{Elijah James - 2.5 Years Old}

Elijah James, you are two and a half years old!

Elijah you are a wonderful fireball! It has been an incredible season of growth for you. Your papa and I are constantly challenged, but we are also so in love with your personality, disposition, and character. 

Your verbal and processing skills are off the charts. You speak in clear, complete sentences. You have begun to think abstractly as you process information. You continue to make observations of the world around you. In the car you like to make comments about what Papa and I are doing (using two hands to drive, pointing out green lights and asking if we see the buses). 

Your motor skills are becoming more fine tuned. You love to jump, march, dance, spin, run, and skip (which looks eerily similar to jumping).  You enjoy putting things together and doing puzzles or playing with your bead maze. When you play with mama and papa you really love directing what we do and coming up with new ways to play with your toys. Your favorite toys at home are your kitchen, your race car track, and your magnetic blocks. You are becoming so imaginative in your play. You love pretending to make up different types of food in your kitchen. Or you like when mama and you wear my nursing pillows around the house and play Super Mama and Super Elijah.

Elijah just before you turned two you started potty training. There were times when we wondered if we had started too early. The process started slowly, but then you really took off with it. You are doing fabulously. You typically only have accidents if you don't take a potty break before watching  TV or if you are having too much fun. Going potty at daycare has also finally clicked for you and you are doing great there. It is so great to see how successful you are.

It has been so delightful to see you transition into a big brother Elijah. You are incredibly sweet with Levi. You ask about Levi if he isn't in the room, you always want to hug, kiss, or snuggle him. I love when you sing Levi songs to help him not be sad, or you share your toys with Levi. Often I find your cars in the bouncer seat with Levi and it makes me smile. You really enjoy helping with Levi as much as possible. You throw diapers away, you like to carry the car-seat, and push the stroller. You also ask most days if you can hold Levi. You have such a look of pride when you help with Levi. Mama and papa are so incredibly proud of the big brother that you are turning into. We did have a rough transition after Levi was born. You had spent 3 days with our friends the Kaetzel's. While you did great with them, you seemed to struggle with being away from us for so long. For a few weeks you often brought up the phrase "mama and papa always come back." We spent a lot of time giving you lots of choices and that seemed to help you feel in control again and start getting back to yourself.

Elijah, you continue to be fiercely independent. You still struggle if you have an expectation of how something should go and it doesn't work out the way you want. This comes out in how you want to do things such as opening and closing doors, pushing buttons, and making things in the kitchen.  Often mama and papa have to stop and help you use your words and identify what you are feeling. It has also been helpful if we let you know ahead of time that you won't do something. Transitions can be difficult for you, especially when we are leaving a place. You tend to do better if we talk about the upcoming transition and also use a timer. 

At two and a half, you are almost 35 pounds. You also have your top 2 year molars and are working on the bottom. This has has been cause for some tough nights where you might moan in pain or cry out during the night. There was one really bad night where you didn't want to sleep in your bed and you and papa snuggled on the couch all night. You are still in your papa phase big time. You often start yelling in excitement when papa comes home and you ask about him during the day. When papa comes home you ask him to do everything. One example is when you need your chair scooted in at dinner. You will say to me "No mama, don't scoot me in, Papa has to do it." You have also been into buses lately, and you were asking papa to take you on a bus trip. So far you have done that twice and you have absolutely loved it. There may have been tears when it was time to get off the bus.

Here are some funny things you've been saying lately:

• You often finish many statements with "I think." For example you will say "I want a quesadilla for lunch, I think." or "I have to go potty, I think".
• You love saying "Thank you" and then we say "your welcome" and then you say "Thank you for saying your welcome." You like us to say "Thank you for saying you're welcome!"
• You enjoy singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and then ask that we sing Itsy Bitsy Spidey.
• Other favorite songs: The Papa Song, It is Well, Streams of Mercy (Come thou Fount), I Love you Lord, Jesus loves me (you also ask that we sing Jesus loves Papa, Mama, and Levi), Joy Joy (I have the Joy), Old McDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, and You are My Sunshine.
• "Excuse me" - You've realized that you can interrupt conversation by saying Excuse me. Though usually you don't have anything to say, you just like the effect. One day when we were video chatting with grandma you said "Excuse me, I don't like it when you talk." Mama laughed so hard, that now you think it is okay to say it all the time. Whoops!
• "Mama how about we snuggle?" - You've been asking to snuggle with mama more lately and that has been so wonderful.
• "I sure am" or "I sure did" - You often respond to people's questions with one of these two responses. It cracks us up and makes you sound so confident. You were asked this week if you were a fast runner and you said "I sure am!" or "Elijah, did you wash your hands?" "I sure did!"

Elijah, these last six months have been full of adventure for you. You took a big trip to DC with papa, celebrated Easter, joined soccer classes, you welcomed your baby brother Levi, you loved having visitors like your Grandma Robin, Auntie Destiny, and Cousin Eleanor. You've also been spending more time with your Grandpa Jerry as he is living closer to us. You have enjoyed hanging with your buddy Dominic, you two have been out to doughnuts, to the zoo, the gymnastics gym, the wading pool, the park and play dates at Dominic's house. You loved a recent trip with friends to Leavenworth. If we are at a body of water you love throwing rocks and sticks into the water and getting your feet wet.

Elijah, we are so excited that you will be starting Preschool this fall. We had some flexibility with keeping you in your current class, which mama wanted to do. Papa reminded me though of what a capable, intelligent, and inquisitive young man you are and that you would rise to the challenge of preschool. We, think you will thrive with this new challenge!

In the next six months we think you are looking forward to starting preschool, visiting grandparents in Florida, celebrating Christmas, and heading to Seabrook with the Kaetzel's for the New Year!

Here are a few photos and videos from the last 6 months!

{Levi - 3 Months}

Levi Daniel, you are 3 months old!

Sweet boy, it is so much fun to watch you grow! These days you are incredibly observant. You love to be sitting up and watching what is going on. In fact, it is very difficult for you to focus on eating if you see or hear anything of interest. Typically as soon as your papa or your brother starts talking, you will whip your head around to see what is going on.

Levi, you are growing so quickly! You are 15lbs, 1oz and solidly into 6 month clothes. Mama got a little teary eyed when she packed up your 3 month clothes. You have started giggling at us from time to time, which is such a sweet sound. You are trying very hard to roll from your back to your tummy. You also have become interested in sticking out your tongue. It is pretty cute! Your hands are your favorite though. You'll wake up in the middle of the night and we will hear you trying to suck on your fingers. You have gotten your thumb in your mouth a few times, but generally you will settle for several fingers.

You have gotten more into a routine at night which has been really great. We typically start your bedtime between 7:45pm and 8pm. We keep working to bump it up a bit as you will be starting at daycare in a week and we would like you to get as much sleep at night as possible. You have been all over the place at night with your sleep. Usually your stretches are between 4-6 hours, however you have also given us 7-8 hour stretches and once you did almost a 10 hour stretch. We sure wish we knew the magic formula for those longer stretches of sleep. During the day you have 3 solid naps and often one short nap to tide you over to bedtime. Your naps are usually 2 hours long, but sometimes go shorter or for longer.

Levi, shortly into your 3rd month you got your first viral bug. We think Elijah brought home something from daycare and passed it on to you. You had difficulty eating because you had sores in your throat. You also had a fever for a couple of days. It was so hard for mama and papa to see you sick. Even while you struggled to eat, you were still your happy self and rarely fussed. If it had not been for the appetite change, we might not have picked up that something was wrong.

You have been busy your third month! You have had play dates with friends, visited the Zoo and the wading pool, attended your first Amazon picnic, had brunch with your Grandpa Jerry, and even met some of your East Coast cousins!

Levi, the next month will be a full one for you. You will have your first laser treatment to help reduce your birthmark. We are also working to figure out if you have acquired a dairy allergy.

During your fourth month of life we think you are looking forward to starting at daycare with your big brother Elijah. You will even have the same teachers that he did.

Here are some photos from you second month of life.