Keaton at 2 1/2  is a passion ball. He is passionate about everything he does loving, cuddling, negotiating, hitting, playing, questioning, bullying, temper tatruming (I just made that a word).
He has a strong personality, a natural leader, a charismatic and magnetic personality. I would go so far to say that people probably love him or are totally annoyed by him. Most people love his antics, his silliness, his craziness, his screaming and sassing and running around like a boss. But if a loud, boisterious, all boy rough personality rubs you wrong, then probably they just think, “Keaton is so loud and annoying.” 🙂

He has an insane memory. He can already “read” to me word for word his favorite books (30+ pages) because he remembers things easily.
He will remember the names of my adult friends, or point out cars when we are driving and say, “that’s so and so’s car”, because its a similar model.

Right now you are so into searching for motorcycles. You want to go and find motorcycles everyday. When we find one, you get the most joy filled look on your face. You LOVE animals, that hasn’t changed, you love big strong animals (Elephants, Buffalos, Rhinos, but you love your farm animals too), you want to know everything about them. You love playing outside, going for walks and looking for stuff, hunting for stuff. You love technology, a day can’t go by without you asking for “your ipad, or your ipod”.  You’re 2, we remind you that you borrow them from us.

You are obstinate, and bossy. I pray everyday that you will have a more teachable spirit, since we are in the “no, I do it” stage. You get these traits from me, so occasionally we have a battle of the wills. I win, but I don’t want to fight, I want to reason, unfortunately 2 year olds  mostly lack that ability.

You are very protective of your brother, and your mama, and your stuff. I took a pie in the face for a competition at church, and you were so upset for me. You literally talked for hours about it, randomly reminding us that you “did not like the pie” and “you were crying for mama”. Despite your sometimes rough exterior you are very empathetic, that was actually a trait I recognized in you rather early on, and it still remains. You can be such a bully, but if someone is actually hurt, no matter the reason, you are the first to rush and say, “oh, I sorry.” “are you ok?’

You know all your uppercase letters, and almost all your lowercase, just a few b,d,p confusions and you can count into the teens. You’ve known all your colors and shapes for a long while. You are pretty close to wanting to formally know how to read you identifying letters everywhere we go and you’ll say, “e is for egg AND elephant” and so on.

I can’t just brag on you like that, without saying that you are also a handful. You are possessive, and down right vindictive if you don’t get your way, telling me, “no, stay away” when you are mad. You are lover and a fighter. But mostly a lover, you love the world and everything in it with unbridled passion. And it sure does make it fun to be your mama. As much as I try to appreciate every moment, they slip away so fast. But today in my mind, this is just how I remember you. Love you!