Happy Birthday StinkyHeadMonkeyToes

Hard to believe but StinkyHeadMonkeyToes (SHMT) turned two years old last Friday. What a year! SHMT has turned out to be a very, VERY independent little person. I mean it's either his way or the highway.

Your ice cream cone for instance - he'll ask for it nicely. Does Not Matter That He's Holding His Own. He wants yours, and he wants it now. And did I mention how particular he is? He wants something done a particular way - say, shoes: he wants to wear one kind on one foot and another kind on the other foot.

That shirt you picked out? No. Won't do. He'll push away your initial offering of two shirt choices. Don't even go there. He directs you to pick him up ("momma up!") and he'll choose it from the drawer ("Oh! Hmmm"). Have I mentioned his Spiderman fetish?

He holds his own against his older brother too. In fact, SHMT has been known to rush BedHeadSid (BHS) and deliver some pete townsend-esque windmill punches. when they brawl, SHMT has no qualms about landing some upper cuts to the liver and knees, or any other place that's within reach -- nutzos are within reach...

Needless to say, we don't condone SHMT's behavior, but the frequency is so often despite our efforts (to break up the fight, prevent the squirmishes to begin with, redirect both toddler and 1st grader) that we're going to start charging a pay-per-view fee if it keeps up. Battling Hobos watch out! My money's on the short guy with no morals, but I'll always root for the underdog!

Although the fights are frequent, fighting does not constitute the whole of their relationship. I believe they love eacg other as fiercely as they fight. When they wake up, the first thing they do is find each other for morning greetings and to hang out ("morning bubba," "morning SHMT"). It's really very sweet. Then of course the battle begins -- kinda like how the looney tunes characters of sheepdog and coyote would punch in their timecards, all the while smiling, civil and cordial, before going at each other. Really, it's like that.

I do think that being a younger brother has a lot to do with both of their agressive behavior. SHMT must fend for himself when BHS never had to deal with that (except at preschool of course, but that's outside the home), with having to fight for toys, attention, food, safety, etc. BHS has not had to share things or have things given over to a younger sibling, and it's difficult to be generous for him at this age. But I do credit BHS with having learned to share more and play a more gentle, patient Big Brother role. That's a lot to ask for from a seven year old. A whole helluva lot!

Well, for his birthday we kept it simple. Yes, that's me in my underwear. sorry. I said it was simple!

It's cute to see SHMT so fierce and independent, but I know he'll mellow out soon. Raising children has certainly given me perspective on how birth order affects character. Fascinating!
SHMT's birthday was very low-key (yes, underwear-low-key) given that Halmoni was in LA visiting her new grandson and since SHMT's godfamily were attending to personal events. It would have been better with extended family, but BHS, Pooks, and I gave SHMT a birthday to remember, filled with lots of love and fine memories.
Although we cancelled the trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we visited Fairytale Town in Sacto for nearly four fun-filled hours instead. Then we stopped by Rick's Dessert Diner to pick up a carmel Napoleon and a chocolate eclair and after his nap, celebrated SHMT's birthday with a song and presents at home.

At some point we boogied over to our local amusement park for kiddie-winkies,
where he played estatically within an environment of fairytale fantasy,
ate copious amounts of nachos,



and topped it off his favorite frozen confectionary delight, the orange dino push-up.









We all helped SHMT to recollect his birthday events the following day, and amazingly he did seem to remember.

I hope that means he had a fabulous birthday.