A new list of things I find charming about my boy.

1)  I have no idea where he learned this, but he acknowledges compliments with "Thank you".  "That's a nice shirt,"  "You look cute today,"  "I like those shoes," - all things I have heard said or said to him over the last couple weeks.  And he always smiles and says "Thank you".
And just to be clear, I don't mean to imply that Dave and I acknowledge compliments with a head toss and an "of course", it's just that until very recently he's always said nothing or "uh huh" and I've not made a conscious effort to change that.  It's intimidating to realize what he can learn by watching.

2) His "reading".
A few weeks ago, over a Saturday morning breakfast:
Dave: "What do you want to do today?"
Nathan: "Um, read some books."
Mommy: "We have succeeded."
The thing is, there are not enough hours in the day for us to read all the books he wants to read.  This is a problem I have struggled with my entire life, so I sympathize, and I love that his solution, when we don't have time to read to him, is for him to "read" to us.  He knows many of his favorite books verbatim, a fact he will prove by reciting pages of them to us over dinner or during a long car ride.  (Just ask him Big B, Little B, what begins with B?)  When he climbs into our bed in the morning with a stack of books and proceeds to narrate the story, carefully turning the book around to show the pictures, providing different voices and expressions of wonder or dismay as indicated, I just melt.  His dramatic interpretation of "Are You My Mother" is the finest thing I have ever seen.

3) The way he anthropomorphizes just about everything.
The trash can says "I like trash", his stuffed animals thank him for every morsel of food and care that they get, and last night, as I was cooking dinner, the pan full of hot oil suddenly exclaimed "I like chicken!" only the pan proved to be a skilled ventriloquist who could make its voice sound like it was coming out of the two year old hovering behind me.

4) His passion for water play
This is him "helping" with the garden last weekend.  Basically he managed to flood the backyard and keep everyone's feet cool.








And if you aren't thinking "Holy Moley! What a big boy!" you aren't looking.