Two and a Half!

George is now officially two and a half years old. It's so amazing to me how quickly this all happens. I just visited my good friend Michelle and her day-old baby in the hospital, and Gus already seems enormous compared to baby Mark, even though it was just a month and a half ago that he was so tiny.

And now we have a boy half-way through his third year. Here is a list of things I don't want to forget about George right now.

• His three favorite hobbies are singing, dancing, and digging. He knows most of the songs from the Sound of Music and still loves some Lady Gaga most days. He has some good rhythm when he dances and almost always adds new moves that are actually pretty great. He is so much fun to watch! He also continues to love digging in dirt. Sean extended our fence last weekend and made him a dirt section on the side of the house, just so he can dig whenever he wants.
• He refers to himself in the third person as Georgie. All day long, we will hear, "Georgie do it!" "Daddy dig with Georgie," "Georgie watch somethin.'" He also still says, "Hold-a-you" when he wants to be picked up.
• When he asks a question, he doesn't use the question word at the beginning of the sentence, he just says the rest. Some of the questions we hear the most are: "Daddy go?" "You have?" and "Called?"
• He pronounces "thank you" as "zsa-zsou." (That's the closest I could get to spelling it like he says it!)
• While remember the good, I have to also include some of the not-so-good :) He says "no" about 150 times a day, much to my aggravation. He also is easily frustrated by toys that don't do what he wants (usually trucks) and will yell and cry and occasionally throw the toy that is frustrating him. He is not a great sharer, although there are hints that he's getting better. He hates taking naps and going to bed at night, and I long for the days that I could read him a book and lay him in his crib and he'd go right to sleep. He purposely hits his head against the wall and against other people for no reason (at least I don't know the reason).
• Now back to the good stuff: He loves his brother and likes to give him hugs and bounce his bouncy seat.
• He has a fantastic memory. I am amazed at the stuff he can remember about people, places we've gone, and tiny pieces of information that I had already forgotten myself.
• He is an outgoing kid - he loves to say hello to people and sing them a show-tune or two when he meets them. He tries to play with other kids more and more when we are at the park or at the zoo.

We love our sweet George more than we can say. Happy half-birthday, Georgie!