Happy Birthday Peyton!

My baby is 2. I know this post is a little late, but I figure since he can't read yet it won't be too traumatizing. Peyton is such a joy to have in our family. He cracks us up everyday and is always full of smiles. He has started pretending that he is another character... it is super cute. Right now we have a few different personas...

1) The Imagination Movers... (A Disney show)- he is Mover Dave, or Mover Rich- it depends... Dylan is Mover Scott... PJ is Uncle Knit Knots... and I get to be Nina.

2) The Magic Treehouse... we have been reading the series to the boys (we are almost done... any suggestions for a new series?) Peyton is Jack, Dylan is Teddy, I am Annie, and PJ is Merlin.
3) The Incredibles... Peyton and Dylan both like to be Dash... for whatever reason Peyton has decided that I am Jack Jack (the baby) and PJ is Mr Incredible... or "Bob"

4) Signing Times... Today while Dylan was at Preschool Peyton decided that we were Alex and Leah from Signing Times. Every week we get new signing time DVDs from the Library (which is totally LOVES) so all around the library he was calling me Leah... I called him Peyton and he said... "I mean- Alex" I responded, "of course, I'm sorry Alex" and he giggled. I love these DVDs -- it has been amazing for his vocab and I am super impressed at how quickly Dylan and Peyton have picked up all of their signs.

There might be more... but that is all I can remember at the moment. It is pretty crazy though, because he'll remember all day and is pretty consistent in calling me "Nina" or whatever character he deems me to be. Dylan did the same thing at this age- just different characters, maybe it is a standard development thing, but it is pretty adorable.

He also LOVES music and is pretty particular about what we listen to. You know he likes a song because after it plays he says "again, again" and when he doesn't like a song, he says, "no, not this one." Sometimes it makes PJ a little crazy because Peyton can listen to the same song 10 times in a row and still want more. Luckily Dylan and I don't mind so much and PJ isn't in the car with us very often :) He sings with the songs that he likes and learns the words super fast. I have been borrowing CDs from the library and he fell in love with the Imagination Movers CDs... so for his birthday we got him one and he was so excited to have his own copy that he didn't have to say goodbye to at the library! He also just discovered the band "Milkshake" and they have a song about baseball that he loves and one about superheros. It is so much fun for me to watch him discover new music and form opinions about songs so quickly. He definitely has some of PJ's blood in him.

He loves drums-- and plays multiple times a day. He counts off with the drumsticks... one, two, three four... and then starts pounding on the drums, and always finishes with the symbol.

He loves sports... any kind and we play a lot of football, baseball, soccer, toss... I am so glad we have a big play room!

But most of all, he LOVES his big brother Dylan. He always wants to be with him and wants to do whatever Dylan is doing. He can keep up pretty well, and it always makes my heart melt to watch them play together. Dylan is such an amazing big brother and I am so grateful to have both of these special spirits in our home. I love watching them hold hands, play in the tub, wrestle, and work together. Yes, they do have their moments of frustration-- but they are far out shined by the moments of kindness.

His Birthday Cake. He was so excited when he saw buzz that he pulled the bar stool up to the counter and just started chatting with buzz for about five minutes. "Hi, how you Buzz?" Then, it was lunch time, so Peyton insisted on saying prayer, "by self"... he blessed buzz and said thank you for buzz about 4 times in his prayer- I thought it was pretty sweet.

I could go on... but he'll be waking from his nap soon :)

We have had a great time celebrating his birthday with family and friends!