Tuddles, Tars, and Lillybuds.

Alex has had another language explosion, and is putting together full sentences. Most of them focus on how independent he is. "Alex do it!" is a favorite. He's still such a cheery little guy, though. We can convince him to do almost anything as long as we talk it up with sufficient enthusiasm.

For example, it gets dark nowadays at about 9 pm. It's one of the things we love about living here, but it can make bedtime a challenge. For the first few nights after Daylight Savings Time kicked in, Jonathan and Alex both protested about going to bed while it was still light out. We've made the adjustment now and Alex's bedtime is around 7 pm. He usually happily playing, but if we say "Alex! Bedtime! Wow, let's go!" he races to the stairs to get ahead of us. He announces "Elmo first! Alex do it!" which means he's got dibs on his toothbrush. He likes to turn the water on to let a very thin stream run into his cup. Then he drinks the "little water" and allows the last bit to dribble on his shirt. He says "Oh doodness!" and we get him into pajamas. He insists on picking them out each night - very different from our older son who still doesn't care what he wears. We read and then Alex gets his "tuddle." He positions my head with both hands to make sure he's comfortable, then throws his arms around my shoulders and grips for dear life. If I make a move towards getting up, he whispers "Tuddle!" until I settle back down.

Alex and Jonathan are playing together more and more. It's really cute to see them decide on a game and run out to the sunroom hand in hand, or crack each other up with silly noises. Alex loves to say "Brother! Hug! Tish!" and Jonathan's happy to reciprocate. But when it comes to toy cars, all the brotherly love goes right out the window. Alex will put on a ferocious scowl, grasp six cars to his chest, plant his feet and announce "MY tars!" Jonathan will howl and start to pull them away. The cars had to go in timeout for a while while the boys learned to negotiate. I have to say, Alex usually gets the better deal. If Jonathan wants Ferrari, Alex will refuse to hand it over until he's gotten Chick Hicks, Doc, Lightning, Sally and The King. Jonathan doesn't seem to mind the imbalance, and Alex wears a small smile that clearly says "Sucker!"

So our happy little guy spends his days, speaking Spanish with Ms. Becky, raiding Jonathan's car stash, and waiting for his big brother to get home. The only thing that can reliably throw off his equilibrium are the dreaded lillybuds. This is Alex's pronunciation of "ladybug" and it means any bug. Five times an evening, he will come shrieking "Lillybud! Dere!" and we have to get down on the floor and look. Sometimes it's a bug, but more often it's a crumb or bit of fluff. Alex stays well back until we pick it up with a tissue and throw it away.