TWO

Our sweet, smart, silly boy turned two on Tuesday. It's been a fast two years and he has grown and changed so much and brought more joy to our lives than we ever knew was possible. Just when I think I couldn't possibly love him more, tomorrow comes.

We knew we weren't going to be able to plan a big birthday party this year not knowing when Walker would be born. We are still waiting on a time when all of our family can be here to have a little party but on his actual birthday we took him to the Transportation Museum. He loved riding the train and seeing some of the exhibits but it was no surprise to us that his favorite part of the whole day was playing with the tractors in the gift shop.

After he woke up from his nap we went to TCBY with his favorites, Mason and Han-nan (Landon). When we got home we gave him his big present from us, a John Deere tractor that we bought used for a steal from the Sowers. I'm pretty sure it made the whole rest of his year.

More about our boy at TWO...

Gray weighs 27 pounds (37th %tile), is 36.5 inches long (95th %tile) and has a head measurement of 50.2 centimeters (86th %tile). We've got a big boy on our hands! His height has been well above average since he was born at 22 inches. At his 2 year well check up today his pediatrician said based on his measurements now, he will probably be a little over six feet tall.

Around 22 months, Gray's vocabulary and overall speech exploded out of nowhere. He knows so many words and speaks in phrases and sentences most of the time. There are very few things he says that we can't understand. He has a little bit of a redneck accent with certain words. Milk is pronounced "Merk", ears are pronounced "errrs", etc. If we tell Gray he can't have something or can't do something or anything of that nature he says "I wanna try!" He pretty much remembers anyone's names after seeing or meeting them only once.

Gray is a really good eater. His favorites for breakfast are grits and fruit, for lunch he prefers anything with cheese and dinner varies. He still isn't a huge fan of meat and it's very hit or miss. He likes raw veggies like carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and green peppers.

He is still doing good in his big boy bed. Since the time change, he has been going to bed quite a bit later, around 8:00/8:30 but is still awake some nights at 9:30 and 10:00. He wakes up anywhere from 7:00-8:00. He still takes one afternoon nap around 1:00 and sleeps anywhere from one to three hours. He never fusses about going to bed and we are so thankful for that!

He can say and count most numbers from one to 13 (which is how many stairs we have and we always count as we go up). He can identify some of his letters and can put all of the letters to his name in order (does this in the bathtub with his foam letters) and knows some of his alphabet and likes to sing his ABCs (only knows some random letters in the song so far).

He really has such a big, sweet heart! He also has a strong personality-something we've seen in him since he was a baby. But for a two year old, he really listens and obeys and shares pretty good. We've really tried hard to train (yes, I used the word train and meant it!) and discipline him in an effective way but of course it's so hard and we often fail. We've read several Christian books on behavior, child training, discipline, etc. and owe all credit to God for anything we have gotten right. We started spanking him about a month or so ago for major offenses (out right being defiant, hitting, etc.) and it seems to be working so far. When he does or says something he knows he shouldn't have, he says "I want "bankin" and "I hurt Jesus' heart!". He is still such an affectionate little boy, often initiating snuggles and hugs and kisses. He has only been a big brother for two weeks but has been SO sweet to Walker. Without us asking him to, he kisses and hugs on him and tries to share his milk, snacks and toys with him. When he cries Gray shows up with his paci, which Walker normally doesn't want but we pretend he does for the sake of sweet big brother.

His favorite toys/things in life are tractors, tractors, tractors! He also loves cars, bikes, buses, and pretty much anything else with wheels. He loves to hear and see "air-panes" in the sky. He also loves tools and pretends to "fix things" all the time, especially if/when Daddy has his tools out. He still loves to read books and I bet we read at least 10 every single day. Some of his favorite books right now are: Dusty Saves the Day (Disney Planes book), Love You Forever, Clifford books, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, Curious George books and he loves reading the Bible and will ask to read stories about Daniel and the Lion (he can even retell this story pretty good!), Jonah and Moses.
We let him watch his first movie (Frozen) about two months ago. We never really let him watch TV before so it took him a while to become interested but now he is obsessed. We've tried a few other Disney movies but so far Frozen and Cars are the only ones he will sit and watch. We try to limit it to just a couple times a week for no more than 30 minutes at a time but he'd watch Frozen all day every day if we let him.

Gray loves to stack and line up blocks. He loves to play outside in his sand and water table, pushing his dump trucks around and pretending to "mow". The mowers come every Wednesday in our neighborhood and he could stand outside and watch them all day. He uses an old, broken watering wand (it looks like the mower man's weed eater)to pretend he is mowing and/or blowing the grass.

He sometimes acts shy around people he doesn't know very well, especially if people come over to our house or if we are at someone's house for a play date. But in Target or the grocery store he waves and yells out "Hey!" to everyone he sees.

Loves music and is starting to sing along to his favorite songs. Daddy's got him listening to LeCrae (Christian rap) and he even puts his hands up in the air "like he just don't care" when they are jamming out.

Loves to say his prayers before meals, nap and bedtime. Everyday we ask him who he wants to pray for. Most days he asks to pray for people who he has seen recently (Nanny, Papa, Mugger, Gram, etc.) but there are often requests for tractors and popsicles too. Paul has said the Lord's prayer with him every single day for over a year and he can now say a good bit of it by himself. There are few things sweeter to hear than a precious, innocent toddler praying to Jesus!

I'm sure there is much more I'd love to remember one day but hopefully all of the pictures and videos we have will make up for anything I forgot.