Happy Half-Birthday!

Dear Garrett,

Today you are officially 2 and a half years old. It's hard to believe. Some days it doesn't feel like 2 and a half years have gone by, while other days feel as if it's been more like 5 or 10 years. Days like today when you turn on your keyboard music and say "Dance, Ma, dance" as you bounce around the room doing your own version of the two-step; these days make the last 2 and a half years feel as if I've blinked and we've gone from pregnancy to now. Then there are those nights where you and I have "slept" in the guest room due to your unending cough and I think "he should be atleast 10 by now because tonight has definitely lasted several years." We've come a long way.

These are some of the things that you are doing:
~You talk a lot now and can say pretty much anything we ask you to. You don't always put together sentences, but you can definitely get your point across.
~You love movies and lots of cartoons. You can't ever decide what movie to watch whenever I ask and even after you make your decision, about 5 minutes into the movie you change your mind. I don't fall for that anymore because the one time I did change the movie, you did the same thing 5 minutes into the second movie. Now we just endure a mini-tantrum until you get distracted.
~You have become really attached to Buzz Lightyear and Woody. You won't take a nap or go to bed without both of them (and we cannot lose Woody's hat or nobody gets any sleep until Woody is properly attired with his hat).
~You refuse to eat most vegetables, and pretty much anything that I attempt to serve for supper, but you'll pick up random things on the floor and put them in your mouth. I'll be glad when you stop that.
~Because of your extremely picky taste in food, you're definitely on the thin side for your age. Thankfully you're also on the tall side, so I'm in hopes that your height will discourage bullies in the future.
~You love Daddy and everything about him. Especially digging in his pockets for keys. Every morning when he leaves for work you insist that he not only hug you, but also hug me, which he always does, but if you don't see it happen then you make sure to remind him until he does it again.
~You also love to play "find the body part" game. Except you have to play it with me and not by yourself. I thoroughly love when you ask "where's teeth?" and you shove your entire hand in my mouth.
~You know all of your ABC's and you love playing with your magnetic letters on the refrigerator. You can also count to 13.
~You finally love going to Mother's Day Out. After 6 months of torturing me and your teacher, you no longer throw a fit when I drop you off and I think your breath holding spells at "school" have gone down.
~On the subject of the breath holding, you still do this reguarly at home. According to your doctor you're going to outgrow this by the time you're 3. That gives you 6 months, so let's work on that.
~You're very active, climbing onto everything and doing things without regards to what might happen to you. I've caught you multiple times taking out the "babyproof" outlet cover and trying to put Daddy's keys into the plug-in, who knows how many times you've come close to electrocuting yourself. You also tipped over in your chair at lunch the other day. You hit your head on the outlet behind you, cracked the outlet plate and busted your head open. Thankfully no stitches were needed and you didn't make a hole in the wall. Of course you haven't learned your lesson and still repeatedly try to tip yourself over. Let's hope we don't have to make a trip to the Emergency Room anytime soon.
~Today we went to pick up a pizza at Pizza Hut. We haven't been there in atleast 2 months, probably longer. As I pulled into the parking space, you pointed at the sign and said "pizza!". Their logo does not have a pizza on it and I did not see a pizza anywhere on the outside of the building, so apparently you can already read! :) I guess Pawpaw was right when he told me you were a genius.

The past 2 and a half years have been full of excitement and worry (only on my part) and I'm looking forward to the next 2 and a half years with a lot more firsts. Your first trip to Chuck E. Cheese, your first time to go fishing, your first bike ride on a 2 wheeler, learning how to tie your shoes and write your name. There are so many things you're going to learn over the next few years. I'm excited to get to share them with you.

Let's just try to keep the broken bones and stitches to a minimum.