The Fish, The Gup, and The Scoot: All About Des

This post summarizes what Des is like these days at the ripe old age of 2!

He is a Lil' Devil. When he misbehaves and he knows he is misbehaving, he gets this devilish little look on his face with a devilish little grin that makes it so impossible to keep a straight face while disciplining him. Des will then look at me with this pathetic little puppy dog face he knows how to make, and will then snuggle me and kiss me in an attempt to charm his way out of the situation. He melts my heart every time, but I try not to show it. We can totally see him trying to charm his way out of trouble in years to come. The below pictures somewhat captures this devilish look he gets.

He is Trouble with a capital T, but that is part of his charm and personality that makes him so fun to play with.
He is very loving and gives us kisses and hugs when his little heart is filled up with love and emotion. We get lots of kisses from him throughout the day without any prompting. He also says "Thank you Mammo!" whenever I do something nice for him, again without prompting. If Stella is upset or mad or crying, he will go over to her and try to comfort her with hugs, again of his own volition. Stella does the same thing for Des!
Des is an open book when it comes to his emotions and wears his heart on his sleeve. He has no problems expressing his emotions, whether it be happy or sad.
For such a ruff-n-tuff boy, he is rather sensitive. He gets upset if you chide him for something he is doing when he doesn't think he is misbehaving.
He does not like to hear the word "no" especially from people he is not as familiar with as Mama and Dada. (i.e., if Amamma or Appachen or Ommy should tell him not to do something because they are afraid he might get hurt, he just hears the word "no" or "can't" and comes crying to me or Dada.)
His verbal skills are very impressive. He speaks in complete 5 to 7 word sentences very clearly. He rarely mispronounces any words. And what amazes me most is how he uses pronouns like "I", "me", and "you" correctly in sentences. In comparison, Stella did not talk as clearly or this well at this age and she had a lot more words that she mispronounced. For example, the other day, Des was drinking his milk in Stella's room and threw his sippy cup on the floor. The rule in our house is that the kids can only eat or drink in the kitchen. So I told to him to go put his sippy cup back on the kitchen counter. Des looks at me and says "No Mama, you put the sippy cup in the kitchen!". I was floored by not only what he said, but how well and clearly he said it.
He is very imaginative and very good at pretending. Stella was not this way at his age, but she does a lot of imaginative play now and so Des learns it from her.
He knows his shapes and all of his colors. He knows all of our first, middle, and last names, including his. He knows all of his animals and what they say. He can count up to 13 correctly and he can sing his ABCs but he can't identify all of the letters of the alphabet yet. It's partly our fault because we haven't been diligent about teaching him and partly because, Des, in true boy fashion, doesn't have the attention span nor the patience to sit through a "lesson" on learning the alphabet.
He is very independent these days and has been for a long time. He wants to do everything by himself, from brushing his teeth, to putting on his clothes, and climbing onto chairs and sofas. Anytime we try to help, all we hear is "No, I do it byself."
We are not 100% sure whether he is a righty or a lefty, but he sure prefers his left hand for eating and coloring. So we think that he is a lefty like his namesake, Poppa. But then when we play soccer outside, Des kicks with his right foot. So who knows.