More update

I want to add to the previous long-overdue post by Ephiny that it's really more like, "Want Mama read truck book NOW!" in the past few days. He's really engaging in pictures and wants to talk himself about what is going on in complex scenes, too, which is fun. Less fun is wanting to read particular books over and over and over in an endless loop.

Cute things that Rip says also include, "I don't know!" when he doesn't know something, "How about..." when suggesting something, as well as "Allright!" and "Be right back!" used correctly.

The cutest thing that he says, though, is his own name, which used to be "Bvoh!" and is now "Bvu" -- with the correct u-sound at least. He doesn't seem to be doing the W-for-R swap that so many kids do, but V makes frequent appearances. (Outside is "Out-vide.") His pronunciation of the baby sister's (not-yet-released) name has also added more syllables in the past week, which is fun.

I think the increased verbal stage is super helpful right now as we await big-brother-hood.

Things Rip loves right now, to the point that he talks about them while waking up:

1. Outside on Jolly's bike.

2. Playspace. ("Bey-BEY!") Having his birthday party there will be brilliant; what will not be brilliant is the 6-month hiatus of playgroup there while baby sister is still unprotected by pertussis vaccination in our very anti-vax community that often has pertussis outbreaks.

3. Trucks, cars, motorcycles. Still, yep, with no signs of waning.

4. Books about trucks, cars, motorcycles. I made him an alphabet book of all the truck/car/vehicle photos we've taken and I am pretty sure it's going to rock his world when it arrives next week.

5. Drawing/coloring.

Things Jolly loves right now:

1. Going to the park.

2. Activity book cutting, pasting, tracing, mazes, painting - really anything that's not coloring with markers/crayons/pencils or writing letters independently.

3. Pretending to talk like a baby. (This is not our favorite, because this is not helping Rip sort out correct pronunciation, if Jolly refuses to use R and instead uses W, and substitutes a slurred sh for S. These are things he never had issues with as a little guy.)

4. Superheroes, and roleplaying good and evil and death.

5. Keeping on with the lots of questions (see also the good and evil and death).

Both boys love babies. Love them. This is very convenient, and I hope we keep it up. I think we can, mostly by leveraging Rip's enormous inherent bossiness. Rip's enthusiasm for bottle-feeding his baby sister is extra-hilarious given that he REFUSED to have anything to do with it when he was a baby. (Discovery of how straws work was earth shattering revelation.) He's generally very invested with feeding other people, though. Whenever we read a truck book that has oatmeal cookies in it, he gets on a big kick about how mama should eat an oatmeal cookie right now (even if Mama is at work and not available for feeding cookies to - "Mama eat oatmeal cookie!"). The cats are usually commanded to eat whenever they have the audacity not to be eating.

Both boys are ragingly opinionated about their clothing. Rip is fairly predictable in wanting only truck/car/motorcycle motif everything. Jolly is still predictably obsessed with fleecy everything, and now it's finally seasonably appropriate again, which is a relief. But I swear that I don't know any other kids who are nearly as invested in their outfits as either one of my boys. And they both like to shop, too, which is nice. Today we managed to find an enormous car with two extra seats mounted in front at Target and that made for a really good shopping experience. Jolly was thrilled that we could fit the baby in as well.

(There is a long list of very nice and very attractive, perfectly good clothing that has been deemed permanently unacceptable by Rip, and I think this is why it's nice that we are having more children. That, and getting a chance to read our baby book collection, the vast majority of which Rip just absolutely refused to let anyone open in his presence due to the lack of vehicles. We moved baby books to the baby's room and it was shocking how we really hadn't gotten to read any of them in two years.)

Both boys are playing together increasingly well and really enjoy doing many things together - they'll gravitate towards each other even if there is a large selection of other toys/people around. Their most favorite, though, is books, though there's a great deal of debate about whether the book being selected by the other sibling is acceptable. Jolly usually caves and says he wants to read whatever Rip is lobbying for with increasing meltdowniness, though, which is very sweet. "I want to read about motorcycles too, Mummy, that's okay!" - darling boy. I'm really enjoying the interaction between the two of them and how it's needing less refereeing these days. Having a sibling last time was clearly an excellent idea, and I'm hoping that this will continue with Baby #3!