Rekindle or another lesson in let go o

So, I know ex’s are ex’s for a reason. However, this situation has me in a weird predicament and has really triggered my anxiety.

I had been with my ex for about 2ish years. He is ex military (prob enough said) and has a lot of things he needs to work on. He says he is content with life even though a lot of what he says and his insecurities say otherwise…. Anyways, when I broke up with him for the lack of inconsistent communication and some strange behavior, he kept a lot of stuff and never gave it back and blocked me when I asked for my stuff and my key back.

Fast forward - almost a year and a half later he randomly texts me “ Merry Christmas” from a new number and mentions he “thought” he texted me months ago because he had my stuff. Which we both know he didn’t do. He has now been texting me a lot checking-in, wanting to meet up to give me my things, making sure he tells me doesn’t drink anymore, and such. He has reached out to “fix” certain items I briefly had mentioned were broken.

My friend recently saw him on a dating app that seems to recently been updated.

Why question is… is this normal behavior? I’ve never been in a situation like this before.

I ran into him out of the blue while walking my dog and he seemed very concerned who I was texting and even tried looking at my most used apps. Then starts acting like nothing happened and we didn’t break up, and like he never was THE WORST.

Has anyone else been through this? My anxiety is high because this all strange and sudden. I’ve worked on myself a lot and I’ve come a long way but I still feel stuck on the unknown.