TWO!

I can't believe it, but we celebrated Connor's 2nd birthday on the 16th.  I've mentioned it before, but it is so incredible to watch a baby come into this world knowing nothing and being responsible for teaching them everything.  While we have seen Connor achieve so many milestones, the past few months have been amazing.  The way he plays with toys has completely changed.  Instead of just picking things up, carrying them around and putting them down, he lines them up, stacks them and even uses them in the intended way (some of the time) and he goes full force at everything he does...running, rocking, jumping, throwing, yelling, etc.  He's been in Soccer Tots for 5 months and he has come SO far.  He still has moments where he does his own thing, but more and more he will stay still while the coach is giving directions, participate in the actual skill that is being practiced (as opposed to running around like a wild child) and even help clean up, sometimes without even being asked.  The weekend before his birthday, he actually dribbled the ball from one end of the field to the other.  He typically runs ahead of the ball while Brad continually places it in front of him to try to at least get a few touches in along the way.  This time, Connor would chase the ball if it went out of his "line" and made sure he kept going with it all the way.  I was so proud that tears came to my eyes.  In the same week, I had more tears of pride when Connor counted from 1 to 10, just as clear as he could be.  Brad's mom (maah-maw) had been in town for a couple of weeks and had secretly been working with him on it.  I was so surprised and proud.  That night when I put him to bed, I could not get enough of him counting and we did it over and over.  Unfortunately, the over the next few days he would leave out "6" and "8", but started continuing up to 15!  I especially love number "leh-bin".  :)  Of course, he's learning new words, even multi-word sentences and developing new capabilities every day, but for some reason these just really hit me. 

For his birthday party, we used a Barney theme and it was very difficult to prepare for the party the night before because every time he would see something new with Barney on it, he would get so excited.  The morning of his party we had 34" mylar Barney balloons that he completely attacked and rolled on the ground because he was so excited.  After doing this a few times, Barney broke away from his anchor and ran to the ceiling for safety.  Connor enjoyed celebrating with friends and family and he did a great job eating his special cake. 

He used his fork to dig a hole straight down from the top and kept himself relatively clean.  He did get a little messier than he did last year, but not much.  He was able to keep his "I'm TWO" shirt on the rest of the day.  He opened a couple of presents after the party, but we saved most of them for after nap time and even opened a few more on Sunday.  At his 2-year doctor appointment he weighed 29lbs 6oz and is 35 inches tall!  He is 50 - 75% in both height and weight so the doctor said he's growing just right and we have the option now to take him off of whole milk.  He also said that this year he will become even more of a "little boy" with things such as talking in sentences, potty training and moving out of his crib.  I'm so excited, but also a little sad to see our baby growing into a precious little boy.  These two years have gone by amazingly fast and I just want to slow it down and cherish every moment!