The sweetest 2 1/2 year old I know!

Buddies first school pictures...Seriously how cute is he?!  

I recently had our blog from the past two years printed and bound and I could not be happier with the beautiful books we now have. It is so rewarding to have all of the important events in our babies lives documented and they truly are like baby books for the kids.  With that being said, I wanted to write a post on our sweet Brayden who turned two and a half on the 18th.  It is amazing how much children learn at this age and we crack up every day at the things that Brayden says.  So here are some of the things Brayden has been doing that I don't want to forget:

*Brayden recently started singing!  He loves songs and loves to sing along!  He loves to sing the ABC's (we are so proud of how well he knows them!) twinkle, twinkle, old mcdonald, if you're happy and you know it, the muffin man,  itsy bitsy spider, jesus loves me, our goodnight song, and he also loves to sing the Dora the Explorer theme songs :) the way he sings is absolutely precious and totally off key!  It is just so cool that these songs we have been singing for years he all of a sudden will start singing along and knows every word!  He will also come home from school and be singing random songs I have never even heard (BIBLE that is the book for me!) PRECIOUS!
*Brayden can carry on a pretty good conversation now and will even tell stories with some prompting.  Brian loves that he can talk to Brayden on the phone now while he is at work and Brayden says more than one word answers.  He is starting to become pretty inquisitive and asks whats that and why?  A.LOT.
*Brayden has been using his imagination alot lately and playing pretend in many different ways.  He'll just come up to me and say "here is your coffee mom" (and hand me an imaginary cup) he does the same with icecream or says he is going to the bank and brings me money.  He likes driving his little "car" through the make believe car wash and drive through too.  It is really neat to watch his little brain in action!
*Lately he has been telling me "Mommy I am going to be put you in a big dark, dark hole" no telling where in the world where he got this one from but he says it in this really deep voice and it is hilarious!
*One of my favorite things Brayden has been doing lately is randomly saying "I wuv you mommy" or "I wuv you daddy" just out of the blue.  Seriously, heart melting!  Then he does this thing where he says "mommy" in this sweet little flirty voice and has the biggest smile on his face, hilarious and adorable.
*We are so proud of how good Brayden's manners are getting.  We have to prompt him a lot less to say please and thank you which we have been working on for a very long time!
*Brayden still loves to play outside, loves to play in the sand, LOVES to swing, run around, kick balls, whack them with golf clubs or any stick he can find, he has gotten really good at hitting balls off the tee with his baseball bat (which he has gotten really good at!), loves taking Sterling for wagon rides, playing in his "crazy coupe", jumping on the trampoline, playing swords, and also likes riding on his motorized four wheeler.  We are still working on pedaling his tricycle and his pedal tractor.

We have started taking wagon rides almost every night after dinner, both kids love it and it keeps everyone happy and distracted before baths

Brayden really likes to go potty outside...j

*He LOVES other kids, especially older kids that will play with him and cater to him.  He will just go up to kids and say "hi" and get all in their face and follow them around.  We have been teaching him to say "what's your name?" and "want to play" so he has some better material to work with!

Brayden's FAVORITE friend Colten...Seriously the sweetest kid!  What kid his age would want anything to do with a 2 year old?!

       How cute are these two?!! Brayden and Dylan always have fun and play so good together!

*Brayden still loves to sit and read books, he also likes to read many of the same books over and over again!  His favorite book has got to be this bernstein bears book that we have which has five stories in it and I pretty much know the whole thing by heart!
*Brayden has stopped sucking his thumb!!! What?!  I know!  This deserves a separate post of its own!
*Buddy still loves school and his teachers and is still not taking a nap on school days.  Lately at home at least once a week he has not fallen asleep during nap time either, but then some days he sleeps for three hours so it has been really inconsistent.
*I know every parent thinks this but Brayden is smart!  He'll say things and we'll be like when did he learn that?!   He picks up things so fast so the teacher in me is wanting to teach him so many things!

On the way home from school one day.... And our house is only about five minutes from school, he must have been exhausted!

*Brayden is doing so well with his swim lessons, no longer cries and usually has a smile on his face the whole time :)

                                                

                                                

Waiting for class to start

*Brayden is an animal lover... We love taking care of other peoples dogs because they actually let Brayden pet, hug, and stalk them as opposed to Mia who knows to get away fast!

Brayden definitely has some typical two year old days where he gets whiney and throws fits for no reason but overall is a happy easygoing boy.  He is silly, energetic, hilarious, and loving.  He is our best buddy and we sure do love him :)

He's already mastered the selfie!  I found about twenty of these on my phone last night, lol!