Russ turns TWO

This boy. Oh my heart. I love him so much. EVERYONE loves him so much. His brothers and sisters. His nursery leaders. All the parents at school drop-off and pick-up. The people he waves to from the shopping cart. The librarian who finds him toys and blocks. The bishop's wife who has babysat for us frequently recently. All of our kids' friends. He is HAPPY and he is happy to see EVERYONE. 

He is a constant joy and a constant laugh and constantly into everything. He's broken more kitchen items than my other kids combined. He's put utensils and chopped potato pieces into the toaster. He's the first to require oven and dishwasher locks. He ALSO still takes a nap AND stays in his crib (cross your fingers that continues to last!). He LOVES bubbles, balls, scooters, and bikes. He loves to help me cook and be in the kitchen (it is ridiculous how many times he has pulled out the rice cooker and slow cooker and hauled them to our front hallway and plugged them in). He is learning actions to a few precious songs. He says a few words (mam-oh, referring to me, is my personal favorite. Also me, more, uh-oh, no, baby, ball, and a few others) but his favorite words by FAR is daddy. He is ALL daddy's boy and daddy definitely needs to be around more to fill that need!! Mostly he just gets the kids to eventually determine what he wants by a lot of grunting and pointing. He loves to rough house and he laughs. OH this kid laughs! And it brings down the house every time-at the dinner table, and in the van. Just on Friday I rolled down the van window to get a bug out and he was laughing so hard at the wind in his face that everyone else was instantly laughing. He brings so much joy into our family. We love him so very much. 

Doing the actions to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

He had a baseball cake with an added sparkler and he LOVED it!

He was absolutely ecstatic about his scooter--it was the sweetest thing!

He also got a bubble gun which was another hit.

He came down to Trix for his birthday breakfast!