Happy 30 monthiversary!

Liam, you're two and a half years old today! What excitement! You have had a busy month. We spent part of it in Ottawa and returned home just over a week ago.

Mommy, Liam and Jude (and Daddy) at the Peace Tower

You have just sprouted upwards. You've grown over 4 inches in the past few months. You got four new teeth--your 2 year molars came in and you weren't too pleased with the discomfort. You're almost done with them, so hopefully you will return to waking up at 6, instead of 4:30am!!

Liam, 2 and a half, and in desperate need of a haircut!

Your language is blossoming. You like making jokes--you will say silly words, or subsitute a wrong word in a song or rhyme and laugh. You are losing your cute little words like "bull-zee-doh" is now bulldozer, "eetmoil" is now oatmeal, etc. You are growing up!

You peed and pooped on the potty just a few days ago for the first time. You were so proud of yourself. We did a couple of days of toilet training and you were content to get back into your diaper. We'll try again later. It was a nice introduction, and we stocked up on cool underpants. Thomas! Percy! Spiderman! Lightning McQueen!

You are still very much in love with "My Jude." You will tell other kids to stay away from your Jude if they are getting too close.

One of my favourite pictures of My Boys

What secrets will you two share? Hopefully you won't be making fun of your Mommy and her mad sled-making skillz... ;)

Your reading is developing. You have a great memory for words, so when you see a word you know you can read it. We are working on your letter/sound knowledge so you can figure out words that you've never seen before by sounding them out. When we were waiting for the doctor at Jude's 6 month appointment, you read me a story about Teddy Bears. You had never seen the book before, but you were able to read about 70% of it to me. It was fun to hear you read me a story.

You are still enchanted by numbers. One of your favourite things to do (with letters, too) is to line up a whole bunch of numbers and ask what number it is. Your Daddy and Mommy have gotten so good at reading numbers into the trillions and beyond for you.

You like to email, now. You will take Mommy's phone and send emails to people in her contact list. Your emails are often very brief, consisting of only one word: "Liam". :) At least I don't have to send out explanatory emails to these people. They are sure to figure it out themselves. You love to play on the computer and really loved watching TV while we were in Ottawa. Your favourite thing to watch was hockey.

You like to run and play and jump and spin and climb and chase and play hide and seek. You love to do puzzles, play with racecars in the basement and with your hotwheels track, make dinner with your kitchen, play with your trains, play with Jude's toys and tackle him, and do arts and crafts like messy messy finger painting!

You are very much into doing things yourself and will be very vocal about it. You even want to give Jude some milk, and we're not talking from a bottle. ;) You've begun eating carrots! You never liked them before, but you now prefer them raw, with dip, please. You like all of your normal food: cheesey bread, peanut butter toast, pizza, meat and cheese roll-ups, etc. and have developed a taste for hummus, sandwiches (cut into shapes like hearts or dinosaurs), and you will try anything that Mommy and Daddy are eating, too.

We hope you have a wonderful day today! You already rushed around at the gym and had a neighbourhood playdate at Andrew's house across the street. We got a package from Grandma and Grandpa with some Canadian stuff to wear, too!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

After nap, maybe we'll dig out the paints and get dirty!

We love you, my sweet boy.

Love,

Mommy, Daddy and Your Baby Jude