Two and a half.

My baby boy is two and a half years old today. Although it's not actually a birthday, it still feels like a big deal. I can't believe six months have gone by since his birthday party (that I didn't really enjoy) and in another six months, little Hugo will be off to pre-school. Life has certainly changed a bit in the last six months as well. Back then, I was pregnant and our house was a construction zone. It's actually strange to think back to a time, not so long ago, when Hugo was our only baby. Luckily, as we suspected, he has turned into a wonderfully gentle and caring big brother to Eloise.

Inspired by Rose, who herself was inspired by another blog she reads, I'll list a few things that I love about Hugo, followed by a few things I don't enjoy as much, since it is such an effective way to mark a fleeting moment in time. What is true today might be a distant memory in another six months.

Things I love:

• Your smile. It floods the room with light.

• Your hair. It still has that magical red tinge, darker than the usual anglo ginger colour. You absolutely hate having your hair washed or cut so we don't do either that often. I'm glad your hair is a little longer at the moment because we get to enjoy its stunning brightness.

• The way you try to pronounce certain words. Speech is still coming slow to you and when words come out, they seem to get all tangled up in your mouth. It's hard to understand you most of the time but I can see that you try so hard. At the moment, you are trying to say 'broken', which you pronounce 'Bwok-n'. It's adorable. 

• The way you show your love for Eloise. Until recently, she was still 'Baby' and now, 'Eloviiise' is coming out more often. You want to hold her on your lap, kiss her in the mornings and at night, you greet her in the morning by saying, 'Hellooo Baby' looking her right in the eyes, you pat her when she cries and smile at her when she is in the bath. She is lucky to have you.

• Your jokes. Your favourite joke at the moment comes from one of your all-time favourite books, called Moo-Baa-Lalala. It goes like this, "A cow says... Mooooo", "A sheep says... Baaaa", "Three singing pigs say, La la laaa" and so on. We all know it by heart but to spice it up, you now like to say 'Mooo' for the singing pigs and it completely cracks you up! So when we are having a laugh during the day, you look at us and say, "Moooo" because this is your big joke. It makes you laugh and it never gets old (it actually doesn't).

• Your run. You are so agile, like a little acrobat and unlike some of your friends who seem to stomp on the ground like miniature elephants, you run like a little deer, hopping from side and side on your light little feet. Since you run more than you walk, we can enjoy it all the time. 

• When you explore. When we go to the park or the beach, you spend a lot of time wandering around, picking up sticks or rocks or flowers. You like to climb the roots of the fig trees or dig in the sand. I enjoy this new autonomy where although I always keep an eye on you, you can explore while keeping yourself mostly safe... until you run towards the water.

• Your manners. I don't even know how you know these things (I suspect it's from Peppa Pig) because we don't purposely try to enforce it but when you ask for something, you often say please, or rather, "cheeeese", as in "more l'eau cheeeeese". Recently, you've also started saying something that sounds a lot like "thank you". You also love saying "bye bye" and "hellooo". It all seems so simple but it's cute and important for later so we're glad it's coming to you naturally. 

• Your beauty. In another era, you would have inspired painters.

• You love books. We read to you everyday, several times a day and books have become one of your favourite toys. Every night, you carefully choose the two or three books we will read to you and then, once you are in bed, you listen carefully, always commenting in the same spots, while you twirl your hair. A love for books will be a lifelong gift that I hope you keep.

Things that are more challenging:

• At home, you don't play much on your own. You need me by your side all the time and don't give me much breathing space. It would be tolerable if you were in a good mood but you are often grumpy as well, saying no to everything and speaking in a whinny, pretend-cry voice. 

• Your agility can be scary. I try to stay quite relaxed about letting you explore things physically but when you start jumping from the fourth step of a set of stairs, my heart does skip a beat. It's all good when you then proudly exclaim, "biiig Jump!" but it's hard not to feel worried for your lovely teeth, your pretty head and all those cute limbs you have.

• You are starting to imitate the bad behaviour of some of your friends: pushing, hitting, snatching and so on... Thankfully, you aren't doing it too much yet but it does worry me for the future of play dates. 

• You can be pretty shy. You don't easily let other people take care of you and I hope this doesn't cause problems when you start pre-school next year. Hopefully, you'll adapt easily. 

• You don't love solving problems. When things get stuck, you get mad. When things don't fit, you get mad. When things don't stick, you get mad... You don't have a lot of patience for things that require some thought. I'm hoping pre-school helps with that too.

I'm sure I could go on in both columns. I don't want to dwell on the challenging parts since I know that they are fleeting and are often challenging simply because of the situation we're in at the time. Patience will come, agility will continue to evolve, the hitting and whinging will dissipate. They are all temporary and important stages too. We'll look back on them and laugh, and think how far away it seems. For now, the problems we have are pretty harmless, not much to write a blog about. The good bits though, I hope I can hold on to for a while longer before it all moves on to the next phase.