Taft at 2 1/2

Ever since Taft was born Seth has looked forward to the toddler stage---beginning to talk, imaginations, rough housing-and Taft has lived up to Seth's expectations. Taft makes us laugh every day and I want to remember these things about him.

-The majority of the time he is pretending he is something/someone else:T-Rex Dinosaur, Flynn Rider (from Tangled), Lizard, Dragon, Firefighter, and Woody are his most common personas. He sometimes calls me "Punzel", as in Rapunzel from Tangled, calls Lukie "Pasqual" also from Tangled, and Seth "Buzz".  Taft is much easier to work with if you play along with him and call him by whatever it is he's going by that minute. For example, if it's time to brush teeth and you say, "Come on Hippo, I need to brush those big teeth" it will be 300% easier than it would be if you were to say "Taft, let's brush teeth". There have been times when I am fighting so hard to get him out the door and as soon as I call him T-Rex or Dragon or something he does a 180 and is totally ready to go. Also, if he calls you "Dragon" or "T-Rex" or whatever it means he wants you to call him that too.

-He will do just about anything for fruit snacks.

-He loves cereal. Tonight he told me his favorite food is cake and his favorite breakfast is "waffs" (waffles) and favorite dinner is "macincheese". His diet isn't very good, but he will eat broccoli, carrots, and peas and likes quite a few different fruits. He has to be starving to eat his dinner and most nights cries a little and tells me dinner is "yucky". His favorite drink is probably milk. We pretty much just give him water and milk anyway. Although, he chugs soda when he gets it (which isn't very often).

-He really likes to be read to and loves the library. However, at the moment he is turning into a bit of a tv show/movie monster. He will ask for  shows all day long. I feel bad because we have to be home for two naps a day for Luke, so I've had to start getting more creative with filling our at home time. His favorite shows are, but not limited to: anything Barney, anything Thomas, some Strawberry Shortcake movie that he calls "Candy Butterfly", Toy Story 3, Tangled, and occasionally Sesame Street and the Backyardigans.

-He went through a phase of running away from me at the park and not listening when I told him to stop, but I feel like he's gotten better. He likes the park as long as he finds friends to play with and race. He LOVES to run. He likes to sit in the baby swings and hold his arms out and act likes he's flying.

-His favorite toys are trains and cars.

-At the end of Toy Story 3, Buzz and Jessie dance to latin music. Taft was watching it one day and that part was on. I started dancing and told Taft to come dance with me. He said, "That's not dancing Heidi."

-Seth was singing the Katy Perry song that goes "...there's a party in my head..." and Taft sang "There's a party in my pants."

-Since we've been working on potty training, Taft gets a lot of cheerleading when he's in the process of....you know. Lately he's been returning the favor. ;)

-When Taft is getting dressed he'll ask me to sing the "Firefighter Song" which is something we learned from- surprise!-Barney. Basically it goes "Hurry, hurry put your boots on. Hurry, hurry, put your (blank) on" etc. He gets dressed much faster this way.

-And drumroll please....HE POOPS IN THE POTTY!!!! (cue Hallelujah chorus)

-Doesn't have a lot of respect for authority- or at least for my authority. When ever I try to discipline or ask him to stop doing something he says, "No, YOU stop it MOM." or "No WAY Mom"

-Gives really great hugs and kisses.

(We have some really great videos, but they are all on  Seth's phone so we need to figure out how to get them off)