...these are a few of his favorite things...

Jairo's latest favorite discovery is The Sound of Music -- both the movie and the soundtrack. We had noticed that he has been humming "Do, a deer" for a while, so we broke out the movie to see if he'd be interested in it, and he loved it! He sat glued to the TV for the full two hours, which surprised us given that there's a lot of adult talking in the movie, and it's all in English. But he was mesmerized, and really enjoyed the music. So we got the soundtrack, and now listen to it in the car every day. He really likes "Climb Every Mountain," and has almost memorized all of "Do, a Deer," -- it is so precious to hear him singing in his sweet little voice.

Here are a few of his other favorite things:

Movies
- Ratatouille
- Piglet's Big Movie
- Sound of Music
- Cars
- Ice Age


Music
- Sound of Music soundtrack
- Anything by Lady Gaga, especially "Alejandro" and "Bad Romance" (that's my boy!)
- Princess Fiona's theme song from Shrek
- Anything by Abba, especially "Chiquitita"
- Latin music, especially Gypsy Soul and Mystic Warriors
- "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry
- "Rock Star" by Pink
- "Break your Heart" by Taio Cruz

He's come a long way from his favorite song in Ecuador, which was "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." :)


Books
- Disney Stories (Lady & the Tramp, Jungle Book, Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh, Up, etc)
- Curious George
- Tortoise & The Hare
- Goodnight Moon


Food
- Fruit (Any kind, every meal, he can't get enough of it -- which we're so happy to oblige!)
- Cheerios
- Chicken
- Vegetables (A pleasant surprise to us that he not only eats, but asks for seconds, of squash, edamame, broccoli, etc. Though he draws the line at peppers and onions. Go figure.)
- Not surprisingly, he loves the American staples: hot dogs, pizza, tacos
- Chips and soda (A rare treat -- only for "special days." Of course, now he often tells us, "I think today is a special day.")


Toys
- Legos
- Flashlights
- Play-doh
- Our electronics (We gave him our old non-working phones, cameras and battery packs, and he loves charging them, putting batteries in and taking them out, pulling them apart to see what's inside, etc.)


Activities
- Tickling, tickling and more tickling
- Riding his new bike
- Playing tag
- Going to the pool (he's a great swimmer)
- Playing at the playground
- Watching home videos (we've been watching our Ecuador videos on weekend nights, and he loves remembering and recounting all the things we did there)