Halfy Birthday to Preston!!

Preston's half birthday was on Friday.
It was more of a milestone of we survived the first half of the twos.
And yikes.
Some of these 2 yr old moments are STRESSFUL!!
But only 6 more months and then we are in the terrible 3's! 

To celebrate & mark the occasion we made a cake. If you couldnt tell, our family loves cake. Well and loves to eat in general. But cake has a special place in our heart of hearts. 

The cake making didn't start out too well. Is it only my children who wake up SUPER cranky from naps?! Maybe they get it from me, who knows.
He was excited that I let him crack the eggs by himself. Well, actually he grabbed the eggs and started cracking before I said he could, but he did a really good job! 

 But that was followed by more crankiness.

A few hours later the cake was done and his mood had improved a bit.....

I don't think he understood it was his half birthday, and we didn't sing or have candles or anything b/c I didn't want to confuse him or have him think every time we have cake we need to have candles. But he didn't mind that. 

It was delicious.
Don't believe me, ask Jabba JaJa the Hut. 

OK so lets talk about Preston at 2 1/2. 

He is potty trained. He did this himself. We tried potty training back in February with the timer, and the underwear and the treats for going pee and such, but he just wasn't able to communicate very well when he needed to go, so we stopped and said we'd try again later. About a month ago one morning he woke up and said "No diaper, underwear". And that was that. No more diapers, just underwear. He had a few accidents in the beginning  (mostly nap/night time) but he has been great. He is quite independent with it though and wont allow me in the bathroom with him. If I walk in he says "Noooooooooo mommy go awayyyy" but then calls me back when he needs help wiping. He still announces loudly when he has to go and when he has gone, but I'll take that over changing diapers any day!

He talks A LOT. I don't know if people believe me when I say this because he doesn't talk much at first around people. His most popular phrase is "I need ____" Everything is I NEED. "I need popsicle." "I need go night night more." "I need mow lawn." <-- he mows inside with his toy lawnmower all day long. Practice for the future I'm sure. The other day we were going to Lowes & he said "almost there" and i said "we are almost there, how did you know?" and he said back "I remember". When did he even learn that word?!

He is obsessed with the song "Drive By" by Train. He asks for it over and over again in the car or at home." He calls it the "ah ah" song though b/c the chorus consists of some Ah Ah Ah Ah's. And after watching the music video he now thinks all convertibles are "Ah Ah cars". 

His favorite games are "Ready Set Go" and "Hide and Seek". Both are interesting to play with him. "Ready Set Go" is really just racing around the house sometimes while saying "racing day racing day" over and over. We tried to teach him Hide and Seek last week which he loved. He just gets confused. When he is the one hiding he still wants to count along with you & if your seeking him and say 'where's preston? preston where are you?' he'll answer you and come out instead of hiding. We still have some work to do with that. 

I've said it a million times, but he's brilliant. He knows his numbers to about 17, can spell his name & point out O, B, T when he see's them. He knows his colors, shapes and is getting creative. For example the other day he was drawing on his chalkboard and told me he was making a pirate ship. Ok! 

Things he loves: Peanut butter & jelly, talking about what we're going to do tomorrow, Tobi, spraying things with a water bottle, Backyardigans, making cookies, helping with chores, going to the car wash, Jaxton, doing yard work with Daddy, the pizza place, just about everything.

Let me give you an example of how much he loves Jaxton- 

Jaxton is learning how to go from crawling to sitting and he's still learning how to balance with sitting (he has such a long torso & no chub to hold him up!). So he was sitting in the kitchen and fell backwards and hit his head. He was so so sad and was crying bad. Preston came up to him and said
"you ho-tay Jaxton? Here, red car" and gave Jaxton his favorite red car. Then he said "I go get ice, I be riiiiiiiiight back" and ran to the fridge to try to get some ice. It was so sweet!! He's a good older brother.