Joseph-2 1/2

Joseph turned 2 1/2 on June 7th.  

At his 18 month birthday I began tracking some of his favorites and have continued to do so every 6 months. To see his responses from his 18 month birthday click here and from his 2 year birthday click here.

And here are his 2 1/2 year old favorite things:

The things in quotes are what he said when I asked him what his favorite things were.  Then I added my own input which are not in quotes

Favorite sayings-“What's that say?” "Why?"

He is still extremely talkative and it amazes us all of the time the things that he remembers and will tell us or just the things that he will bring up.  He is definitely in the stage of asking "why"-very inquisitive.  He asks a lot of, "What's her daddy's name?" or "Where does he live?" 

Favorite food-“crackers, graham crackers, granola bars”

He loves also loves meatballs, pancakes, peanut butter and jelly, fruit (strawberries, grapes, apples, oranges, bananas and so on!) He is a huge fruit eater!  He pretty much eats everything and for dinner eats whatever we are having.  He calls ice cream "ice creamy" which is pretty cute!

Favorite friends-“Baseball players, Kolton, Kason, Claire, James"  

Favorite color-"Blue"

Favorite number-“Sixteen”

If we are talking about how much longer we have or when we have to go or how long something measures he’ll usually say “sixteen minutes” or just "sixteen"  He can count to 10 perfectly and is pretty close to getting to 20-knows all of the numbers just gets them mixed up a little.

Favorite animal-“Horse”

He continues to love all animals.  He loves looking for and catching geckos in the yard with Daddy.  We have birds who built a nest in our gutter on our front porch and we have checked on them daily and he was pretty excited when the baby birds hatched.  He still loves seeing our neighbor dogs, Jake and Ollie and whenever we skype with Nani and Poppa he normally asks to see Cali-dog immediately.

Favorite song-“Baseball song”

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is on repeat in our car (cd 3, track 3) and we sing it at least once a day.  

Favorite thing to do outside-“Blow bubbles and play baseball”

Now that the pools are open we have been playing there at least 2 times a week and it so fun watching and playing wtih him there.  He is such a fish!  Whenever we are in the backyard we are always playing baseball and he is getting pretty good about hitting the ball without the tee.

Favorite drink-“I don’t know...ummm, water”

We don't give him juice on a normal basis but if we are at a birthday party he could probably drink an entire pack of juice boxes-he loves them!  We stick to milk and water around here and he does great with both.  He always says, "Milk for naptime, water for bedtime."  

Favorite book-“Homer dog!”

"Homer" is still his favorite (great choice Ella!) We have been checking a lot of Franklin books out from the library though because he loves them and other than that whenever we go to the library he asks for baseball books so we find any book related to baseball and he is as happy as can be.  Just now for nap I read him "Let's Go to the Ballpark" which is part of the DK Readers Begin to Read Alone series and the book is 32 pages so I skipped a few pages in the middle trying to get him into bed quickly but as I finished he asked me, "Where did they catch the ball?"  Sure enough I skipped the page where the family catches the foul ball so we had to go back and find it and read that along with the other pages I missed.  He has a good memory!

And for this birthday I had to add the following favorite:

Favorite Team-Tigers

Ever since going to his friend, Kolton's, baseball game back at the end of April he always asks us "What's your favorite team?"  His response is always "Tigers" which is the team that Kolton plays for.  And then he'll say, "Mommy's favorite team is Padres, Papa's favorite team is the Yankees, Daddy's favorite team is Braves."  

He continues to be such a funny, sweet boy.  He isn't a huge temper tantrum kind of kid but he is definitely showing a bit of attitude.  If I need to talk to him about his behavior he will often turn his face so he isn't looking at me (which drives me crazy!!) and recently he was in time out for spitting and as I went to talk to him about it he spit again as I walked close to him so he definitely has his challenging moments.  Sharing continues to be challenging (as it is for most 2.5 year olds) but he is definitely getting better, especially with Ella, as we have really made it clear that if he is going to take something from her he needs to give her something else which he does most times.  He continues to be really sweet with her (98% of the time :) and loves going in to get her in the mornings and is just always so concerned about her.   When she cries he will often say, "Babies cry to tell us something...sometimes a dirty diaper, sometimes they're hungry" which is from a book about being a big brother.  The first time he said that I about died-thought it was so sweet!

Ever since our trip to Port Aransas he has been sleeping in a little bit later (like 6:30 on good days) but that feels like sleeping in when you're used to 5:15!  He is napping from 2ish to normally after 4 and is in bed by 7:45 but often will stay awake in his bed talking to himself until 8:30 or so.  

He is still pretty concerned about what he wears and still enjoys changing outfits but not as frequently as a few months ago.  He still only wears boxers which are just the cutest little things.  He is still in diapers for naps and bedtime but has woke up from his nap dry a few times so is getting close to not wearing them at naps.  

He has a ton of energy and is just always going!  Whether he is sprinting down our hallway having us cheer for him , knocking over his towers that he builds, putting his whole head underwater in the bathtub practicing his swim moves or jumping off the picnic table in the backyard he is just a ball of energy and fun.  

We love you so much Joseph and happy half birthday!  We can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring until you turn 3!