Cornucopia of...Dangerboy!!

I've been procrastinating this post, because there's just too much to write. It's like letter-writing...after a while, there's just too much to report, and I know I'm going to have to write one stinking long letter to get it all in. Well, here goes.

Dangerboy's second birthday: To celebrate, we did the same thing as last year: giant bubbles in the field by Verano Commons. This year we added giant beach balls to the mix--DB's friends had fun rolling around on them, though DB himself wasn't too interested. I made a totally lame cake, with balloons made of cookies on it (kinda last minute). DB successfully blew out all two of his candles! He spent most of the rest of the time trying to keep his birthday presents to himself. Note to me: no birthday presents at parties for toddlers! There's just too much drama.

Developing interests: Went to a ward dance a month or two ago, skeptically...who ever dances at those, right? This one was smart--whole families were invited. Kids love to dance! As soon as the music started, the 5-and-under set rushed out to shake some booty with the swing dance set, so everyone else thought they might as well join too. DB had a BLAST. Mostly he danced with his friend Miriam, who is three years older than he, holding hands and swinging around. Everyone who saw him smiled. He likes to be sung to, and likes to play with instruments. A few weeks ago we put him in the car after a trip to the farmer's market. Before we got out of the parking lot, we heard a noise in the back seat, turned around to look, and saw that Dangerboy had found his sunglasses and harmonica and was happily blowing away like an old blues player. He did put together this little ensemble as well:

DB also loves wrestling, always has; would as soon push you over and climb all over you as, well, look at you. He also loves construction machines ("diggers"), cars, and trucks, and as recently become a lot better at entertaining himself with his toy ones--you know, lining them up, sound effects, the whole bit. Animals are another interest--whenever someone brings a dog or (once) a bunny to play group, he is the first one there petting it, and the last one to lose interest. He is very kind to them and so far has never tried to pull their tails or anything. He loves to swim--he's getting good at jumping off the side of the pool into our arms. After seeing "Finding Nemo" at the Lemans' house, we went swimming and he kept trying to swim away on his own, saying with determination "Swim. Swim. Mee-mo. Mee-mo."

And finally, and unfortunately, he loves TV and movies. "Cars" is by far his favorite, followed by "Curious George" and Elmo. He would watch Barney and Teletubbies (loves them) but we are thankfully outside by then, so he only sees them when he's sick. He would watch for hours if I let him, but I don't (usually).

We went to Disneyland with Grandma Wendy in the spring, and DB really liked it--he loved the "Bug's World" rides in California Adventure, and the Playhouse Disney show. He also liked the rockets (though I thought they were terrifying) and the Buzz Lightyear ride. He's interested in pirates after that famous ride--he kept silent (with huge eyes) for the whole ride, then at the end said, "Scary. Scary. Again."

Dangerboy is getting good at colors and numbers and shapes--he can identify all the rainbow colors, plus brown and black (though he only started saying "yellow" this week). He knows his numbers to ten, as in if I count up to five, he can tell me that six comes next. He can count two objects, but any more than that and it sounds like "two, four, seven!!!" (seven is by far his favorite number). And he knows circles and triangles the best.

DB has, even since he was a newborn, laughed in his sleep. I swear it. It's one of the sweetest things I've seen. He laughed in his sleep before he ever laughed awake. I thought he didn't do it anymore, but the other day I was lying next to him as he napped. At first he started whimpering, like he was having a bad dream--then he stopped for a few seconds--then he positively giggled. Love it.

He has lots of friends, though some of his favorites have moved, permanently and temporarily. His friends Gwennie and Miriam are gone for the year, but I wanted to share a story--click here for the link to the whole cute story. Basically, Gwen's mom (Gwen is two) asked her what kind of pets she likes, and she said she likes fish, bunnies, Dangerboy, and her cousin Gio.