Israel: 2.5 Years

Dear Israel,

You are two-and-a-half!!! I am so proud of you sweet boy. You are my hero. You work so hard every week at therapy and you have been making some huge progress lately. You are starting to take steps with prompting, you are scooting on your bottom, you are drinking from an open cup, and you are starting to talk! You have said car, truck, mama, dad, GaGa, Pop/Papa, chair, puppy, and baby. You are starting to be a little pickier about what you eat, and almost every day (sometimes multiple times) you will flip your plate over onto the floor if you are done eating. You love your sister! You love bath time and splashing water and touching the water as it comes out of the faucet. You love music and make it very clear that you want your cd player on playing your silly songs. You still love Elmo and Baby Einstein and will not watch anything else. You’re still throwing most of your toys, although we did wise up and literally tied your basketball goal to a table so you can no longer toss the goal or tip it over. You love the toys that make noise most, with the exception of your red car- it has a top part that spins that you will touch all day long! You love all of your musical toys like the drum and xylophone.

If you could design a perfect day, it would include sitting on the porch watching cars go by, listening to your music, eating snacks and drinking apple juice. You love rolling the ball back and forth… although really you love rolling it in the opposite direction of where anyone is sitting so we have to chase it.

You love school so much. You are a flirt with your teachers and you always smile when I am dropping you off as we walk into the building. You think you own the place! At church when you’re in the nursery and I’m working in the room across the hall from yours, you and I will smile and laugh at each other. You are so silly, and everyone loves you so much! You bring joy to people around you!

You are formally named ‘The Stack’ at our house. Your dad and I sit up at night and talk about all the things you do. You have one million facial expressions and you can go from being super silly to super cranky in .5 seconds. I think this is the “terrible twos” people talk about, but really I think we’ve got it pretty good. You have your crazy kid moments where you will thrash and hit, but it doesn’t last forever. You still go to bed pretty easy, although lately you have been waking up at 5 am. You need to figure your internal clock out because that is not ok! You take one nap mid-day, and sometimes it is 3 hours long and sometimes it is 30 minutes. The 30 minute days can be pretty rough.

We are approaching our two year gotcha day in just a few weeks. I can’t believe it- it feels like you’ve always been in our life! I am so proud to be your mom. You’re hilarious, silly, sweet, and snuggly. I love it when I hug you and you pat my back. I love that you love books and that you sing in the car. I love when you talk about cars and trucks, and when you shake your head really fast to make yourself laugh. Israel, you’re just the best. Happy 2.5 years buddy. I’m lucky to be your mom.

Love,

Mama