‘hellos’ and waves and goodbye kisses. One of your favourite places is being at kindy with Charlie, and his beautiful teachers will often get the kids to sing a song especially for you in the mornings, so you can do the actions. You have many admirers under your spell (and I’ve even had a few offers of marriage for you lately – I’ll keep you posted on the successful applicant 😉 How lucky am I to know that it isn’t just my world you light up, but those you meet along the way too.

While you may not be speaking in sentences, you are a very effective communicator. You use some words and key word signs, along with a few random hand gestures and yells here and there, and it is very clear when you want something or want us to be in a particular place. Your receptive language often amazes me, and I know you understand far more than I estimate. When I ask you to get a washer from the bathtub, or put something in the bin, neither of which are in sight at the time, you will happily say “okay” and go and do it. You are a clever kid, I have no doubt.

Your most annoying habit at the moment (aside from the rather emphatic yelling, which has thankfully died down a little since you worked out how to shake your head silently as an alternative way to express ‘no’) is to demonstrate fierce determination to avoid being buckled into your carseat. You would much prefer to use the car as a jungle gym and crawl through to the boot area instead. While sometimes this can be accommodated, other times it’s just plain inconvenient! We are working on a few strategies, though.

You still love to read, but you are fussy about which books we choose. Often it’s a lengthy selection process before you are happy with the choice and agree to proceed. One night recently, I declared that it was “Mum’s choice tonight”, which you weren’t too fussed about, so you decided to cover your ears instead 😉 Cheeky monkey.

My beloved Nicholas, I am blessed by your presence in my life more than you will ever know. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky. Love you to the moon and back x