He's the first to wake up every morning. When we tell him to whisper so he doesn't wake up his sisters, he says "Okay!" in a clear, piping, little boy voice that is not a whisper.
He climbs in with us (with much effort) and digs his way to the middle of the bed, where he lays still for about forty-five seconds. Then he starts playing with our ears. Sometimes our noses. His feet are always cold and he pushes them up into my stomach to warm them up.
When I'm in the shower, he'll slap his palm against the glass from outside (really hard), and say "Play dis game, Mommy", by which he means "put your hand on the glass on your side, and I'll put my hand on the glass on my side". When I play, he is delighted.
His smile when I come downstairs (unless he's fighting with his sister) crinkles his eyes into little slits. His hair sticks up all over his head, and when the sun hits him from behind, he looks like a blond porcupine took up residence on his head.
When he prays at meals, he somehow inserts an "L" in every word (including "Daddy"), and has to stick his tongue out the entire time. He likes to reach over to Lucy in the high chair and hold her hand, even when (especially when) his hand is covered in food. Or general stickiness.
Every day before we head out to walk Norah to school, he asks if he can bring his monkey. Every day I say yes. Every day he asks Seth, too, who also says yes.
He only has two speeds: Hobbit or Fast. He prefers Hobbit, but can sustain Fast for a surprisingly long time, and usually the only way to stop him is to yell something like "COOKIE!" or "WATERMELON!" He hasn't caught on yet.
When he waves to Norah as she walks into school he shouts "Goodbye, sweetie" at her. She mostly ignores him, but he doesn't notice.
He can't take his own shoes off, but he'll sit down on the front step and wait patiently for you to take them off for him, and as soon as we walk in the door he asks if it's time to have a snack and a drink of water and to put our babies to bed. When I inevitably tell him we have to wait for another half hour or so while I do my chores, he races off to the living room and does something else...for five minutes. Then it's back to me to announce "It's time to put our babies to bed!"
Lucy and Oscar's monkey go down for a morning nap at the same time. She gets tucked in; he gets tucked in. She gets a kiss and a "good night", he gets a kiss and a "good night". And a "don't get out of bed" for good measure.
Once Sesame Street is over, and before it's time to wake our babies up, he usually wanders over to the computer and asks to be picked up. He has a hard time not pushing buttons.
The meanest thing you can possibly say to him is "Go away."
He can fall down if he's running, walking, or jumping, but he mostly falls down when he's standing still. When he jumps, he crouches down so low that I'm sure he's actually just going to sit on the ground, but then he springs up and smiles like he just stuck an Olympic vault landing.
When he wakes up from his nap, he stands behind the baby gate at the top of the stairs and announces "Oscar's awake!" I picture him doing it at thirty.
It's always his turn first to have a tubby. When I pour water on his head, he gasps and splutters and stands up. Always.
When I hug him, he wheezes like the breath is being squeezed out of him. When he hugs me, he wheezes like the breath is being squeezed out of him. At no time is the breath being squeezed out of him.
This boy is pretty awesome.
