two and a HALF

i have a love/hate relationship with having a two and HALF year old boy....

i love that this little boy is growing

 growing

growing

but, i hate that this means in his mind he is now a BIG boy!!!

We continued our half birthday tradition of sharing our birthday treats!  I love that Avery is now old enough to tell me what he would like, cookies with candy!  I also love that he knew who he wanted to share with!
Remember our cousin JD from North Carolina who visited this summer? 

Well, Avery loves him and we talk about him every time Avery notices his picture on the fridge.  We went to the best cookie place in Dallas, JD's Chippery to get Avery's "cookie with candy."  Once I told Avery where we were going in his mind the cookies were JD's no question.  I hate it for Michael and his partners, I was thinking we could honor them and the hard work they have been doing for our family this year.  But, I know JD will love some tired old cookies from his favorite 2 year old cousin, sorry JD I hate it they won't be fresh by the time they make it to you. 
Here are a few more things I love and hate about having a 2 and a HALF year old
I love getting to see so much more of his personality, like when he was helping with the set up of our birthday photos

but i do hate that it meant 97 takes and only got 2 good pictures....
i love that he loves his baby brother

i hate that i can't seem to get pictures of when he tickles and plays with hank in the tub, it is adorable!

i love that avery can tell us things like "daddy i a super hero" out of the blue at dinner, it is amazing what is flying around in that little brain.

i hate that it took almost 2 hours to eat dinner last night because his majesty requested thing after thing to eat because he was starving because he threw his lunch in the floor and then got to go to his nap with basically no lunch.  when does the food throwing stop????

i love that avery loves school.  he gets so excited and literally jumps out of bed saying "I get to go school" every monday and thursday.

i hate that avery is not the favorite at school.  he loves his teachers and i truly believe that they love him, but he is probably not the favorite since he is the only kid still not taking a nap at nap time....nice!  any tips anyone???

i love that avery also loves to go church and is learning more and more.  it is so special to hear him put things together from church at home.  yesterday he was planting seeds in the dirt so God could make them grow! 

i hate that we are now those rowdy people with ratty children during big church.  we still can't manage to keep avery quiet and attentive for the 15 minutes before we get to send him to Bible hour. 

i also hate that when we were teaching Bible hour this week our rat was the one who chose to throw his Bible while we were singing about how we do NOT throw our Bibles.....i am telling myself he is better when I am not there, wishful thinking???

i love that avery loves to be outside.

i love that avery loves to play with other kids, any kids, and in my humble opinion plays well with other kids.

i hate that my little boy is growing up so fast.  i am just not ready.  i am loving this age!  i know that 2 year olds are supposed to be miserable, and don't get me wrong we have our miserable moments.  like when he threw down outside tom thumb because i told him he couldn't ride in the back of the buggy because we needed too many groceries. 

or when i forgot i had told him he could yell outside anytime so he yelled at the top of his lungs all through the same parking lot and while i unloaded the groceries at our car, i am sure all the people in the parking lot really enjoyed it.  but the love that fills me when he says "mamma your beautiful" or
"mamma i wub you" how can you not love having a 2 year old.  and sesame street thank you for making exquisite the word of the day "mamma you squizit" is as good as it gets.  i even love it that my name has recently become mamma mamma mamma and hate it for michael that he is only daddy daddy!

we LOVE you so much Avery boy, we are so glad you are the 2 1/2 boy that you are!!!!