My Little 2 Year Old!

I plan to finish updating the blog, but since Dallin had his birthday I thought I would talk about him.  So look back in a few days for pictures from Christmas, New Years, and Utah.  Sorry this post is really long so don't feel like you have to read it.

Dallin has been such a blessing in our lives.  I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  That day was full of a lot of emotions for Doug and I and probably Dallin too.  We first experienced excitement at the arrive of Dallin.  As soon as he was born we experienced fear, worry, and faith.  3 minutes after he was born we experienced relief, and gratitude.  A few hours later when we were finally able to see and hold him; we experienced happiness, gratitude, and the excitement from holding a new infant in our arms.  He was and is our little miracle.  He brightens our days and helps us to remember the little things we should be grateful for.  He is such a little boy and loves to do anything All Boy!  We are grateful everyday that Heavenly Father sent Dallin to live in our family.  We are so happy for our family of 3 and love spending time together as a family.

Dallin loves sports; all of them really.  He loves to play with his basketball hoop and often when he wakes up in the morning he asks to play with his hoop.  According to Doug, when he shoots the ball he has great form.  He also loves football, especially the tackling part.  He loves to play tackle with his daddy and even sometimes his mom.  He loves soccer and loves to kick the ball, although we are still working on teaching him that he isn't suppose to hold the soccer ball.  He has recently developed a love for baseball, which he calls base-game.  He is still learning that one, but he loves to play with his bat and ball.  Lately, when he asks to play with his balls, he'll say basketball game or base game.  It seems that whenever he wants to play sports he always ends his request with game.

Another one of Dallin's favorite things are cars.  He loves them all.  Cars, trucks, trains, and planes.  He loves to play with his car garage or car wash.  He loves his big fire truck and he loves to pull down his dump truck and put things inside.  He also loves his little red wagon.  He loves to play with his cars and usually we have to have all his cars out with his car mat.

Dallin loves to read stories.  Around Christmas time his favorite books were the I think I Can, train books.  We usually a day didn't go by without reading one of those books.  He also loves his Lighting McQueen books.  He loves them all, I always know that he's ready for a nap or bed when he's willing to let me read to him.

He also loves to climb and is pretty good at it when he wants to be.  Luckily for us he doesn't love to climb as much as some kids.  He loved climbing on our boxes as we were taking down our Christmas decorations.  So I'm sure in a April and May when we are preparing for move, I'm sure he'll be climbing a lot more in our house.  He doesn't climb in and out of his crib and that is something I would prefer he didn't learn to do.

He loves to color and he usually doesn't really well at keeping his colors on the paper.  Whenever he wants to color, he comes and says color, color until we get his crayons and paper.  He also likes to do some other crafts and especially loves to play with stickers.

He also still loves to ride his tractor or have us push him on it.  He loves to be moving all the time and he never seems to run out of energy.  Sometimes I would just love a little bit of his energy.  

He loved Christmas time because he got a lot of candy and chocolate.  One day we walked into the living room and had gotten two pieces of chocolate out of the candy dish.  He is a good boy and sometimes he eats better than other times.  At our house I could never get him to eat bread, but in November he started taking and eating the Sacrament bread.  Then while we were in Utah he took some rolls off the table and just started to eat them.  Also he stole some bread from Uncle Bryan.  So needless to say he will now eat bread.  The only form of meat he will eat is chicken nuggets.  I try other things but he will not eat them.  He loves bananas, apples, and fruit.  He will eat vegetables most of the time although he picks and chooses when he likes them and doesn't like them.  His favorite vegetable is corn, I can always get him to eat corn.  He loves to eat cookies or Elmo cake.  In fact, whenever he sees a cookie, he tells me "I, cookie monster" translation, mom, I would like a cookie, please.  He also loves spaghetti, pizza, mac 'n cheese, and rice.

I loved these pictures from when he played in the back of the car.  He likes to climb in the car and play before he gets in his car seat.  Last month we had times when it was difficult to get him in his car seat.  So Doug would tell him that his car seat was a spaceship and he needed to get in his spaceship.  So now he loves to get in his spaceship.

Another one of Dallin's favorite things are Animals he loves them all.  He loves reading books about them, playing with them, or watching movies about them.  He loves to go to museums that have animals, or fish.  He loves to see all the animals at zoos and he loved Sea World.   He loves to play with Little People toys by Fisher Price.  He loves his farm and zoo.  His favorite animals to play with are the x-ray fish and dolphin.   

Dallin also loves to watch movies and some of his favorites are Elmo, Backyardigans, Disney and the Letter Factory.

Dallin loves his mommy and daddy.  He loves to play with us and often drags us up to his room to play basketball, or play cars.  He especially loves to play with his dad and Doug loves that he is getting so good at playing.  Doug loves to help Dallin's imagination grow and will often make things for Dallin.  A few days before Christmas Doug made a ramp, from Dallin's blocks, for his cars.  Dallin is also really good at playing by himself and entertaining himself for long periods of time.  He loves to listen to music, especially while he plays.  He loves to sing and dance.  He's really good at the actions for Popcorn, Popping and Wheels on the Bus.  He has even started to sing I am a Child of God with us, sometimes he'll throw in a word or two while we are singing to him. 

Every once and awhile he likes to pretend.  I was cleaning out some things in his closet to make space for some things and I took out his baby bath.  He jumped right in and played with his boat for a little while.  He had lots of fun.  Also these days every once and awhile he will grab his blankets and lay on the floor with them and pretend to sleep.  He even pretends to snore sometimes.  He is always making laugh and keeps us happy.  He loves to be around people and make them happy.

Dallin loves to play outside, and since it's been cold mommy hasn't let him do that every much.  The other day while I was putting his swing in his closet, he decided it was the prefect sit.

He also is a smart little boy.  He loves to learn and I try to incorporate learning into his play as often as I can.  He is a smart little boy and speaks well.  He can say a lot of words and he is always saying something new.  He's getting a lot better at putting words together.  He is starting to do a lot better saying please and thank you.  He is getting better at asking for things.  Although lately he has started to whine more often and he can throw one good temper tantrum.  We are working with him and trying to get him to talk with us instead of crying when he doesn't get his way.  He puts his hands over his face and has a really good fake cry.  He knows most of his letters and their sounds.  He is starting to count, but we still have a lot of work to do that way.  Right now his counting is; 2,4,9,6 and he repeats that over and over again.  He has become more interested in shapes and we are still working on his colors.  He is a happy little boy and we are grateful that we have him in our family.  

Happy Birthday Dallin!  We love you!