And the word is "No!"

As you can probably tell by now, our family lives life to the tune of a song.

This week's song is The Word is No! By Gina on Sesame Street.

At dinner last night Henry asked Theo what kind of birthday he wanted (aka, the theme) so we could know what kind of cake to make.

Theo said "No!"

(That's becoming a common Theo-response.)

Henry laughed then asked me, "Mom, why does he say that, and why does he have the terrible two's?" (Henry's questions often answer themselves in his follow-up questions.)

Theo thought his "No!" was quite funny, too, and the rest of the night he answered every question with a big "No!" and hysterical laughter.

So, I decided "No!" would be a great theme for a 2-year-old's birthday.

Today we celebrate the birth of our dear, sweet Theodore!

And, honestly, dear and sweet is just how I would describe him.

Terrible? Hardly. 

He's such a joy.

In honor of Theo I'd like to share some random qualities, favorites, or quirks unique to Theo (that I can think of right now) and hope to remember about him later. He . . . 

1. Eats his pizza and cookies upside down so he can taste the frosting and toppings first, and has done this since he was about 1 year old.

2. Counts down from 10 better than he counts up (thanks to all our rocket play).

3. Can do somersaults.

4. Loves rice and daal, apples, broccoli (he pronounces it "bra-co-lee" and pretends to be a giant while he eats them--they are his trees), and pizza.

5. Loves to read books and hang out at the library.

6. Sings songs--and truly keeps a beat--and loves to recite nursery-rhymes. His favorite is Humpty-Dumpty. (He'll sit on our coffee table and fall off when he gets to the part that Humpty "had a great fall".)

7. Loves kisses and hugs, and requires just one tender kiss (and his magic blanket) to heal a boo-boo.

8. Loves to play and pretend with Henry.

9. Loves to pretend to be a daddy.

10. Pretends to call his girlfriends (baby Gena and Eva) on the phone.

11. Loves to pretend he is a cat or a cow, and will open up the living room window and stick his head out and meow or moo until someone pretends to feed him.

12. Has been caught sneaking into the refrigerator to take sips of Rootbeer (on the rare occasion we have it).

13. Grabs my face and exclaims "chubby cheeks!"

14. Could spend his whole day out in the rain. Instead of running to the car or begging to be carried to the car when it's raining he insists on leisurely walking no matter how wet he gets.

15. Is great for babysitters, which makes dating Todd much more fun. Thanks, Theo.

16. Loves to ride in the basket of the shopping cart and pretend he's the engineer of a train.

 On a day that I cleaned out the car car and washed car seats they made the magic school bus and took turns being the passenger and driver.

Showing muscles

We love you so much, little guy, and are so glad you're in our family.