The BROWN Family: Two and a half

Weston turned two and a half years old on the first of June. My how time flies!

Weston is up to just about everything a little boy could be. He loves trucks, cars, dinosaurs, animals, dancing, playing instruments, throwing balls, riding in the wagon, swimming, running outside, climbing, sliding, investigating, learning, and of course being a caring older brother.

Weston's vocabulary is incredible. He must pick up about twenty words a day. Every time I say a word that is unfamiliar to him he will repeat it until he has it correct. I will later hear him say that same word correctly in a sentence. It just blows my mind. The other day I heard him say "coo coo clock." I didn't even know he knew what that was. His most favorite "advanced" word is "disgusting." He will walk up to me and say "Mom, this is disgusting." Or, he will see Natalie eating mud and run over to me in disgust, "Mom, that is disgusting. Nanee is disgusting." It is really funny. His comprehension just blows me away. He always knows when we are talking about him and always responds to us when we ask him questions. He is an incredibly smart young man. He always surprises me with the words that come out of his mouth.

Weston is learning a lot as well. He can now identify and say about 3/4 of the alphabet and can sing the alphabet song all the way through. He thinks it is a lot of fun. He also counts to ten. We are still working on identifying which number is which, but he is getting better. He also identifies and says the colors blue, orange, yellow, red, green, and sometimes purple. We are slowly working on black, white, and brown. Occasionally he switches up red and green. I hope this isn't a sign of color-blindness. We will cross our fingers.

Weston loves playing make-believe. He absolutely loves playing with kitchen sets and will make little "meals" using all of the functions of the kitchen. He also loves caring for things. He finds Natalie's dolls and will kiss the "babies" and hold them and make sure they are okay. He will sometimes find one sitting in a rocker and say "baby - are you okay?" then will run to his crib and grab his blanket. He says "here baby - here is a blanky." He then proceeds to cover the doll up with a blanket. It is so sweet. His latest thing is to make sure that everything is okay and say sorry to it. An example would be that he "crashes" his cars which usually ends in one or both falling to the ground. He picks up the car and says "car - you okay?" and strokes it and gives it a kiss. It is the cutest thing ever. He also makes sure that his cars are very well fed. He pretend feeds his cars all the time and also gives them plenty to drink.

Weston is always thinking. He comes up with new ways to play with his toys and can connect things really well. The other day he saw a picture of his grandparents' race track toy on the toy box and saw little music notes coming from the track. He understood that this meant that the track would make music. He tried really hard to push all of the buttons but couldn't get it to work. He comes over to me and tells me, "Mommy - dance?" I was blown away that he understood this. Unfortunately it was out of batteries, but I was still quite impressed.

Weston loves music. One of his favorite things is to play guitar with his Daddy. At night, we all gather around to sing before bed. Roland plays his guitar, Natalie has the ukulele, and Weston has the toy ukulele. Natalie is much sweeter with the instrument so she was entrusted with the actual thing. We sing a combination of songs but they usually include, "Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, Hokey Pokey, and I am a Child of God." We do other ones without the guitar. Weston sings along with every song. When Weston requests Hokey Pokey he says "Pokey round, pokey round." Roland has recently taken up the harmonica so Weston now loves that too. He is actually quite good. He will blow a bunch of high notes then will jump, followed by a bunch of low notes. I think that takes talent! Maybe we will have a professional harmonica player in our future.

Weston recently took up reading books. I was worried for a while because he was never really interested in books. He started taking more of an interest in them around the time he turned two. Now he loves them. We will sit and read books every day. I usually read it, then he takes a turn. Then I get another turn. He is starting to memorize some of the easier ones. He also enjoys searching for images in the books. We have a few "look and find" type of books and he is really good at picking those images out from the pages. I was very surprised the first time I tried it with him. He thought it was great fun!

Weston loves animals of all kinds. He loves going to the zoo and the park. He loves watching the birds and squirrels outside and chases them all the time. He also enjoys chasing the ducks at the park. Fish are just fascinating to him and he must make a kissing noise every time he sees one. Each animal requires a noise after properly identifying and calling it by name. Even lizards get a "DINOSAUR!!! - RAWRR!!" Poor kid. I haven't had the heart to tell him that dinosaurs don't exist.

He is such a good little listener and helper. He loves to please people. He gets very upset when he knows that Mommy or Daddy are mad with him. He will do everything he can to make sure that we are proud of him and pleased with what he is doing. That makes our life so much easier! He is such a sweet little boy. He is so caring. He makes sure that Mommy has her shoes before we leave, helps grab the diaper bag, hands me the keys, helps me clean, and always asks if I am okay if I decide to lay on the floor for a little snooze. I love it when I ask him to do something and he says "okay Mommy." What a sweet heart. My favorite is when I ask him if he wants something (i.e. a snack) he will say "Yes! Okay - snack!" What a little cutie.

The sweetest thing about him is how caring he is with his little sister. He loves Natalie to pieces. He always makes sure that I don't forget about her when we are leaving home or getting out of the car. He will tell me "Nanee!" and makes sure I am tending to her. He brings her cup to her and tells her "Here Nanee, drink!" He brings her toys and has just recently started sharing his cars with her. This has been quite the breakthrough. I asked him to share a car with her and he goes, "Here Nanee - car" and places a car in her hands. What a sweet boy. Even this morning Natalie was still asleep and he took his McQueen and placed it by her sleeping body so she would have it when she woke up. He is so thoughtful. He loves giving her hugs and kisses and gives them out often. He looks out for her when we are out in public and defends her often. He is very protective of his little sister. But, he does love rough housing; unfortunately even when Natalie is not in the mood. I have to break them up many times a day as Weston is jumping on her or dragging her down by her leg or arm. Poor Natalie puts up with a lot. Weston just can't seem to understand why she doesn't think this is fun.