Almost 3

I can hardly believe that my little boy is turning 3 in a month. What is the world coming to!? I've been reflecting on his personality and what a blessing he has been to Benjamin and I. I have to put this in bullet points, because that's just how my brain works.

* James has started to ask us questions like, "what are you talking about?" or "what does that mean?" while Ben and I are holding a discussion. Yesterday Grandpa Jed was at our home and called James contrary, because of James' love to say the opposite of whatever we say. James asked him what contrary meant, and seemed to understand our explanation. 

*He is beginning to recognize letters, and points some out to me while we run errands. Mostly just the P's and O's. 

 *He knows that J is for James, P is for Parmenter, Pippa, and popcorn, M is for Mom and Mikki, and D is for Dad. Tonight while cleaning up puzzle pieces he tried to connect L with elephant. He loves letters and trying to match the sounds in words with the corresponding letters. 

*He can count to 5 on his fingers. Although when people ask how old he is, he holds up all his fingers and says, "this many!" If prompted to give a verbal answer, he says 30.

*James is often telling the neighbor kids not to fight and to be nice. And today in nursery he told a crying boy that it was going to be okay. Granted, his kind nature doesn't always keep him from pushing other kids. 

*He is full-on in 4t shirts, 3t pants. He just keeps growing! He wasn't in 3t very long, which has made the shopping I did a complete waste of time and money. 

*He's still not consistent with playing with other kids. He likes to watch our neighbors play outside, but struggles to join in. I think a lot of it has to do with a language barrier with the one kid the same age, and all the others are older. 

*He is only 'slightly' obsessed with all things airplanes and spaceships. Only a little. 

*James is SO ready for potty training. I can't see us having a solid week to start until the end of June, but we've been reading books to James and checked out a "Potty Pirate" movie. So we're getting introduced to potty training.

So that's my little update on our precious little boy. We love him dearly and we learn something from him everyday.