Happy Valentine's Day

Daddy gave Roman a dancing octopus card; lately, he really loves octopuses. He spent the rest of the day telling people about his octopus and showing them how it danced.

Last week on my birthday, he and Daddy gave me a present and card and then Roman asked, "Mama, birthday balloon?" He couldn't believe I didn't have a Happy Birthday balloon, so Daddy got us one for Vday, and all is right with the world.

His friend Savannah's scarf. He puts it on and says, "Roman warmmm." This last week with temperatures under 60 degrees have been really tough on us all. On his hand is a "Twinkle, twinkle, little star sticker" from gymnastics class.

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Smoothies and books in bed, our morning ritual. Sometimes, he lifts my shirt up so his baby brother can hear the story too, "Mama read book to baby, Roman big brother." Then, he pats my belly and gives it a kiss. We've been reading Big Brother books and Roman seems excited and really seems to understand. He has been really interested in other babies lately, and is obviously trying to do the things we have read about, such as helping feed the baby, giving the baby a toy or patting the baby if they cry. This is awesome of course because this time last year when we would go to a playgroup, I was scared to death he was going to bite someone or push down a baby for getting too close to him. Last week, he said, "Mama, Dada, Roman, Jagger, Baby go walk. Dada carry baby, Roman ride new blue bike-goo-goo. Baby watch Roman play, Roman BIG boy!""

He finishes going potty, stands up and says, "Roman, Yoda go night-night, bathroom floor, need pillow." So, I handed him one of my shirts.

New robe! Just like daddy's... Those are Thomas the Train slippers, his new obsession.

In other news:

On the last page of his Bert & Ernie Opposites bok, it shows how Ernie's room is messy and Bert's room is clean. Last night, Roman takes considerable time explaining what he sees, "Bert clean room, Bert clean toys, Bert put away clothes, Bert vacuum floor." Then, he looks up and shakes his head and says in a somber voice, "Ernie doesn't do that."

Today, he was not going down for a nap, so finally I said, "Ok, you play in your room, I'm going to go take a nap." So, he says, "Jagger play Roman's room?" I said, "Sure, Jagger can play in your room with you. I'll see you in 30 minutes." Now, we've never done this before, but I figure, I'll just see what happens. So, I lie down in the other room and close the door, but I can hear him happily playing. He does this for about 15 minutes, then knocks on my door and says, "Mama, Roman want eat banana." So, I told him to go get one. One minute later, knock-knock, "Mama, Roman need help open banana." I said, "You can do it, just open it like a monkey does." It's quiet. I hear the back door screen open and close, but I listen and can hear he is in the kitchen. Finally I go out and find him at his table, eating his banana and playing with my phone. I look in his room and he has cleaned up his puzzle and put away his clothes and shoes. All in all, a great experiment I think. This will surely come in handy when the new baby and I need to sleep!