23 Months!

I cannot believe that my baby is going to be TWO next month! In the meantime, he is 23 months, and I am absolutely having a blast with him! James is an extremely likeable kid. Of course that seems natural for every parent to say, but we have been told so many times by so many people that we now firmly believe that it's true. People just love our little James - and hopefully we can train him not to be prideful, but to use this "people magnet" ability for Jesus.

<----- Getting goofy with Uncle Matt.
James is a smarty pants, and uses mostly full sentences to talk to us now. He still mostly says "you" when he means "me" though. So, he will say "You want milk please?" instead of "I want milk please?". We are working on it though. With some help he can say the alphabet, and count to twenty. I am so proud of him! He is pretty good at recognizing things that are grouped in twos and threes. For example, if there are two school buses in a parking lot he will say "Two school buses". He also knows how to get to both sets of grandma and grandpa's homes, Auntie Robin's house, Auntie Terri's house, and Mama Bartel's house (our new neighbours). When we turn down the street to any of these people's homes, he will immediately tell us. Or, if he sees a different car turn down that road he will say something like "Red truck going to Grandma's house!".
He loves cars, trucks and trains. His favourite toy vehicles are a firetruck and a school bus. I think we will do a firetruck theme for his birthday this year. He also loves his kitties, and always asks them to come outside with him when we let him out. They obediently follow him, and run after him. It's terrible cute!
James is also practices good hygiene. He loves to brush his teeth, to the point where he has his own toothbrush and paste at his grandparent's house. He also loves to wash his hands, ("WITH SOAP"), and I can often find him in the bathroom on his stool washing his hands. He loves bathtime as well, and really enjoys it when I draw pictures on his tummy with his foaming soap. He will also pick up things from the floor, call it garbage and ask to throw it away. He has pooped once on the little potty, but isn't interested in potty training yet. I'm not in a panic with it. In fact, I'd prefer that he be in diapers for our trip to Hawaii this year. It would be almost impossible to be in the middle of potty training on a trip like that!
James finds praying to be humorous. When we ask him to say "Amen" with us, he will bow his head and tightly close his eyes, looking up every few seconds to see if we're still praying. When we're done and say "amen" he will always join in with a big "AMEN!" - after which we usually have to applaud. At night when we pray we usually talk about all the things we did during that day and thank God for them. James is getting good at remembering things we did, and talking about them. His favourite thing to talk about is walking with Auntie Robin and Jaxson.
James is becoming an avid singer and dancer. He can frequently be heard singing the theme song for "Toopi & Binoo", as well as a song from "Yo, Gabba Gabba" that goes "stay still... stay still... wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, GO, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, GO!". He will also sing "skitta merinky dinky dink", but will usually wait for me to sing it and then chime in with "I LOVE YOU!".
My favourite thing to wake up to in the morning is going into James' room and hearing him say "Hi mommy!". It is so special to me that he knows me, and that he loves to see me come into his room in the morning. At those moments I am reminded to pray for all the parents who have kidnapped and abducted children, and who walk into an empty room each morning wondering about their children. I can't imagine how they must feel.
I could say so much more, but I will leave it at that for now. I'll try to save a few things for the big TWO year-old post I'll be doing in a month!