Happy 2nd Birthday, James!

Today, my sweet boy is turning 2 years old. In some ways, it's so hard to believe that 2 years have gone by since our baby boy came into the world. He has brought us more joy that we could have ever asked for, and we could not feel more blessed. I adore the person he is and is becoming, and I love to watch him grow more into himself every day! Here are 10 things about our little guy at the age of 2!

1. He is a social butterfly. He thrives on interaction with others. He reminds me a lot of his daddy in this way! People walk a lot in our neighborhood, so he has to tell every person hi really loudly until they say hi back. He gets giddy and crazy when he's the center of attention, and I love to watch this side of him. It's very entertaining! He is absolutely crazy about all of his cousins, and would be around them 24/7 if he could.

2. He goes constantly. Everywhere he goes, he runs. He will be standing still, think of something he wants, and then take off at turbo-speed. He's always climbing over things, and doing anything he can think of that's physical.

3. He is a talking machine. I'm loving the new sentences, phrases, and thoughts his little head comes up with all of the time. He's very expressive, too. He'll say, "Oh Wow!", and "Oh MY!" a lot in front of the things he says.

4. He is a sweetie-pie and affectionate boy. He saves most of them for me, which I don't mind a bit! :) He hugs me and says, "Ooooaaahhhhh, Fweeeet! (sweet)". That gets me every time! We cuddle every morning and he just randomly hugs and kisses me throughout the day. We even play kissing games where we kiss and then yell over and over. (Hard to explain, but he cracks up.)

5. He is really into letters, numbers, and colors right now. He knows a few letters and loves to point them out every time he sees one when we're out and about. He also tells us when he sees grouping of things ("three books!", "two pacis!").

6. He still loves to read. He brings us book after book throughout the day and sits in our laps to read it to him. I love to see which one he picks out each time. He will search and search until he finds the right one. His favorite is still "The Little Red Caboose". I think we read that 3 times today!

7. He is into assigning ownership of things..."Daddy's chair, Mommy's cup, Manes shirt (he calls himself Manes)" Also...mine and yours ("thash yours"...in a cute raised-eyebrows, nodding-head way)

8. He went through a phase of throwing tantrums (I think from being sick and sleep deprived), but he's throwing them less now. (Should I even write that??? Knock on wood!

9. He's taking naps again in his crib! This started Friday afternoon. Hallelujah!!!

10. He's funny! He makes silly noises and says funny things in funny ways, like, "dirty biaper (diaper)" in a growly voice while I'm changing him. He gets down and swings his arms back and forth to dance. He whispers a lot, so quietly you can barely hear it, and looks at us for laughter.


Thursday, he is having a party at MDO, and Saturday, he will have his 2nd birthday party at our house with our family. I am looking forward to lots of celebrating! I will post pictures of it all after it's over. I also made a slideshow below of his two years of life.