22 Months

Fritz had another whirlwind month of travel, chasing his siblings, bossing us all around, and generally being awesome.  

Our favorite Fritzisms are, "C'mon, follow me!" and "Yeah, ok."  I think he's parroting how I usually respond to him.  I must be a very agreeable mother when I only have one child.  When I pick him up and squeeze him into a cuddle, he smiles at me and says, "My baby," and then I melt and give him whatever he wants.

He discovered movies and wants to watch all the time.   This is good and bad.  Favorites so far have been Peter Pan, the old Pooh movies, and Frozen.  Four hundred times a day, we hear, "Wanna watch PetahPAN!"  He seems very tuned in to what's happening in the movie and anticipates his favorite parts.  

Henry has been really busy doing big kid things so Fritz has had a lot of time to play with his sisters, with predictable results.

Fall leaves have been great fun and we have SO MANY of them. 

He can now open doors with doorknobs.  The pantry, for instance.

Our mornings together are so wonderful. Honestly, it was worth all the difficult days of staying home with 2-4 children to savor mornings alone with just the baby.  We love going out to lunch, throwing rocks into the lake, riding the carousel at MOA, visiting his beloved flamingoes at the zoo, and going to the Children's Museum.

He has an absolutely masterful two-year-old tantrum.  When you're the beloved fourth kid with doting older siblings, you're really good at getting what you want, and once you understand you're not getting it, you're obliged to show your displeasure.  Fritz flings himself to the ground, checks to make sure you're watching, and then slams his head back for good measure.  It's tragi-comic.  If he's having one of those days when we need to run errands, we leave a wake of people laughing at his tantrums all over Minneapolis.

I hate this Menard's wheelbarrow and my life.

When we stay home, his favorite things to do are read books, play cars and trains, steal rocks out of the fish tank, chop at the kitchen ladder, and play with Grandpa Gene's model horse wagons.  Favorite books right now are Room on the Broom, Circus Ship, One Fish Two Fish, the Grandpa Book and the Daddy Book, Ox Cart Man, Curious George, and assorted Halloween/fall books from my seasonal collection. 

His chatter and antics keeps us entertained every day.  Here's today's gem:

Fritz [handing me a mangled toy]: Gunnar broke it.
Me: Sorry, Gunnar chewed up your toy.
Fritz: Ohhhh, shit.

Oh, buddy, you're the cutest.