he sings while he mops

Nicholas is a singer.
We didn't realize it until recently,
because for the past year he's been more of what we call "Angry Nicholas" than "Happy Nicholas."
But slowly, oh-so-slowly, he came out of that terrible-awful-almost-unbearable-twos/threes. It was a long year.

And gosh my kid is cute!

He wakes up singing and dancing.  He makes up little songs.  He sings "One two three four five once I caught a fish alive..." and "jingle bells" and "here we go gathering nuts in May" and "head shoulders knees and toes"

He pretends.  All day long. Today he pretended that our toy telephone--the pull string retro phone, like the one on Toy Story 3--he pretended that the telephone was a purple kitten named "Jokestackser." He pulled the "kitten" around for hours, making dinner for him, asking me to play fetch with him and pet him.

We are constantly pretending. He can take anything and if it isn't exactly the way he wants it, he easily shrugs and says "I'll just pretend."  Whew. What a difference from his behavior from the past year! He is agreeable, helpful, sweet, polite, and cheerful. He gives me love spontaneously-hugs, kisses, "you're cute Mommy!" and lots of snuggles.  His eyes are light and bright and happy.  I'm reminded over and over how much I love being his mom.

I have to admit that over the past year I've had more than a few moments where although I loved my son without question, I might have been questioning how much I liked him sometimes.  It was rough.

But now?
He sings while he mops the entire kitchen.