Lee is such a wonderful son. . He surprises me everyday with new words, ideas and actions.
Here are a few things that I love about him:
Lee is a caring boy. This really came out when I became pregnant. He is much more gentle with me now. He knows that I can't carry him all of the time anymore and does surprisingly well considering the physical attachment he previously had to me. Yeah, I carried him everywhere! Now he is showing a lot of compassion and holding back his aggressiveness while still showing me with lots of hugs, kisses and his own cute way of practically cheering the phase, "I love YOU MOMMY!!!" When Jesse gets home, they get all of that aggression out in a wonderful father-son bonding time.
Speaking of Jesse, Lee has really grown close to his Daddy. Lee started out his life as more of a "Momma's Boy" in that I was around more so it was only natural that he wanted me to do more for him. After we both had full time jobs, it seemed to even out. Now that I'm a full time Momma again, he has bonded more with me, but he doesn't exactly prefer me all of the time. Several times during the week I get asked, "where's Dadda?" to which I reply, "He's at work." Now he usually just says, "Dadda's at work" but there has been more than one occasion where is has...um...."requested" that "MOMMA WORK!!!" Even with his angry tone, I couldn't help but just laugh.
Lee really is a good boy. I find multiple days where he doesn't receive any time-outs. Even recently when he does get a time-out, he often will go to his corner by himself when I inform him his action has granted him a time out. Now if he will just stay there! Oh well, what can you expect from a 2 1/2 year-old.
Lee can be very particular! He loves having choices. I find he can tolerate things pretty well if he has any sort of choice in the matter. For example, when going to the grocery store, Lee use to NEVER want to sit in the shopping cart for any length of time. Now we can ask him which cart he will want to sit in and *presto!* we have a boy who doesn't complain about sitting in a shopping cart. When it seems to get out of hand, we can tell him "it's not a choice." After this he sometimes wants to bargain with us. This doesn't always work, but parenting isn't a perfect system either. At the same time, we have been able to successfully set limits by using the phrase, "Lee, this is the last book. No more books after this." (We started off with this phase for night-time story time but now use it for about anything.) Luckily this works so well, when we start the phase, he finishes it for us and follows it too!
Sometimes, being particular is a good thing. It turns his life into a nice routine. For example, when we go to church, he knows first he plays with his friends and then afterwards, it's playground time! He can also point out the church every time as well as any playground within a 5 mile radius. :) Back to routines...Lee also knows his exact bedtime routine and looks forward to certain aspects like story time and prayer time every night. I probably look forward to our family prayer time every night just as much as he does! It's such a blessing to have a boy who likes to pray.
I mentioned story-time above, but don't get me wrong, that is not the only time during the day that we read. Lee LOVES to read books. We have so many books, we could support a small children's library! He loves to be read to and we love to read to him. I believe this has expanded his vocabulary as he likes to ask, "What's that?What's that?"
Lee is so friendly and imagitive. In the beginning he can be a bit shy, but he warms up pretty easily and loves to play with "friends," especially at a playground setting. He loves chasing and running with his friends and enjoys playdates too....which is super for this Momma! He has also gotten to enjoy alone time too which is cute to watch him play with his toys as his imagination runs wild! I love watching him babble and and have conversations between toys.
I could go on and on....and on. Jesse and I have been so blessed with Lee. He is so precious and we love calling him our son. We can wait to see you as a big brother. Lee, we love you and are so proud of you. We are so blessed.
