March 30, 2011 - Dear Alex,

Dear Alex,
A random list of things I've made notes about but haven't blogged.

- Way back in January you surprised me and started singing along with the CDs in the car.

- In early March, you and Max were showing that you knew the difference between boys and girls. I asked whether your stuffed pigeon was a boy or girl. "Girl," you said. "How do you know?" I asked. "It doesn't have a pene."

- In March you said you wanted to go to ballet class. I'm guessing it came from seeing cousin Sofia do a dance recital. We signed you up for a movement class that you call ballet and thoroughly enjoy. On Class 1, you, me and mama all jumped liked frogs, stretched and jumped over imaginary puddles. Max joined us one Thursday when he was on school break. You loved the moving, the learning and the opportunity to express yourself.

- You and I have started our guy night out. You like to eat dinner in my office. We eat dinner on the floor and then you play with the stapler, paper shredder, ink stamps and calculator. One night we stopped at Smiling Elephant for me to get Thai food for our picnic. You saw a calculator near their cash register and wanted to play with it. "I have one in my office, you can use that one," I said. "You have two in your office," you corrected me. "Can I play with the blue one?" It amazed me that you knew I had a blue calculator. I didn't know that.

- Blue has become your color of choice. Sometimes it borders on obsession: "I want a blue one." (cry, cry). Mostly it's just your preference. Max usually likes red or green.

- You and I went to Target. We passed the woman's underwear section. You pointed to a manikin wearing a bra. "Mama has some of these." - You've started taking my teddy bear as your baby of choice to sleep with.

- You're now still requesting? demanding? a banana in the morning for your breakfast but typically you eat no more than half of it.