James: 2 Years

I can't believe we've been parents for two years.  Or that this little person has been in our lives and filled our hearts for two years.  I can't remember my life without him (and I'm glad).  The last few months leading up to two were rough on this guy (likely because his brother joined our family, and that was confusing to him), but things have sorted themselves out and he is mostly back to being his sweet, silly, smart little self.

Favorite books:

Richard Scarry's Best Wordbook Ever (English/Spanish)
Dinosaurio Danielito
Even Monsters Need Haircuts
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Any book about Jesus

Favorite activities:

- Standing on the step stool in the kitchen and cooking (measuring out water or coffee beans, or actual ingredients if we're really cooking something, and mixing and pouring and stirring and transferring from one container to another).
- Playing outside or in the garage (when it's cold) - received a Tball stand and little basketball goal for  his birthday, and he loves to kick his big ball around.  He loves to collect leaves and play in the dirt.
- Coloring with markers or painting (doesn't love crayons right now).

Some things that stand out to me about James' personality right now:

Compassionate: sometimes he hears another kid crying at the library or playground, and he looks at me and says "sad" and will go over to the kid and give a little hug.  Sweetest boy ever.

Silly: He loves to tickle and be tickled and to play silly games.  This may just be the toddler in him, but I hope it's a trait that he never loses.

Curious/Studious:  Loves to sit at his little table, or the couch, or the floor, or in his car seat (anywhere, really) and look at books.  His books, our books (no pictures, just words), it doesn't matter.  He loves to flip the pages back and forth and study them.  He also likes to study things like leaves outside.

Celebratory: gets excited about life!  Says "yay" and "whoa" and claps his hands... celebrating all the time!

Interests:

Working with his hands:  the boy loves to build.  He could play with his Duplo blocks all day and all night.  He loves to stack things, work with paper and glue and match his animal magnets.  He loves to pretend to cook in the kitchen (as mentioned above).  Even when we play outside, he usually ends up with his little shovel in the dirt somewhere.

Colors: James enjoys any colorful, artsy activities.  Currently he loves to color with markers.  And even beyond craft time - he just loves to go through life naming colors and pointing out the beauty he sees.

Music:  He recognizes melody and voices like no other (or, at least better than me).  A friend was over a few weeks ago and played Stuart's mandolin, and James is still talking about it.  He remembers songs after only hearing them once.  I hope he is talented like his daddy!

We fall more and more in love with this little person every day.  Thank you for starting our family two years ago, sweet James!  We are super proud of you, little dude.