That's what we mean when we say you're a "funny little guy."

Saba and Safta visited. I'm not sure who likes the zoo and its rides better!

While sitting with him last night to help him sleep the baby was kicking a whole lot and I placed Felix's hand on my belly to feel it.

"I can feel the baby moving" he says. "Is it wearing pajamas?"

Good dentist, great patient.

Thanks to all who attended!

MILO...

SHULDINER!

You've never known a year without a lot of change, but the past twelve months it wasn't just you changing, it was the entire world around you. In accompanying us to America...

...you switched houses, schools, languages, and countries. Weather, transport, food, it's all so different. And frankly, you're handling it beautifully, and certainly a lot better than your parents at times...

...though even you don't always manage to keep your balance!

Jokes aside (and you don't yet really get jokes), you have taken to your new home and your new home to you. As a plaque on a wall at your new school says, "blossom where you are planted," and that you have done, quickly developing a coterie of friends and earning a big place in your teachers' hearts:

You and your bike are well known around town and are often recognized even by people we don't (yet) know. You do cut a distinctive figure:

Most of the people we meet on the street either haven't realized or, more likely, don't mind that allowing you to start a conversation is a major time commitment: you are always ready for an extended chat about any of a thousand topics, most of them dinosaur-related. They, and we, seem to feel that you belong here, don't you?

The entire year has been full of new challenges, even before we moved. There have been new heights to climb,

New things to learn,

And new experiences of all sorts.

On the physical front you're now about three feet tall and thirty pounds. You're a healthy kid, not often sick (and especially cute when you are):

You've a mouthful of pretty teeth and have had your first haircut, shown here:

Sorry about that. Our favorite change is that you're done with diapers, naps and nights excepted. Yes, the toilet is now a definite fixture in your life, so to speak:

We have had quite some progress on your sleeping habits, though uninterrupted nights remain in the minority. Still, you are never more adorable than when you are sleeping:

In fact, sometimes you're downright beautiful:

We wonder, though, what effect giving up your ba will have on your still-tenuous sleep patterns. You have promised to give it up for your third birthday: will you actually do so?

No picture can show it but most remarkable of all is your speech and, motivating at least some of it, your thought. People have often been surprised to be told (by you) that you are two-and-a-half (though as of today you'll have to update that of course). Most nearly-three-year-olds do not state that something is very big and then, upon further reflection, decide that it is actually the largest in the world. This is typical for you, using a phrase correctly even when you don't really understand what it means. Understanding will come and in the meanwhile the flood of sentences continues.

You have developed some new manias, most notably dinosaurs and jigsaw puzzles, and you now have some idea which way is left and which is right (though we still don't know if you yourself are a lefty or a righty), but some things have remained the same. You are still enormously fond of being read to, and though numbers and letters hold few secrets for you anymore you have not yet decided to learn reading for yourself. As always, no laundry basket is safe from you...

...and you are as passionate as ever about construction equipment,

Trains in general,

And above all else, Thomas the Tank Engine...

(Indeed, we wonder sometimes if you'll ever leave the Island of Sodor...)

But you're growing bigger,

And with you your toys it seems:

(Funny though that somehow the same jacket still fits you a year later!)

Your favorite place remains the beach,

Wherever you may find it,

Your favorite mode of transport--and other things--your loopfiets,

You still prefer a bath (and bubblehat) to a shower,

And you still love many of the same wonderful foods:

You remain helpful in spirit and increasingly so in practice, whether outside the home...

Or in it...

And you may be counted on 100% for certain household duties, especially anything to do with baking, arguably your favorite activity of all:

You still have a bad moment now and then...

Not to mention the occasional questionable choice of morning-wear...

But don't we all now and then?

You are lucky to have so many true friends both old...

And new...

And even luckier to have the same great family around you (if we do say so ourselves):

Yes, you're a boy who's going places...

But you still take time to lie back...

...and enjoy the ride...

...and, of course, to admire all the new marvels your world holds:

Keep going big boy, keep going!

And notice how well he does in the slippers. I have movies of him falling all over himself in those just a few months back.

Apologies for the bad video quality lately, we'll be fixing that soon.

This is really more about his powers of persuasion than his climbing ability. He frequently surprises me with the sheer reasonableness of his requests, in this case, to climb in bare feet, just like the athletic little girls who were crawling all over the local spiderweb.

Not, of course, very cold ice, but it gave him the idea.

I had one of my typical daddy/filmmaker experiences, as illustrated here:

In other words, while I caught the moment I almost lost the boy to the traffic at the bottom of our (in retrospect poorly chosen) sledding hill. Here's the next run, a bit calmer.

Goes without saying that he loved sledding. New England blood you know.

You should see what happens after lunch!

Then this:

Note that this is a library book which he has had read to him exactly four times. I do think there's some reading going on here, though I'm still skeptical that this explains "Paul." Makes me want to read to him more, not less.