Twenty-two months

Here are a couple of pictures, and a video, to show our always-in-motion, extremely cute, cheeky, exuberant, mischievous, lovable, squeezable, cuddle-bug of a twenty-two-month-old boy.

Pausing briefly in between zooms through the kitchen

Goooo!!

Malcolm went through quite a phase from about the middle of Lent to a few weeks into the Easter season in which he was liable to launch into a tantrum at any given second, particularly at Mass (including, unfortunately, my sister's wedding).  Happily, the last couple of Sundays have actually gone pretty well, all things considered, and we seem to have emerged in one piece from the total capriciousness of one-and-a-half.  He wrestled uncooperatively for the first few Gym Dandy activity classes we signed the boys up for at the city rec center last month -- but has settled down there, too, and really enjoys his "circle time."

This month Malcolm is adding lots of sign language to his vocabulary.  He can do baby (that he can also say: "BUH-buh!!"), girl, boy, cereal, banana, apple, thunder, sun, ready, stop, go, yes, drink and a few others.  He really relies on his signs to communicate even as he's babbling all over the place.  We try to practice letter and word sounds but they're pretty challenging for him ("Cheerios" comes like out like some Russian "Shch"), so the signing helps out a lot. It's very exciting every time he learns a new word.

I have told a couple of people that as much as I love football, I didn't get a critical aspect of it until the past few months as I've seen Malcolm tackle Mike and I (and sometimes Michael) at full speed, shoulder lowered, without pulling back at all.  Boom!  So that desire to slam full-speed into things and people may really be innate in some boys. Fortunately he still snuggles all the time also.  I know I say this a lot, but I seriously cannot get enough of this little guy.

Love my sleepy bear