"I am so big!"

I had one of those moments last night where I just wanted to freeze Ian exactly where he is and keep him little forever. Jeff was busy last night, so I was putting Ian to bed (Lia had passed out at dinner and was sleeping soundly) after his bath an brushing his teeth (I had to scold him and give him a smack on the bottom during his bath, but that was the only battle all evening). He was wearing his monkey PJs and jumping up and down on his bed, which he knows he is not supposed to do. He lifted his arms up, Rocky-style, and gleefully shouted, "Look at me! I am so big!" He was looking at his bedroom door, where his shadow covered the entire door and spilled onto the wall. I know one day he will be "so big" and he'll be much taller than me (let's hope) and I won't be able to drag him across the bed by his ankles, but for now he's still my sweet innocent boy.

We finally got settled in bed and I told him he could only pick one book because it was late and the eyes welled up and the lip quivered. OK, two very little books. While he was picking out his books, he asked me (in Chinese), "Why can't Daddy speak Chinese?"

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On the way home yesterday, he asked me (in Chinese) "Do you know who Caillou is?" He and Abuelita had watched a couple of episodes of Caillou the past few days. "He doesn't speak Chinese and he doesn't speak Spanish." I asked if Caillou spoke English. "No, he doesn't speak English." (Again, this was all in Chinese. I don't know why he said he doesn't speak English.)

When we pulled into the driveway, I was checking my phone for messages and he sat quietly for a minute and then said, "OK, we can get out now." I went to unbuckle him and he said, "I need to go pee pee." WOO-HOO! So we left Lia sleeping in the car and hurried inside. Well, he not only went pee pee... well, you know. So I asked him if he wanted a Cars sticker. He tilted his head to one side, put his index finger on his temple and scrunched up his eyebrows and said, "Hmmm...." Sometimes it's all I can do to keep from laughing at him.

He is getting so good at doing his business in the potty. He has not had an accident in almost 2 weeks!!!

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This morning on the way to school he suddenly says, "Mommy, ni3 bu2 yao4 kai1 tai4 kwai4 yin1 wei4 ni3 huei4 CRASH! Ran2 hou4 jing3 cha2 hui4 zhua1 ni3!" ("Mommy, don't drive too fast because you'll CRASH! and then the police will get you.") He's got this thing about the police getting me for traffic violations. He said to me last weekend on the playground while we were playing that he was the police: "Wo3 shi4 jing3 cha2. Wo3 lai2 zhua1 ni3!" ("I'm the police. I'm arresting you!") I asked him why and he said, "Yin1 wei4 ni3 bu4 xiao3 xin1 kai1 che1 ran2 hou4 ni3 CRASH!" ("Because you didn't drive carefully and you CRASHED!")