Two & a half...where does the time go?

Xander turns two and a half on the 24th of this month! How crazy is that?? Some of my long-distance friends and folks that don't see Xander often will ask me what he's up to these days. Sometimes I have to think about it because he does so many new things each day I can't keep up! I've started writing them down so I remember. Here's what I've collected over the past few weeks:

He knows all his letters, capital and lower case.

He can count to 30 with a little help. He can count to 21 all by himself.

He can spell his name along with some "at" words (cat, hat, bat, sat, fat, mat).

His vocabulary astounds me - he probably learns on average at least 2 words per day.

He loves to play basketball and is very accurate with his shots.

He eats a good breakfast and lunch but usually skimps out at suppertime.

He typically sleeps about 2-3 hours at a time for his naps. About once or twice a week he doesn't take a nap - his choice, not mine.

He LOVES m&m's.

He now has a new sentence he uses often - "Let me talk." When I'm on the phone and he wants to get a word in (to me or the other person on the phone), that's what he'll say. Then he rambles on and on, filling his time with laughter, random words and often actually saying what he's done that day.

He can tell the story of "The 3 Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" fairly verbatim to the way I tell him those stories.

He's really into reading a book called "I'm a Big Brother" by Joanna Cole. He wants to read it when he wakes up, when he goes to sleep, when he takes a nap and pretty much anytime he sees the book. He loves it! I often hear him tell himself that story. I'll hear phrases like, "Mommy loves me. Daddy loves me. I'm the only me in the whole wide world" and "Babies are too little to talk, too little to walk, too little to eat pizza and apples and ice cream" and "I can keep our baby warm and cozy. I'm a big brother now!" It's so cute! He can go through the whole thing saying the exact words on each page. I'm working on getting it on video. :)

He's discovered Curious George and loves reading the books we have (about 5 of them) and sometimes watching the cartoon on TV.

He can say his sister's name - he calls her Melia Jayne :)