Simon at 2.5 Years

I remember this winter when we were in Mexico, one of the couples that we were vacationing with had a 2.5 year old and they said the difference between 2 years and 2.5 years was huge. Now that we're there, I can totally see what they meant. Simon has grown leaps and bounds in the past 6 months. At two-and-a-half years old, Simon:

-is 90% potty trained. Pee accidents are almost non-existant, he even wakes up most mornings dry. Poop is a whole other ordeal though.
-has moved from the parallel play stage and is actually interacting with other children.
-still sucks his thumb and is obsessed with blankets - he needs to have a minimum of two with him at bedtime.
-loves, loves, loves construction machines. He can name all of the machines (as can we) and will correct you if you call it the wrong thing.
-can count to thirty and sing the alphabet.
-is starting to like a lot more variety in his vegetables - he now eats cucumber, carrots, peppers, celery, snap peas and pickled beets.
-goes to bed between 7:00pm and 8:00pm and is up promptly at 7:15am every single day but takes about an hour to get going.
-is Mr. Independent. We often hear, "myself" and his shoes are always on the wrong feet.
-drinks milk from a cup (with a straw) without coercion.
-has an extensive vocabularly and can carry on conversations however, they are often obsure and 75% of the time related to construction machines!
-is quite good at sharing and taking turns.
-has developed a fear of the dark and often runs to us saying that he is scared.
-has all of his teeth - just in time for us to start the teething process again with Miles.
-still takes an afternoon nap.
-reads the same 2 books at bedtime most nights and can easily fill in the blanks and knows if you skip a page. Actually, he can do this with most of his books.
-is super bossy in environments where he is comfortable i.e. at home, at daycare and his Grandparent's houses.
-is a total mimic. We have to be really careful now with what we say as Simon is starting to try out some inappropriate words at daycare. He called one of his friends a "pain in the butt" the other day.
-only has rare temper tantrums - not quite what I was expecting for the terribles twos but I have been warned that three is a more trying age.
-is sleeping in a twin bed in his new room.