dear 2 year old,

2 weeks

13 months

23 months

TWO!  we seriously blinked and two years have flown by.  my sweet, gentle baby has grown into a full-range of emotions toddler.  your daddy and i continue to be amazed at both your physical and emotional development.  family, friends and total strangers alike agree that you are something special.  

you continue to eat like a champ (as we continue to try and limit your eating) and we count our blessings that some of your favorite foods are the really healthy ones.  although you'll eat pretty much anything put in front of you, i'd say your favorites of the moment are bananas, avocados, yam, and black beans.  your current obsessions include dr seuss books, yo gabba gabba, looking at pictures on mamas's phone and finding snails in the yard.  sometimes you very gently relocate a snail from one leaf to another or give them hugs.  other times you squish them until they bubble and use their guts to "draw" on the sidewalk.  we're still not sure what to make of that.

one of our favorite things that you do is to repeat rules.  "don't touch ever sockets," "no snails in the house," and "don't eat anything in the yard" are probably the top three.  the best is when you tell house guests the rules.  they are always so surprised.

you've started going to school a few days a week and although it was a rough transition in the beginning, it's turned out to be wonderful for us all.  you love going to school and playing with your friends.  you think ms. tina is great and love to tell us about the songs you sang and the paintings you made.  whenever you pass by one of your pictures hanging on the fridge you proudly say "saraya paint that at cool!"  don't stop thinking school is cool!

we haven't made a ton of progress in the potty training department.  you just don't seem bothered by sitting in your yucks nor are you excited to wear big girl underwear.  at least you tell us just as you are going or right after you've gone so i guess that's a start.  lately you've been pretty interested in seeing what kind of mess is in your diaper ("wanna see poops!") but we say you can only see them in the potty in the hopes that you'll start using it.

another of our favorite things is that you've started using your imagination.  it's fun to hear your conversations with your toys.  and it's interesting to catch the things we say that you pick up on.  more on that later.

you are a little negotiator ("how 'bout this?" "just one more" and "this then that, ok?") who really gets a kick out of striking deals with us.  but it's worth it when you do our favorite thing of all.  nothing compares to hearing you say "i love you" and telling us you need a kiss or hug.  it gets us every time.

we love you more and more each day,
mama and daddy