Two and a half

Happy Half Birthday! 2 1/2, I can't believe it. You are one special kid. I love playing all our made up games together, even the plier game, and I love watching your brain work . I never know what you will say and sometimes you are wise beyond your years. You are a good friend to so many. I laugh that you still wake me every night calling, "Mom!" and when I walk in half asleep, you are ready to move in with your pillow and squishy McQueen. You use the word love often, which melts my heart, and you are a kissy kid. I love that you stall going to bed by asking to pray again for your friends and family. Your character and presence can light up a room. Yesterday you told me you wanted to ride the train on a show you were watching, then your turned to me, held both my cheeks and looked me in the eyes and said sadly, "but then I wouldn't see you." (I think that meant you would pass and stay with me). You cherish family time, and partake in family hugs as often as possible. You make sense of the world and now explain the whys of comments you make. I love you more than words can explain and I am so grateful for you. So, happy half birthday, I celebrate your birth daily.

Physically- you tell us you are getting bigger every day and I think it is true. You run fast, gallop, catch, hit, kick, and throw (you call yourself the pitcher and say you are like your cousins Tyler and Andrew when playing baseball). You do somersaults and donkey kicks, and now enjoy jumping off of curbs. You climb everything at the park and like to make me nervous. You like to hang on things too. You open doors, feed yourself, wash your own hands, and take your shoes off. Tongs are a new small motor favorite and you easily open lids of all kinds. You like to use your tools. You like to use writing tools, but your work is still kind of unintentional.

Cognitively- you know your colors, letters, and some numbers. You remember things from months back. You have a great sense of direction. You understand opposites, count to 15, and can count with one to one correspondence with small numbers. You complete puzzles, role play, and know your first and last name, age, and your parents name. You also know the street you live on. You love books and remember stories, talk about pictures, characters, etc.

Socially/emotionally- you identify emotions and show most of them naturally and when asked. You are friendly and engage in conversation with adults and children alike. You tell them stories and sometimes how to share, play, etc. You also imitate others. When someone cries you try to comfort them and when you hear a baby crying you want to look for them and check on them. You really like playing chase and just being with others. You do not like to be left out. You are becoming scared of certain things like robots, or things with funny shapes; but, you also face them like the alligator and daddy's primitive art pot. You like to have others talk about more traumatic events like boo boos. You try to hide boo boo's because you dislike band aids and having scrapes/wounds washed out. You understand things that are dangerous.

Language- you use complete sentences and thoughts, your vocabulary expands daily and you like big words. You use your words to express yourself. You tell stories and most people can understand you. You have been experimenting with prepositions, question words, and pronouns surprising me with your accuracy.

The list goes on and on. Boyd, you're amazing!