33 months old...

**again, super long and boring, but these are my memories! have i mentioned that i LOVE the fact that my kids are exactly 18 months apart (2 days shy of)?? it would not have been my choice, but has been perfect for our family. so thankful for god's perfect timing!**

hi sweet boy!

it blows my mind that you're this close to being 3! it does not seem like 3 years ago that i was pregnant with you. i remember every detail of that time so vividly. i can't tell you how much love and joy you bring to our family! you are seriously the sweetest boy in the entire world. daddy and i look at you often and say, "can you believe how sweet he is?" or "how'd we get so lucky with him?"

you are learning and growing and changing so much these days. it's incredible to watch you learn things that you will use for the rest of your life. you are so smart that i think it surprises us that such a small guy can know so much. we like to play secret games with you where we test you...you amaze us! here's a bit of what you are up to:

• you LOVE to play. you are on the go all.day.long! you like to play cars on all your ramps or just on the floor. you like for mommy to tell you what each car/trucks purpose is. you love any musical toy. your favorite toys remain balls, bats and your drums!

• your most favorite pastime is getting to play outside. you would stay outside all day if you could. you're a piddler...you like to wonder around around looking at things, finding sticks, visiting with the neighbors dogs, throwing a ball, etc. you and pops do this together often. i'm looking forward to when the weather's a bit warmer for us to spend lots of time outside now that ledger can walk and play too :)

• you would say your favorite sport is soccer (currently). although, you love playing any of them!

• whenever anyone tells you they love you, you say, "no, mom", meaning you only love mom! i feel like everytime you say this to someone, i have to explain to you that you can love more than one person! we know it's just a phase, and thankfully, your actions speak louder than your words!

• daddy and brother are your buddies. you 3 LOVE to play together! most of the time, this shows itself in wrestling. you boys love to wrestle and rough house!! the higher you go or the more it tickles, the better! you and daddy love to play video games together. it's usually the first thing you say when dad walks in from work. you like to play "skate" or "drive (mario kart)". daddy gives you a non working remote while "you" play. you also like to rip stick with dad on the front porch! you like to help eat daddy's cereal, too. you stand by him and ask so nicely, "bite, please"...over and over!
  

• you have the best smile/laugh! your whole face shines and melts me heart...everytime! you love to have fun.

• you are a musician. music may be your most favorite part of this big world. you love for daddy to play his guitar. you also enjoy strumming on it. your favorite instrument is drums! you BEG us to watch the almost's "little drummer boy" you tube video on the tv only like 58 times a day! as soon as it starts, you drag your drums to the living room and play along with them. anytime you hear music, you stop to listen and usually drum on your belly...so cute! you insist upon the radio being on anytime we are in the car. i look forward to watching your love for music develop into talent!!

• you love to sing songs all through the day. we sing the same 5 songs each night at bedtime...the wheels on the bus, the itsy-bitsy spider, twinkle, twinkle, abc's, and jesus loves me...in that very order! after probably a month of you wanting me to sing these to you and you following along with the motions, i started leaving off words and you'd chime in with the correct word. now you're singing them on your own! you also like O-B-E-Y and i like to go to church (when we sing this you say "gram" at the end since this is usually the song she sings to you).
  

• you've been able to run for awhile and are so speedy fast :) in fact, you call yourself dash from the incredibles because you like to run so much! but you haven't been able to jump and get your feet off the ground, even though you go through the motions. just in the past couple of weeks, you have left the ground! you jump everywhere we go! i like to watch you hop like a bunny and a frog.
  

• some of the names you go by: can, can-man, canny manny, poot, sweet boy, eh-eh (ledger).

• you only watch pixar movies currently. your favorites are cars, the incredibles, and ratatouille. your favorite tv shows are dinosaur train, sesame street, and special agent oso.
  

• if asked who your best friend is, who you played with at school or church, the answer is always "axson."

• you have a touch of OCD. it's probably just more of your personality coming out. you like things to go where they belong, you like routine, you like to complete a task if given one. for the sake of teaching you to be flexible, we don't always let you have things the way you think they should be!

• you are such a great helper. you love for me to give you a job and you do it to the best of your ability. your favorite "chores" are putting you and ledger's dirty clothes in the hamper, throwing away dryer sheets or other trash, putting your empty plates and bowls in the sink and fetching any thing i need! you rarely get into anything you shouldn't, and sometimes i wonder if i trust a 2.5 year old too much!

• your language skills are coming along at a good pace. your receptive has been incredible form an early age, but due to 10 months of constant ear infections, your expressive was quite delayed. those tubes you got were amazing and you haven't had an ear infection for 1.5 years!
  

• you've been in speech at an amazing clinic (which has been a huge blessing!) now for 6 months. you always look forward to going and ask about it throughout the week! you love seeing miss jennifer and miss kim, too! when we started, you had 5 unprompted, one-syllable words in your vocab. now, you have a word for EVERYTHING and we are working on putting consonants at the beginning of words (you get them at the end)! during the 10 months of having so much fluid in your ears, you couldn't hear consonant sounds so they've been slow in coming, but you are doing great and i see improvement each week. this past week, you started saying "n" words for the first time...it's the small things to us moms!

• you also have been going to learning school at the church this semester! you LOVE it and look forward to it daily!! the interaction is great for you and you have done so well with the structure of it. miss traci and miss lisa are your teachers. there are 7 boys and only 1 girl in your girl! according to you, your favorite things are making a craft, going to music class, and playing soccer in the gym. you also eat lunch and take a short nap while there! what a blessing it has been.

• you have a BIG appetite and want to eat all the time! something clicked last summer...after being the pickiest eater for a LONG year and getting tested for a million things due to your small size, you all of a sudden would eat literally anything and you still do! that was my biggest parenting frustration so thank you for taking that stress away! you are growing tall and wide like a champ. your face has filled out so much!
  

• you hardly ever eat empty calories...unless your with daddy or oomah!! at oomah's house, you go stand next to the pantry and ask for a snack. you know her snacks are salty or sweet, but that's what grandma's are for, right?!
  

• you are a fruit-loving, veggie-eating boy. for breakfast, you still eat your usual bowl of oatmeal with yogurt and applesauce mixed in. after that, you have 2nd breakfast which is usually a banana or bowl of blueberries. for lunch you have a pbj or grilled cheese sandwich, mac-n-cheese, or chicken along with a cup of fruit&veggie yogurt or cheese stick and some pretzels. for snack, you have some pears that you dip in yogurt or a cheese stick depending on what was for lunch. for dinner, you typically eat whatever we are eating. you LOVE stew, pasta dishes or chicken. you will eat green beans, peas, lima beans, sweet potatoes or broccoli with dinner. this is where daddy comes in with a sweet snack at bedtime!

• you drink 2-8oz milks a day and then water. with all the other dairy in your diet, you are getting plenty of calcium and calories. plus, you need water for flouride! you never drink juice unless you have it at someone's house or at a party.
  

• you've always been a great sleeper...as in like 13-14 hours at night and a 2-3 hour nap. when the time changed this last fall, it messed you up and where you were getting up at 9- 9:30, you are now getting up from 7-7:30! you used to stand at your door banging and crying, but now that ledger sleeps in there with you, you just wake him up and entertain him! most days, you will still take a 2-3 hour nap, but your school schedule has definitely played with that a bit!

• you love your "blue blankie" and gary. they're the ones that go to school and on trips with you, but you also have a cars fleece blanket and green heavy throw on your bed that you insist upon dragging of your bed each morning! now that you stay covered and aren't moving around as much while you sleep, i need to get a blanket that covers the whole bed and stays tucked where it belongs!

• thankfully, discipline has been pretty easy with you...so far! you have such a tender, gentle spirit that it usually doesn't take more than a stern voice or look, and you break down into tears! a spanking, when necessary, completely works, and you're good to go! one thing we've done with you since you were little is make you look us in the eyes when we are teaching you. you listen so well and receive discipline much better this way! you're now to the age that when you've hurt or done an offense to someone, after we've talked to you, we make you go hug them and say you're sorry.

canon, i can't express to you how much we LOVE you. you are so kind and tender-hearted. you share and take turns. you love to love on ledger and pat everyone you hug. you love going to church and learning about jesus. you really are an exceptional boy!! there's nothing you could ever do that would make mommy and daddy love you less! we are so proud to call you ours :)

love,
mommy
xoxo