W-2 years, 5 months old!

 The best thing happened to me this morning.  

My husband had already left for church, and I was in our room changing baby girl's diaper.  Little Man came in from the other room, looked up at me, and said, "You're pretty!" and gave me a huge hug on my leg.  It was the sweetest thing ever.

We are so used to him copying everything we say, and providing him "thoughts" and "sentences."  But this came completely voluntarily and without provocation.  My heart melted, and I immediately bent down and gave him a huge hug.

W has really started talking.  He talks all the time!

He LOVES books!  We read to him every night, usually 3, but sometimes he talks us into reading him more.  Right now, his favorite book is "The Polar Express."  He asks me to read it to him all throughout the day.  Yesterday, I popped in the audio cd that came with the book because I was so tired of reading it, and W had a ball.  He loved hearing the actual train and the conductor's voice.  He really likes to pretend that he's reading too.  He jibber-jabbers and says, "The End!" when he's done.

He also remembers names really well.  At church, we are so amazed at how many names he knows when he sees them, not only his friends, but adults too!  

He has always enjoyed seeing himself in the mirror.  But he is really talking to himself in the mirror now.  He loves the body mirror in our closet.  He stands in front of it and talks for a minute, then says, "Be right back, ok?" "Ok!"  Then he walks away, and walks right back to continue his conversation.  He doesn't like to do this when we're around.  If we catch him, he puts on the cutest "shy" face, and then stops.

I guess I have to add in the bad with the good.  He has definitely hit the "terrible twos!" It doesn't happen all the time or even every day, but knows how to throw a tantrum.  He usually stops when we ignore him and leave the room.  But some of his favorite words have become, "No! Stop it!" while shaking his finger at us.  He immediately gets sent to time-out when it happens, and he definitely hasn't been talking back as much in the past few days.  Fortunately, he is still sweet to his baby sister!

He still loves to sing, and he knows all the words to over 30 songs.  He can also sing the blessing, and say the blessing.  The other night at bedtime, W wouldn't let Dada sing songs to him because he wanted to sing them all by himself. 

Little Man doesn't like to sit still for pictures anymore, but I was able to catch a few this afternoon... His eczema (that he's had since birth) has been under control, thanks to Vanicream, everywhere except his face.  I know the winter has a lot to do with it, but it doesn't look so good!  Hoping this isn't a life-long problem for him!

Hope everyone has a blessed week!

Throwing in a picture of E because she just looked so adorable this morning for church! (Today was the first day I left her in the nursery for "big church." It was hard for me, but she did great!)