Growing up fast...

Our boy is two and a half! He sure has come a long way...we were just watching some videos from 2009 a few days ago, and listening to him "talk" then compared to now is mind blowing. He has a huge vocabulary now, with hundreds of words and phrases, and often speaks in full sentences.

He has been going to "school," a day care here in Boulder a few days a week in the mornings. We call it "school" to get his mind ready for his educational career and so that he associates "school" with "fun." He loves playing with the other kids and only cried the very first time we dropped him off. He gets excited about it the night before and in the mornings on the way. In the car, he often says, "I want to be a good boy. And a cool cat!" It is a good prep for preschool, which he will start next year. It's pretty funny...when he gets picked up, all the other kids are usually napping, but William is in the kitchen chatting it up with the teachers. What a grown up.

Other notable developments are his numbers, letters, and colors. He can count from 1 to 16 without missing a number, and can recognize and call out most letters. He can spell his name pretty consistently. He likes to say. "red light means stop, green light means go" when we are in the car, and can identify most other colors as well. William loves to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and loves listening to music. We have a lot of the Putamayo Kids CDs - he loves the Reggae, France, and Hawaii ones especially (big surprise!). And last night, he actually asked to listen to Phish!

Books are a big hit, too. He loves reading "Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham," and knows both are written by Dr. Seuss. He also loves "You Are Special" (given to him from his Godparents, Matt and Laura) and the vintage copy of "The Three Bears" that we bought him in SF earlier this summer. We read both of those every night and sometimes twice a day.

He also knows the difference between all the major sports. Football is his favorite now; he likes to play catch with the football and tackle Daddy during games. Obviously, his favorite team is da Bears. He shouts all the football terms: "Touchdown!" "Tackle!" "Big Hit!" He also got really into hockey during the Blackhawks championship playoff run last season.

Yesterday, William went trick or treating for the first time this year with his buddy, Jameson, and Jameson's sister, Isabel. William dressed as a shark, Jameson was a firefighter, and Isabel was a little lady bug. He was really cute and loved eating some candy along the way! He will be doing some more trick or treating this weekend.

He also took his first cooking class last week with Jameson and some other toddlers. They made mud pie, a pumpkin shake, and a spooky spider out of crackers, pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate. He go to eat them throughout the class and had a blast doing it!

It has been so much fun to watch our little baby turn into a little boy. He definitely is our child - sometimes very sweet, and sometimes very stubborn. When he sets his mind on something, he is pretty determined to get it! Patience is a tough thing to learn and accept as a kid (even as an adult!), and we are working through it with him. But he is a great kid with a kind heart. He genuinely wants us and others around him to be happy, and tries his best to make that happen, and we are very proud of him for that.