The Crawdad Chronicles: James at 2 1/2 years

I am soooo behind in my blogging. I finally decided I would just have to speed blog to catch up and not worry too much about making it great. Since this post is late I have to confess that some of these things may have happened in the past two months. I guess we can call this "James between 30-32 months"

James, we haven't been to the doctor since you turned two but we think you around 36-37 inches tall and weight about 34 pounds. You wear mostly 3T clothing and are in a size 8 shoe. You have started talking SO much and say some pretty funny things. One of the biggest changes in the past couple of months is that you moved into a big boy bed. As your parents we knew it was going to be a painful transition and we were right! But we are surviving and are hoping by the time your baby brother comes in a couple weeks you will not be having problems. You have made some progress due to M&M bribery and the "bunny alarm clock" which has helped keep you in bed for certain hours. Some of your favorite things right now are singing songs, riding your tricycle, helping me in the kitchen, reading books, and playing with your daddy. Favorite foods include smoothies, any kind of muffins, and of course you still love ice cream. You are definitely in the stage where you want everything to be the same for days at a time and then you switch and want nothing to do with it. This is true for what you eat, what you want to read, what we sing, etc. You are a predictable machine and you sure like your routine. Your teachers at school always say how sweet and well behaved you are, and we really hope it stays that way. Lately you love to talk about letters and numbers. You know all of your letters and letter sounds and love to help me figure out what letter words begin with or how to spell things. You can spell your name, Ryan, Emily, stop, and go and are now working on spelling the other family member names. You can count to 20 and can identify those numbers. You are stubborn, hilarious, strong-willed, and one of the greatest joys in our life. Your daddy and I love you so much!

Here are a few of the funny and sweet things you have said over the past few months.

"I love you Mommy. I need a kiss and a hug." - no better feeling in the world that when your kid says this!

"Yes Mommy yes sir" - guess we need to work on the yes mam concept

"I not going to share my trains with baby brother" - oh goodness... a sign of things to come

"No please" - instead of no thank you

Mommy- "James how do we need to act?" James- "Be kind, don't hit, don't bite, share toys" - well that sums it up pretty well

After reading our bible story one night that emphasized sharing I asked James if he would share his food with Jesus. "No Mommy. Jesus eats baby food." - maybe we talked a little too much about baby Jesus at Christmas time!

Mommy- "Would you like an orange?" James- "No please. I like ice cream and chips."

"I need my Nene!!!" - don't we all? :)

"Mommy, I just need one chip out of that bag!"

"Stop eating guys. Come play with me." - we hear this a lot at dinner time

"Dear Jesus, Please bless Mommy, Daddy, Nene, Pappy, Nana, Pop and all the cars in the parking lot and all the stop signs."

"Turn the rain off Mommy! I want to ride my bike!"

"I've got burps in my mouth" - he had the hiccups

One of my favorite conversations to date was a few weeks before Easter. I sent my friend an email talking about it and wanted to post it here so it would be in the blog book to remember.

So today in the car when we were pulling into the driveway James started saying, "Mommy, what's that? I see something."

Me- "What do you see James?"

James- "I see Jesus!"

Long story short some people down the street had put out Easter decorations, bunnies, eggs, and a cross. We walked down there and when he saw the cross he kept asking where Jesus was. So I tried to have a little theological conversation with my 2 year old but I'm not sure he really got much about it. He kept saying the cross was empty and I told him yes, the cross where Jesus died and the tomb became empty. We celebrate Easter because Jesus is alive, etc. etc. I reminded him that Jesus lives in our hearts.

That night when it was time for bed he started talking about the cross and how it was empty. He was going on and on about it to me and Ryan. So then Ryan said, "James, where does Jesus live?" and James replied, "In my tummy, in my heart."

I guess he got a little confused with baby brother living in Mommy's tummy but Jesus living in our hearts, lol. Love that sweet little boy!

( I have no idea why I can't figure out how to fix the text on this part of the blog)

A few pictures from the month:

Sweet little Sunday school class

Hanging out in the big boy bed

Using our free valentine coupons

Yum!

One morning while Ryan was at work and I was in the shower I came out to discover this... James was adamant that I not put the "grass" (spinach) back in the refrigerator :)

I didn't do much for the big boy room. Knowing that we are moving in a year just convinced me to keep it simple and not invest a lot of time or money. James's Nana sent him a new bedspread, we bought the cheapest bed possible from Amazon, and only used a bed frame. I have done a little more to it since I took these pictures but I will have to post those on a different day. These were taken the day that we literally threw the bed together and put him in it. Sorry James! Maybe you will get a picture-perfect room at the next house.