Graesen is 2!

Today is Graesen's 2nd birthday.  These past two years with him have been so wonderful.  I never could have imagined a child as fun, sweet, or loving as this little boy that God put into my life.  Graesen is the life of the party.  He runs a million miles an hour, giggles and sings up a storm, and is afraid of nothing.  He is vibrant and silly and really knows how to live life to the fullest.  I could never put into words how much I love my son, but I will say that loving him has given me a stronger grasp on how much God loves us.  To think that anyone could feel any more love is almost unfathomable, and I so grateful that God has given me a glimpse of His love through the child He formed in me.
Graesen has grown and changed so much this year.  Here are some Graesen facts:

• About 29 lbs (63.4%)
• 37 inches (97%)
• Wears 2T and 3T clothes (mostly 3T)
• Wears size 8 and 9 shoes
• Talks a ton!  Graesen speaks in sentences (actually, his first sentence was at 15 months old), and can copy anything we say.  He is constantly surprising us with the words and phrases he knows.  His comprehension is great too.  He know what is going on and most of what we are talking to.  I am very grateful for Graesen's wonderful development in this area.
• Counts to 10!  I am starting to count higher with him so that he can learn his "teens" soon.  Graesen also tries to count things he sees (one-to-one correspondence for all you other teacher-types out there).  While he often points to something more than once, or skips over one thing, he is really starting to understand counting items.  For example, he will count knobs he sees on dressers, or toy cars.  This can be attributed to a counting book that he is obsessed with .
• Spells his own name!  Anytime Graesen colors, he will start spelling his name.  I write his name and spell it to him a lot, so he thinks that he is writing his name when he colors.  
• He understands and uses possessive terms (i.e. "Mommy's phone" and "Daddy's car")
• He can and will climb anything.
• Graesen is one of the most muscular toddlers I have ever seen.  It is weird.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that he never stops moving.  
• We are introducing the potty and plan to do some more intense potty training soon.  He can hold it for hours and tells us when he goes.  He calls his training pants, "papa pants."  I was trying to convince him to wear them and make them sound cool, so I called them "daddy pants."  This was apparently not cool enough, so I called them "papa pants."  Clearly much cooler.  That is now what they are called in our house.
• He is loves to buckle things, put things together, and open/close things.  He loves to figure out how things work.
• He is getting more social.  He gets very excited when he sees other kids and will run over to them to try to play with them.  He loves to copy older kids and play alongside them.
• He loves to jump.
• He loves trains, cars, and trucks (he will run to a window if he hears a truck outside).
• He loves to read to himself.  He has almost completely memorized one of his favorite books and sometimes I walk into his room to find him "reading" it.
• Graesen is pacifier-free now days.
• He still sleeps in his toddler bed in our room and then climbs in bed with us at some point (the last two days he didn't climb into bed with us until after 7 am!).  We have started putting him in his big boy bed in his room, but it is a work in progress.  He was up 5 or more times a night until 18 months old (back in the days of the bloated tummy, reflux, and constipation issues), so we were in survival mode until then.  Once he stopped waking up so much and stopped nursing we started encouraging the toddler bed more (he was in bed with us-again, I was one very tired mom who let him in bed as a last resort).  He is sleeping in there more and more now and Evan and I really don't mind at all if he joins us at some point in the night.  He is only little for a while :)  
• Graesen loves to dance.
• He does not really like milk and will only take a sip or two every once in a while, so the doctor prescribed tums for calcium.
• He has 15 teeth.  Last year at this time he had 0.
• He is tough as nails.  When he falls and skins a knee he will almost always stand up, look at his knee, make a face, wipe of his hands, and go back to playing without crying.  There have been moments I have wondered if he even has pain nerves, because he so rarely cries when he gets hurt.  Sometimes, though, when he is tired or it is really bad he will cry.  Sometimes he also finds an old scab on his leg, pretends it's a new injury and then fake cries so I will kiss it :)
• He loves food, but his favorites are: bananas, graham crackers, cheese, blue berries, noodles, pizza, apples, cookies, popcorn, chicken, and ketchup (the kid would live off of ketchup if I let him).
• He can identify these body parts: head, hair, eyes, lips, nose, ears, hands, feet, tummy, and toes.  Maybe more, but I haven't checked.
• He is starting to identify colors.

Today Evan and I both took the day off of work to spend time with Graesen.  We started off the day by having Graesen open his presents from us.  He got a couple of puzzles, toy keys (to try and keep him from taking ours), shoes, a couple of shirts, stickers, a car, a jacket, and a basketball hoop.  He was very excited about opening the presents this morning and kept saying "Oooh, pretty!" about the ribbons.  He was really excited about the basketball hoop.  We met with my mom, Phoebe, and Addison (she is staying by herself with my parents for a few days) at a trampoline place.  The kids had so much fun, because it was toddler time which meant it was a lot less crowded than normal. After jumping we went to a pool that has little kids slides. They had the best time and stayed until Graesen started to turn purple he was so cold.  Phoebe even went down the slide, which is really a big feat for her since she tends to be very cautious.  Graesen crashed after all the fun and we both took a 3 hour nap.  Tonight we ordered a pizza since it is one of Graesen's favorites and had a picnic in the living room while watching Veggie Tales.