2.5

So here we are at 2.5 - I thought to myself, I haven't done a summary post of what's been going on in a while. So ... here we go. James at 2.5 is the best - I feel like I keep saying this about James at every stage but it's true - we have a great kid and we're really blessed by what an amazing kiddo we have. We have been eating together for a while now but lately we've all be eating the same thing most nights which is fantastic. James is a very adventurous eater and has liked most things so far. James has even been helping Mom with dinner in his tower - if any of you have toddlers or young guys around that want to help or need something to do while you're making dinner, the tower is a wonderful thing - I've had it on posts before. I can cook while James takes the ends off asparagus, or cleans lemons or peppers in the sink for me, helps pour, helps mix, or even plays around with water in measuring cups or in the sink - it's fantastic.

In terms of his personality, James is hilarious. He's a very laidback, funny kid. He has a great sense of humor and makes himself laugh and other people too. One of the things he does that cracks himself up is wiping boogers on me ... It usually happens at night while I'm rocking him. He'll be really quiet and then I feel his finger on my arm or on my face and then he starts laughing hysterically and is just able to tell me "Boogie on Mommy" in-between laughs. I know it's gross, but it's so worth it at the same time :)

James is also really ... let's say ... honest for a lack of a better word. He likes to tell people that they have yellow hair or black hair or if they have no hair at all. James told one lady in our building that she had Orange skin. . . . It was all I could do to not break out laughing - she is a fan of the self-tanner or tanning beds I think. We had two doormen that were both named Robert and James called one Big Robert and the other one Little Robert. Now Big Robert doesn't work here anymore so I feel awful everytime he sees the other Robert and says, "Hi Little Robert."

The other day I said, "I love you to pieces!" And James looked at me and said, "No Mom, I love you one piece!" And I said, "Ok, I love you one piece!" Isn't that adorable? I love his literal take on things. Especially cute things like this :)

It's kind of sad but good too I suppose but James had his own words for certain things and now he's starting to use the correct ones. The other day he said Brown instead of Moo and I almost corrected him and said, "You mean Moo? Mommy's hair is Moo?" But I didn't - but believe me I wanted to do it. He says orange instead of cree now, cat instead of ahm, dog instead of barking, train instead of choo choo, socks instead of ahee. . . I never realized that I would be sad to have him say things correctly. We're still holding on to 'bah' for red though.

James says things funny too - he says "pot wiener" for pant hanger, "cocan" for school bus, manana for banana, and he's still saying dye for bye. James is talking a lot and people have commented on it. I was surprised because I didn't think he was speaking more than other kiddos his age. James actually shocked me and the other people in the elevator the other day when he said, "Mom four people in elevator." And, there were indeed four people in there. I felt so proud of my little guy. He just says things like that sometimes - just blurts out an observation - I love it.

We were driving to school the other day and we pass all sorts of cars and trucks and buildings and lately James has been counting how many things we see - One UPS truck - and then even if it's like 15 minutes later he'll say - Two UPS truck. He counted 1 to 6 school buses the other day on the way to school. I was shocked! It was awesome. James can recognize all of his numbers, say them and all his colors and letters of the alphabet. He can't sing the alphabet but can say and recognize each one. Liddy and Mike Mike gave us these color and shape cards and Gran and Papa gave us this clock with shape pieces and because of these James knows all of his shapes including Octagon and Trapezoid!

James also pretends to call and/or take our order for Portillo's ... If you live in Chicago you've heard of them and if you're not from here, when you come here, you should eat there. Unbelievable hot dogs, Italian beefs, etc. Great stuff. Not healthy stuff but great stuff. We eat there every now and again but James LOVES it and asks for hot dog and french fries at least once a day. It's our family indulgence meal wise. We play Portillo's at home with money and he pretends to take the order and we pay for it, etc. He knows our order by heart now and it's so cute to hear him recite it. "hot dog, french fries, italian beefs, hot peppers on side, root beers. okay. thank you. dye."

James had Jello!

And tea! James had a horrible sore throat and a cough and luckily it wasn't Strep but I asked the doctor if I could give him decaffeinated tea with honey and the doctor said that would be as good as any cough syrup on the market and it's all natural. So Doug and I would boil water with lemons in it and then put honey into it and give it to him - we offered him peppermint and chamomile but he preferred the water, lemon, honey combo the best.

James also loves putting things in order - if you look the photos from the museum, you'll see he lined up all the cones - he does this with things around the house too now.

Before bed, James reads to us before we read to him. James makes Dad sit on the floor and me in his chair with the gang and he reads to us. He does such a great job!

And finally, we've been talking about a big boy bed lately - he saw this bedspread in a Land of Nod catalog and loves it and talks about it a lot. So we went to the store, he climbed on the bed and said, "Dye Dye Crib." :) But, we'll see .... I love having him in the crib because it keeps him in there at night - you know? I'm wondering if he's just going to get out of the bed all night and come out and want to hang out ... I suppose I'm just putting off the inevitable sleep training that awaits us huh? :)

He's just growing up so fast :)

Here are some of our favorites from the last month! Miss and love you all!