James is 2 1/2

This post is dedicated to JAMES! He is 2 1/2 this week and I can't believe how big he is getting, as he reminds me daily, " I big, Mom, I big".  I thought I should let everyone know what this little guy is up to.

James pretending to be asleep so I will take a picture

• James loves having his picture taken and he knows I love taking pictures. He will be doing something silly, stop and say 'take picture of Jim ( he calls himself Jim thanks to his Grandpas)' If that doesn't work he thinks that I should take a picture of Madie, since who doesn't want to take a picture of her. 
• He is starting to get into pretending. This evening he ran up and down the sidewalks nieghing like a horse and rearing for a good 10 minutes. Usually he is some animal or another but the other day he was roaring and chasing me, he later told me he was a sharptooth (Land Before Time)
• This is of him barking like a puppy. 

• He loves trains and dinosaurs. I can not tell you how many hours we have spent reading train and dinosaur books. Fortunately they are from the library so we have to return them eventually and trade them out because I really don't know if I can read 'The Super Hungry Dinosaur' one more time at least for another month (Although it is a very cute book if you are looking for one. Just not after the 200th time)

• He is wanting to dress himself. He can get his shorts on and off without too much trouble, just give him 15 minute, and he can get his head into a shirt but that is about it. After that he just runs around the house like someone is after him for about 5 minutes and then lets me help him. (not sure what having a shirt half on your head has to do with being chased but he is consistent).

• With that comes some interesting fashion decisions, including wearing this beanie around all day including for his nap and to bed. I have no idea how he could do that in this summer heat. 
• He is my helper and my tornado of mass destruction. He wants to help me with everything, including those things that he just can't quiet do like:
•  Pour himself a glass of juice (note: he did get it in the glass but didn't stop when it was full), 
• Make Madie bottles (he will spend an hour at the sink filling her bottles up, emptying them and refilling) the problem comes when he decides he needs to add formula to them...
• Put on Mom and Dad's deodorant
• Use half a bottle of dish soap to help make bubbles in the sink
• And the list goes on, and on, and on...
• In the end I just can't be mad at him because he is so proud of himself and always says "I helping Mom, I big." We have a lot of discussions about 'Mom jobs' and 'James' jobs' in this house. 

Helping mom make cookies

• He knows most of his colors and gets them right about 80% of the time on the first try. He is especially good at white and pink because those are the colors of his two baseballs. If I just had a baseball in every color he would be a pro. 
• He knows all of his numbers to 10 but is only consistant in counting to 3 after that they tend to get a little out of order. 
• He loves dancing and puts on music multiple times a day to have a dance party. It keeps us all in shape around here. 

• He loves nursery, but not church. He always says 'no church, go a-fre (nursery)' He isn't a fan of sitting through sacrament meeting but is actually pretty good most of the time. Mostly because we keep telling him he gets to go to nursery when it is over. 
• He is quite the little talker and I love all the little things he says which is the rest of this post
• The first Official JAMES QUOTES:
• Whenever I tell him to be careful how he replies 'Oh No, I fall down and bump my head'
• Madie crying- James: 'Hush you mouth now Madie, Hush you mouth'
• If he starts doing something I have already corrected him on he will reprimand himself
• example: he starts to stand up in the grocery cart then says 'No, no Jim, no stand, fall down, no fall down' and countinues to sits back down. But at least I didn't have to say it again. 
• Whenever he is off the cause trouble he usually warns me by saying 'I be back mom, just one minute mom, I be back' and then backs away to make sure I'm not following him. If I do start to follow he says, 'no mom, go inside, I be back' I usually let him go and then go in and check on him about 30 seconds after he closes the door to whichever room he is going to hide in.
• I love his little prays. He can say most of it unassisted and is always especially grateful for the ketchup for his eggs
• In the end I really just wish I could catch more videos of him talking but he won't keep talking when I turn the camera on, because although what he says isn't always the most creative his intonation he uses when talking just makes me laugh. However I did manage to capture one on my phone of him showing me his flip flops, which he would wear everywhere including church if I allowed it. (He ends the video by saying 'a walk, a walk' because that was what we were getting ready to do at the time)