I’m keeping this monkey home from school today. He has the slightest of coughs, but we want him in tip-top shape for his BIRTHDAY tomorrow. 

While I’m grateful he is completely fine – energy-wise and mood-wise and otherwise (minus the cough) – it’s always a bit harder keeping him home when he’s bouncing off the walls. Ha. 

BUT, I’m determined to get rid of this cough before tomorrow. We’ll see how successful I can be. 

He’s currently going through his drawing pad – page-by-page – writing out his name. And every time he finishes up the “I,” he screams, “Mama, I need HELP writing the ‘S.'”

I thought I’d make it easier for him (and for me to not pause what I’m doing every 45 seconds) by writing “I-S-______” a couple times all the way from top to bottom.

Instead, he looked at the page, looked up at me, and turned the page to the next one. He refused to finish off his name that way. 

Toddlers.

We can never win, can we? 

Anyway, I posted this photo to my page last night. I wanted to add a little footnote here saying I AM IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM FORCING MY KID TO SIT THERE AND LEARN HIS LETTERS. In fact, I wish he would let the dang marker go. I’m tired of being his official S-writer. But he is so dang obsessed with all things tracing right now.

He loves it.

Last night, while Ankur and I were eating dinner, he sat on the carpet for a good 15 minutes with his Write-and-Wipe Dino Book (THANK YOU AISHU DIDI!). He went page-by-page tracing all the letters and dinosaurs and dotted lines. 

FOR 15 MINUTES. 

WITHOUT SAYING THE WORDS, “MAMA” OR “PAPA.”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT A LUXURY THAT IS? 

Okay, so, wish me luck as I navigate today. I will pull out all the tracing things. And please pray for a 3 hour nap. Please and thank you. 

Have a good one!