Steven is officially TWO & A HALF!!

Steven is now officially two & a half! He is getting so big! I'm so glad he's in our family, he's such a blessing in our lives! He can be a handful & he can be so independent it can be infuriating, but I definitely wouldn't trade him for anything :) Here are some updates on our little man:

-He's getting taller but I don't think he really weighs much more than he did 6 months ago (he's about 25 pounds)...
-He's talking really well & starting to pronounce words really well. He actually says "Thank You" instead of his own smushed version of the phrase. He also repeats new words really well. He says "Ohhhhh" a lot when we answer a question of his (it's very cute). :) He has just started to sing a little bit & loves to sing along with a toy of his that sings the ABC's (I have a video of that at the end of this post). At church he'll sit on Josh's lap & point out the words with Josh. He also is no dummy. He knows if you didn't understand what he said. If you just try to skip over something by saying, "Ohhh." or "Yeah." or "Really?" & you really had no idea what he said, he will repeat what he was saying until you get it. There's no fooling this kid :)

-He loves to read. He has a current favorite book. It's just a picture book with dinosaurs & the only words on the pages are the colors of the dinosaurs. He already recognizes all the letters & is even starting to know what letters make what sounds. One day Josh was reading this dinosaur book with Steven & pointing out the words to him. He would say, "B-R-O-W-N. BROWN," all the while pointing to the letters and then sliding his finger across the word as he said it. Steven loves to sit with his book now and do the same thing. He'll point at & say each letter & then slide his finger across the letter while reading it. I love watching him do that! He also has these flash cards that we practice with him & he does the same thing to them. If he doesn't know the word, he'll still sometimes slide his finger across the word but not say anything. So cute!

-He still loves his baby sister but is not always super nice to her. He'll push her down or pull her hair or grab her while she's crawling. Usually he won't admit to being mean (but really, even if I didn't see it happen, who else is it going to be?) but one afternoon he came up to me a little while after I'd calmed Sofia down from Steven's most recent "attack". He said to me, "Mommy, I pull Sofia's hair." Just out of the blue. Randomly. I have no idea why but it was cute, even though he'd hurt his sister. Because of the fairly often random acts of mean-ness, Sofia gets easily agitated when Steven's around. Even when Steven really is being genuinely sweet & trying to give her a kiss, she'll still sometimes start crying. I know most of the "tough love" is really because Steven wants to play with her & most of the time I know he's not intentionally trying to hurt her. We're going to have some good times as they grow up :)
-He's definitely an independent little kid!  Sometimes he is less so, but most of the time he has to do things by himself.  He prefers to put on his shoes by himself but also prefers to put them on the wrong feet.  He doesn't get nearly as mad as he used to when we put on his shoes (especially on the right feet) but when he does it himself, he will, without fail, put his shoe on the wrong foot unless we tell him otherwise.  He likes to eat all by himself, & generally he does a pretty good job, but he will get mad at us for trying to tell him how to do it better or help him, but then gets mad, too, when the food won't stay on his fork.  I like to think that he must have a lot of confidence in himself to be so independent, & I'm glad about that, but it really can get frustrating when he insists on doing it himself, especially when it takes twice as long to do it.
-Steven is definitely a movie lover.  We don't own many movies period, let alone kids movies, so he watches the same 6 or so movies over & over.  Last week I was feeling very much done with the movies he has & talked to Josh about maybe trying to find him a few cheap movies online or from Wal-mart or somewhere.  Josh suggested something else.  When my in-laws moved from their house last year, my mother-in-law gave all of her old kids' VHS movies to my sister-in-law.  Her intent was that we (meaning myself & my two sister-in-laws) could share the movies & trade amongst ourselves.  This was a great idea, except for the fact that Josh & I have never owned a VCR as a married couple.  When my mother-in-law found this out, she gave us her old VCR/DVD player so we could watch those movies.  When she gave it to us, Steven was so into movies so we hadn't actually set it up.  Last weekend, Josh went & borrowed several movies from my sister-in-law for Steven to watch.  He had no idea what to make of them when he first saw the tapes.  He picked one up & said, "Read a book, Mommy?"  Then he opened it & moved the tape out of the way & repeated the question.  A little while later he handed me the case & said, "Open, Mommy" [thinking it was a DVD case].  He gets that they're movies now but it was pretty funny to watch him figure it out.  It also made me realize how much I don't miss VHS tapes...
Here are some recent pictures :)

Steven & Sofia enjoying bath time :)

We stayed at Josh's parents' house with Josh's younger brother while they were away.  This is the bed Steven slept on.  He liked being in such a big bed :)

I think that's a pretty good action shot - he was jumping on the bed :)

This was when Sofia was just starting to crawl every where.  Steven was showing her the way :)

This was on Valentine's Day.  You can't see much of the table, but Josh actually set it all up :)

Steven got a cute giraffe from Grandma & Papa

Steven got "Woody" from Toy Story for Valentine's Day.  I don't know what I was thinking not getting one for him for Christmas!  I didn't want to wait until this birthday so I got it for him then.  He loves it! :)

Talking to Woody

Oh how fickle love is.  Steven putting Woody in time out.  He does this to his toys sometimes.  And the babysitter.  And occasionally  he tries to put us in time out ;)

My little boy cheesin' it up :)

So Steven got that hat from my sister for his birthday last year & he'd never wanted to wear it.  The other day, though, he saw it in his closet & decided to put it on.  He insists on wearing it slightly high on his head...maybe it's a little small?  He also loves his Shrek pajamas (he's wearing the top but you can't really tell) & I just love his jean jacket.  What a stud ;)

Steven sorting puff-balls into colors

These next two are videos.  The first one is of Steven singing along with this fridge leap-frog toy he has...he's singing the ABC's