2.5 years old

Last Saturday Jacob turned 2.5.  Part of the reason I write this blog is so we don't ever forget some of the little moments in life (and to have them to share with Jacob when he's older).  So this post is a little recap about Jacob at two and a half.  There are many reasons why I'd like to freeze time and keep him at this age forever (and a few reasons why I wouldn't).

• He's a little sponge and I love watching him learn.  This week on our drive to and from school we've been talking about traffic lights (something he's been fascinated with a for a while).   He amazes me everyday as he explains the world to me and understands more and more.  He now realizes that if we have a green light then the cross road has a red light and that's why they are stopped and he explained the whole thing to me this week.  
• Santa brought him color tablets for the bathtub and from talking about those during bath time and deciding what color to make his bath he learned that red and blue make purple.  The other day when he was choosing a bath color I told him the only colors we had left were red and blue.  So he told me "they make purple".
• His imagination is exploding!  He likes to pretend he's the teacher,  zoo keeper, train conductor,  doctor, chef, etc.  He often re-enacts the days events at school for us when we get home so I've learned about what they do at school that way.  His "restaurant" is named Fire and he usually cooks us fruit soups or pizza (his piece doesn't get sauce).  
• He loves to read and often brings big piles of books to me so we can read together.  Most of the time we read to him but he also likes to "read" to us and make us sit crisscross with our hands in our lap :-)
• He likes to help us cook and bake and he still LOVES music. 
• He tells us he's a "worker boy" and really likes being involved in whatever we are doing.  His new "job" is to feed Bailey and she is so patient with him. . . especially on the days when we decides to fill her bowl one piece of food at a time!
• He loves the zoo.  We are so lucky to now live 15 minutes from the Lowry Park Zoo.  I think  we've been at least once a week since moving to Tampa. Jacob could give tours now and came home from school very concerned the other day that the Okapi wasn't at school.  (I think they have zoo animals to play with but they are the typical lions, zebras, elephants, and monkeys). 
• He's every bit  of a 2 year old when it comes to transitioning from one activity to the next which often results in dramatic meltdowns about the most absurd things.  He can snap into and out of a complete meltdown in what seems like milliseconds.  The other day we were in the car and I was looking back at him in his seat asking him for the 150th time to stop doing something and he looked me in the eyes and asked very seriously "Mommy, you have green eyes?".  His scheme worked really well at changing the subject and making us all laugh.  He's quite the inquisitive little boy these days.  
• He asks more and more "why" questions but still doesn't quite understand how to answer those questions if we ask him.  He asks me almost everyday why he likes a particular food and then we have a discussion about the reasons why he might like it and he decides which reason it is. He likes pomelos because they are juicy :-).

We went to the doctor this morning for his 2.5 year check up and he's a healthy, growing little boy.  He weighs 33lbs and is 38 inches tall.  A couple of weeks ago his shoes were suddenly noticeably small so we took him to the shoe store to have his feet measured and they'd grown a size and a half!  He went from a 7 to an 8.5/9 shoe size.  Needless to say he has all new shoes now.

He is still the healthiest, picky eater I've ever met!  He loves his fruit and veggies and only likes extra sharp white cheddar cheese or provolone (which he refers to as "plain cheese").  The other evening we had green beans for dinner and he ate his portion and mine, shoving them in his face as cookie monster does cookies saying "I love green beans!". 

Last Saturday we took him to Disney to celebrate his half birthday.  He wanted to go to Magic Kingdom to see the castle and we had a great day!  The weather was rainy to start but ended up being the perfect temperature.  We rode Aladdin's magic carpets, went on the Jungle Cruise and watched the show at the castle with Mickey and the princesses.  He came home talking non-stop about the princesses and hasn't stopped, so, this week we used his ToysRUs gift card from Christmas to get  cowboy Woody and cowgirl Jessie figurines as well as Ariel and her castle.  They now all play in Ariel's castle and sing Under the Sea.  :-)  One our way home from Disney he was talking about the princesses and I asked him which one was his favorite.  He immediately replied "Mommy princess"!  My heart melted!

That sums up this fun little, lovable, silly, precocious, energetic 2.5 year old.  :-)