23 Months....

I am really, really late with this post, considering your 2nd birthday is just a little over a week away!

This month you:

learned your ABC's- you still need help in the middle, but every letter is structurally there.

learned to sing "Happy birthday" and "Jingle Bells". We are working on "Itsy Bitsy Spider" at the moment.

we started working on numbers 11-15...those are going to take a while!

got your first spanking.

really started labeling "big" and "small".

Since you were so good at finishing the sentences in your bedtime books, mommy and daddy started letting you sing the end of phrases in your songs. I think you are going to have a great music memory.

Your memory is freaky-amazing. You make sure to remind me if I told you we could do something when we leave the store and get home. While we walk around the neighborhood you look and ask about things that we have seen there before- like a mower, a cat or a Christmas tree. You have a very difficult time not understand why they are not still there...

At your cousin Addy's birthday party, you got in the middle of the room while she was opening presents, played your guitar and sang her happy birthday...complete with her name and no prompting. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

You told everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...in fact, you are still telling everyone Merry Christmas....

You love to point out baby Jesus to everyone whenever you see him lying in a manger.

You love to jump and climb off of everything in our house. Good thing we started all of your jumping off with counting because I can be in another room and hear you start to count to 10. That gives me enough time to drop what I am doing and make sure that you land safely.

You can understand the difference between hitting/playing your drum soft/loud and slow/fast.

You can fully undress yourself and put on your shoes- the velcro shoes are the easiest for you.

You LOVE to hop everywhere. Oddly enough, when I ask you to come to me after time-out, you always get up and hop over to me.

We are still working on colors. I go back and forth thinking you are color blind. One day you do a great job and the next your answers are all over the place. Honestly, I don't care if you are color blind- I just want to make sure that your teachers know it later and it isn't something that we find out when you are in Jr. High.

You started praying before meals. "Dear God, Thank you for our food (we have to help you remember to say 'for our food', otherwise you leave it off). Amen"

You are SOOOO independent. You let the dogs outside, give them treats, push the button to shut and open the garage door, turn off and on certain lights and turn on/off the TV. If we fail to remember that these are your jobs, you get really upset.

You started really using your imagination! It is adorable. You cook for mommy and daddy all the time. Your favorite thing to cook is mac and cheese.

Someday I will get all the videos up that I am taking of just how stinkn' cute you are...oh, someday!

We still can't believe that you are almost 2, baby boy! We love you and are so proud to be your mommy and daddy!

Just because I think we need to throw in some pictures....