Dear James,
You are 2 1/2 years old (2 years, 7 months, and 2 days to be exact)! I am sorry your letter is a little late. Mommy has been busy, mostly with you and your brother! :-) The picture above was taken on Saturday November 4th, by our favorite photographer Sabrina Gebhardt. We had family pictures taken at the Arboretum for Christmas cards and you had just turned 2 1/2. How is that possible? Your third birthday will be here before we know it! You are growing up fast and I am so proud of the little boy you are becoming. You are the sweetest, smartest, most thoughtful, hard headed, stubborn, funny, loving, caring, baby boy I could have ever hoped for. You challenge us because you are so strong willed but also want to please. When you do get in trouble and I am irritated you will ask, "Are you happy mommy? Are you happy? You say this because you want me to be happy and not mad at you!". Of course it makes me laugh and I never stay upset for long.
You have now been a big brother for 9 months and you love Michael fiercely. I get tears in my eyes when I watch the two of you play together and think about the lifelong friendship you will have. You already are very protective of him but also love to tell him "no" when he is getting into something he is not supposed to or playing with a toy you don't want him to play with. You say, "No Michael, no, no!" You even pick him up under the arms from behind and try to carry him over to me. Poor little Michael has his little shoulders shrugged up and just looks at me like "What did I do mommy?" I cannot wait for him to talk and tell us what he really thinks, ha!
You still go to Brookhaven Child Development Center five days a week and are in the Toddler 2 class with Ms. Nancy and Ms. Taisha. Your best friends there are Everett, Olivia, Evy, and Beckett. You and Olivia went though a rough patch because you loved to play together but would fight over a toy or whatever and she would bite you when she got mad! I think it was just a phase because over a month's time you bit Everett and Beckett, Everett bit you, Olivia bit you a few times, and you also bit Olivia. I only know about the ones that involved you. Who knows how many other incidences there were! Ms. Nancy wasn't allowed to tell us who bit you but you are old enough that you would tell us as soon as we got in the car! Of course we would promptly call or text our friends (the moms and dads of your little friends) and apologize if you bit them. We also would always get a text or phone call apologizing if one of them bit you. I think we were all frustrated that it was happening but no one ever got mad. We are all happy that phase is over!
Funny story about you and Olivia-we were all together the day after Thanksgiving at the Vetters (who we met through our Brookhaven friends) and all the kids were playing in the backyard. You were playing on a little scooter, tripped and sort of fell but lay down over the scooter and said, "Help! Help!" I was eating but knew you were fine and just playing, Daddy had Michael, so Dan (Everett's Daddy) ran over and helped you up, brushed off your knees, and said, "You're ok!" You said, "No, I want Olivia to help!" and you laid back down over the scooter on the ground in the exact same position, looked at Olivia, and said, "Help Olivia, help!" Oh my! I could not believe this was happening. You are only 2 1/2! We thought it was hilarious. What is even funnier is Olivia just looked at you and kept on playing. She also LOVES Michael. She follows him around saying, "Baby Michael, baby Michael, hi Michael." Too cute. She has a 3 month old baby brother at home, Baby Eddie, so she must be fascinated with babies right now!
So James Peyton, what else are you up to at 2 1/2 years old?
You are 38 inches tall and weigh 33 pounds.
You are out of regular diapers, have been wearing pull ups (size 2T/3T) this past month, and officially had your first day in big boy underwear TODAY and were dry ALL day long at school and at home! Yay!!!! We are so proud of you!!! Daddy gets you dressed every morning so he sent mommy a picture at school this morning. You also insisted on calling Grandma-ma and Papa on the way to school to tell them all about it.
You wear a size 2T pants/jeans and a 3T shirt. You have a few 2T shirts from last winter that you can still wear and a few 4T t-shirts that fit.
You are so smart and the things you say amaze and impress us all the time. I know I am your mommy and am a little biast but I really believe you are one of the smartest 2 year olds I have ever met! I started keeping a journal last July of things you say because I would call Grandma-ma and tell her. She would say, "Tiffany, you HAVE to write this down! Months from now you will not remember everything he says!" I am so glad she told me that (several times) because now I have about 20 handwritten pages of stories or funny/creative/smart things you have said over the last five months. I will have to write a post and highlight a few of my favorites!
You love sports and right now baseball and tennis seem to be your favorite. You have a tennis racket just your size and we have to throw tennis balls to you to hit every night. You have a great swing and hit a lot of them! Daddy was a great tennis player and was ranked when he was in junior high and high school so maybe you will be serious about it one day! Last week at school your class was studying the meaning of Thanksgiving. Ms. Nancy talked about the pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower. You then said, "James sailed to America to play tennis!" How funny is that?!?
You love to play with cars, helicopters, trains, and trucks. You build garages out of blocks for all of your cars. You love Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars.
You can spot a mailman's truck, police car, ambulance, or firetruck a mile away! Of course when any of those have the sirens on you get very excited.
You do watch a little t.v. at night after dinner and your favorite right now is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Dora the Explorer! You love Diego (which you call Lego) too but ask to watch Dora more. At least she is educational and you are learning a few words in Spanish!
You can count to twenty in English and to ten in Spanish.
You know all of the basic shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, heart, star, and even hexagon!)
You know all of your colors.
You know almost all animals that I can think of and the sounds they make. You especially love giraffes and were so excited to see them when we went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Grandma-ma last month.
You can say the alphabet and recognize some letters. I want to start working with you at home more on this. Letter recognition and sounds are one of my favorite things to teach because once mastered we can work on blending words and reading!
Your favorite foods are spaghetti, fruit-especially berries, yogurt, steamed broccoli, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, string cheese, Chick Fila chicken nuggets, popsicles, and an occasional bean burrito from mommy's favorite-Taco Bueno, and donuts. Don't get me started. It's Daddy's fault. He will sometimes stop at Jay's Donuts on the way to school and get you 3 little donut holes. Of course you think they are the best thing you have ever tasted!
You don't drink milk at all, maybe a little at school with lunch. I think you get enough calcium from the yogurt and cheese you eat. Your favorite drink is orange juice. In fact you wake up asking for it, usually right after you climb in bed with us in the morning. Sometimes you insist on Daddy getting it for you and sometimes you want Mommy to get it. It is really about 3/4 water with a splash of oj.
Bedtime-our routine is bath, pj's, brush teeth, read books, prayers, then lights off and you go to sleep. If it were only that simple. It is always a fight to get you in the bath tub but you love playing and taking a bath once you are in it. You always want to read more books, you would listen to 17 books a night if we would read that many. Most nights it is 3 or 4, and reading is one thing I love to do so I don't mind. You always want to turn your lamp off yourself and then as much as I do not want to admit this-we sit with you while you fall asleep. It is something we started long ago and honestly we are not sure how to break the habit nor do we want to. We take turns putting you to bed and we get quality one on one time with you that we don't get enough of. But we did learn our lesson! Michael is the easiest baby to put to bed. After bath and pj's we read a book, he has a bottle, I rock him and snuggle with him for a minute and put him in his crib still awake but sleepy, say night night Michael, and walk out. He is practically snoring by the time I get the monitor. Let's just say were determined to make sure Michael could easily put himself to sleep and not need us while doing it!
You are so sweet and affectionate. You love hugs and kisses and whenever I leave in the morning for school you have to have your "hug kiss" When Daddy drops you off at Brookhaven in the mornings you also have to have a "hug kiss" from him, usually a few before he gets out the door! The other night we were sitting on the couch watching Toy Story 3. You said, "Mommy, can I put my arm around you? Put your head here (and you patted your chest)". My heart melted. We snuggled with your arm around the back of my neck and you were sitting up on the couch like you were a big guy. Sweetest. Thing. Ever.
You are very emphatic and expressive when you talk. If we ask you a question and the answer is yes, it is"Yeeehhhhhhhhhs, mommy Yeeehhhhhhhhhs"! I can hear your little voice now, it is so funny.
Part of me wants to bottle you up and keep you this age forever because it is so fun to have conversations with you and to see the world through your sweet innocent eyes. But, I know I will feel that way about many of the stages you go through in life. I tell you I love you THIS much and stretch my arms out as wide as I can-you think it is hilarious. April will be here soon and you will be turning three. My next long letter will be on your third birthday but I will of course be posting pictures and writing shorter updates between now and then. I love you James Peyton and so much of who I am today is because of you. I could not imagine these past 2 1/2 years without you.
Love,
Mommy
