2 1/2 Years Old!

1. His favorite color cup (plastic shot glass) is orange. His second favorite is pink. He never asks for the blue or green ones.

2. His favorite finger foods (that he feeds himself) are Ritz crackers and chocolate or vanilla creme cookies. He's handling bigger and bigger pieces each day. He asks me for a "big one."

3. His attention span for listening to books being read to him has increased greatly over the past month. A few of his favorite books lately have been: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Mop?, Fair and Squareville (both are VeggieTales books), Froggy's Baby Sister (London), I'm a Little Teapot (Trapani), Just for You (Mayer), and Peter's Chair (Keats).

4. It's been more than a month since he's had an accident! He still wears a diaper overnight, but sometimes he wakes up dry! Except for when my mom was here recently, he uses a regular toilet (no more baby size potty for him!).
5. He's grown to really like cream of wheat. He prefers the maple brown sugar variety. He likes it so much that he'll ask for it at other meals. He has some for breakfast every morning.

6. His favorite thing to watch lately has been LarryBoy (particularly the Rumor Weed) or the pirate episode of Backyardigans.

7. He moved from a crib to a twin size bed over the past month! He usually sleeps for 11 hours at night, and his nap lasts anywhere from 30-75 minutes.

8. He's still such a cuddlebear! Many times a day he says "Mommy sleep you" or "Daddy sleep you" and this means he wants one of us to lie down and snuggle with him (on the couch or in bed). If I want him to come to me for any reason (ex. to put his shoes on), all I have to do is say "Mommy needs a hug." He always comes when I ask for a hug, and then after the hug I can put on his shoes.

9. So many times he cracks me up with the things he says. Out of the blue the other day he said, "I want to have a party." He then said, "It's Mommy's birthday. I want to blow out candles and eat cake." Considering he's never blown out a candle or eaten any cake, that was surprising. I asked Paul to blow up a balloon, and that seemed to satisfy his desire for a party. Hopefully he'll eat some cake in 6  months at his third birthday party.

10. Lately when he asks for something he sometimes says "pretty please." Let me say it's pretty hard to say no to him when he says that in his sweet voice. Sometimes it breaks my heart because he's asking for a food I can't give him because of his allergies. Then I feel like crying (ex. yogurt made with cow's milk).

11. He's definitely learned how to be defiant. "No" is one of his favorite words at the moment. We're working on that.
12. He refers to me as Mommy sometimes, but he calls me "Momma" most of the time. When he's hugging me, he says "Momma" over and over again in a way that totally melts my heart.
13. He's still putting "Miss" in front of everyone's name. For example he called my mom "Miss Grandma Harton" while she was up here last week.

14. He loves taking a bath. He'd be fine with taking one every day.

15. We're only feeding him three meals a day now. The only time he gets a sippy cup is when we're at Knoebels or on an airplane.

16. He's obsessed with Knoebels. Almost every day (many times a day) he asks to go so he can ride the fire engine and whip.

17. I've tried to explain that his baby brother is in my belly, but he doesn't seem to comprehend it at all. I think he's going to be very surprised when we bring the baby home!