Wow, it is hard to believe that our baby is almost 2.  As in he will be tomorrow.  Wow!  Doesn't seem like that long ago I was bringing him home from the hospital making our little family complete. 

So, tomorrow we will celebrate on his special day.  Wish me luck tonight as I decorate his Mickey cake!

In honor of his special day, here are some random facts about our sweet boy:

*He loves to play toys whether it is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, blocks, Mr. Potato head, "Queen" cars, you name it.  The boy enjoys playing!  And trust me when I say he can get every single toy out in the play room.  But it is hard to get upset when he will actual play with each toy as he gets it out.

*He is into knowing every character's name.  He has learned all the characters on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, in the movie Cars, on Seasame St (though he doesn't watch it), etc.  If he sees a character somewhere he wants to know their name.  He loves to do this in a store, in a book, etc. 

*If he isn't ready for bed he will very politely tell you "No, I play (or playing) ______."  Fill in any toy there.

*He can count to ten.  The catch is he will not do it if you ask.  He has never liked to "perform on demand."  But if he is playing hide and seek with his sister, when it is his turn to count he will count to ten and then say ready or not here I come. 

*He loves ketchup.  He has dipped many foods in it that I do not think should ever go in ketchup.  But it has it's upside.  Last night he had "nuggets" with ketchup.  (Just don't tell him it was really breaded fish fillets.  Nuggets are good, but apparently fish isn't.)

*He will sit on the potty now before bath time.  However, that is the extent of his potty training.  I see a long road ahead of us with this.  And no we aren't really trying just yet as I think it would be close to pointless - I just want him to be able to sit on it without crying for now.

*He had surgery at just 18 months old.  He had his adenoids and tonsils out and tubes put in his ears.  While the recovery from surgery was rough, it has had a dramatic impact on his life.  He has not had a single ear or sinus infection since.  Yeah!  And even though he technically passed a hearing test before surgery (with noted reduction in vibration), we can tell that he can hear better now.  And with it his verbal skills have improved exponentially since recovery.

*He can say milk, but usually will ask instead for his Bob-Bob cup as his milk is almost always in a Spongebob cup. 

*As noted in the last post he firmly believes that anything his sister does, he believes he can do too.

*He is typically a very polite boy that always says thank you.  Please doesn't come quite as naturally, but is definitely part of his vocabulary.

*He is generally not a fan of change.  For instance he will typically not eat a new food the first time it is introduced, but once it is "familiar" it is ok. 

I could keep going on and on, but you get the idea. 

In my last post I talked about sibling rivalry and this one is related.  Sometimes these two can turn anything into a competition.  I think that is partially why our little man was so determined to walk so early.  She was already walking and so he had to as well.  I was hoping he'd take the opposite approach in that since he had someone to bring him anything his little heart desired he'd stay put - ha!  And so it has grown from there.  Anything that she can do, he feels he can do too!

For Christmas each child got a bouncy ball (from different people, but it worked out perfectly).  Hers is a larger princess one (perfect for our little princess).  His is a smaller superhero one.  And since it was so cold here recently I let them use them in the house.  She immediately went to bouncing in place to bouncing around the circle (our downstairs has a circular path through it). 

So of course he wanted to take off on his.  It took a little help, but by golly he was right there behind her.  (He was much harder to photograph!  Just ignore that they aren't all in focus - it was the best I could do at the time.  He doesn't allow for time to get everything right and I guess I'm just not quick enough.)

And it wasn't always as graceful as she was...

but besides a little bit of frustration it was all good!  Once he gets better control it will be all good and then I sure hope the weather is good cause I'm not sure I could handle two super bouncers in the house.  But they are good for burning up some of that endless supply of energy they have!