happy birthday, baby!

We can hardly believe that our little monkey is 2 years old!!!  It makes me sad when I see how time flies.  How I wish I could hold on to these days forever and keep my little boy the friendly, warm, cute, extremely helpful, obedient, happy, and sweet gift from God that he is.  He is talking so much more now, although not all of it makes sense to us anymore.  =)  He loves to read.  And he is very active.  He loves running around, playing with his ball, being chased, and watching football with Dada (as he will often sign).  And he is the heartiest eater ever!  Especially when it comes to french fries, which he calls "ba-byes."  These have been such precious days... especially before his baby brother comes. 

William has been such an amazing blessing from God.  We have truly seen the fruit of training and disciplining him.  By God's grace, he is so incredibly helpful around the house.  He helps me put the groceries away, sort through the mail, do the laundry, remove the grapes from the things that they're stuck to (and eating them at the same time), snap the green beans, put broccoli in the pot, brush my hair, put lotion on my face.  He is also eager to put his things away when asked (and often when not asked!), such as putting his shoes in his cubby (and then running to me to give me a hug), putting his toys away, putting the bottles back that he pulls out from the bottom of the pantry, putting his ga-ku (burp cloth) on a stool so it's not sitting on the kitchen floor, putting Button back in his crib, pushing the keyboard of an old computer back into its drawer, putting the placemats back in the cabinet, throwing away dryer sheets (and other things), putting away my toiletries after pulling them out when I'm getting ready.

One of the things I love most about William is that he enjoys anticipating what Bill or I will do so he can do it for us.  He often reminds me to pray, he anticipates which groceries belong in a certain place and puts it there (although he's not always right, but he's learning!), he pulls my hair spray out for me exactly when I need it (this always makes me laugh), he is able to anticipate when it's naptime or bedtime and almost always will go with a joyful heart, he gets the shampoo and soap out for his bath, he lets us know when he needs medicine for his dry skin, he will sit down on the step to have his shoes taken off, he reminds me to plug his nightlight in and turn on his humidifier (sometimes he can do it himself), he tells Bill now what his bedtime routine is to make sure Dada follows it, he picks things off the floor for me to throw away (if there's no trash can nearby.  otherwise, he'll do it himself), he helps put the recycling in a pile in the kitchen (but sometimes will pull it out to play with).

Unfortunately, these are only a few things I can remember off the top of my head.  But needless to say, William is a treasure that we are so grateful to God for.  He has indeed blessed us with a gentle-hearted, joyful little boy, and we hope to continue to cultivate those traits in him.

Happy birthday, William!  We love you so, so much!