FOR MY LITTLE LEO

Time is moving so quickly and you are growing up too fast, I want to remember as much of these precious little moments and memories of you as my little one before I blink my eyes and you are a stinky teenage boy locked in your bedroom. You are going to be three soon and oh, what a fun yet challenging age this is has been! You amaze me every single day with the new things you have learned, sentences you have come up with, ideas and interests you have. 

You absolutely love trains, and I’m sure I will never forget that. The second we arrive home from a train journey you run straight over to your train set and recite all the stations we went through and announcements that were made. Your daddy and I love watching you on the train, concentrating so hard on all the details. You are terrified yet fascinated by certain things. The man we saw dressed up as a tree at Kew Gardens (aka tree man), the lion in your favourite bed time book, and the rescue robots on your favourite show. You constantly reassure me that they do not live in our house and they will not get to your breakfast before you do every morning, hesitating before heading out of your bedroom to make sure I agree.

Your second favourite book at the moment is the one about the baby in mummy’s tummy. Before we got the book you exclaimed “mummy you ate the baby and now it’s in your belly and Leo ate lunch and now its in my belly! That’s silly!” (You talk about yourself in the third person quite a bit these days..) I knew it was time to bring the baby books out. I’m not sure if we’ve shaken the idea that I ate the baby but you have a new appreciation for what is to come, happily announcing that it will be mummy, daddy, Leo and the baby. Always double checking that the baby isn’t just going to come out to play and then go back in mummy's tummy.

You are a valiant little thing. You run and jump off everything, never stopping to rest. You stood up to two much older kids a couple of weeks ago when one of them stole your little buddies bucket at the paddling pool. You didn’t even back away as one of them, about 4 times your size, stormed towards you demanding for it back. As most do, you have a few fears though and you recently overcame one of them. Usually I cannot get you anywhere near anything but the sea and a paddling pool but the other week we went swimming! You were very hesitant at first and clung on to me for dear life but after 10 minutes you were jumping in from the sides getting everyone to take turns catching you, calling out which train stop you were approaching while in the air.

One of the things that catches my heart every time is how loving you can be. For such a boisterous little boy you can be the sweetest little thing on this planet. You will run up to me and crash straight into my leg wrapping your arms around me and looking up with a big grin announcing “I love you too!” before I have said a word. You ask mummy and daddy for “lots and lots of kisses” and check in on us when we might be looking a bit glum or tired “are you haaaappy?”. When we get in from a nice drama free play date and I check in to see how you enjoyed yourself you always name whomever we joined that day and say that you were happy and they were happy. I hope you never forget that being kind can go a long way. I absolutely adore you, you changed my life in a way I could have never imagined and I am so proud to be your mummy..toddler tantrums and all.