Dearest boy,

I know that everyone says this, but it is SO HARD for Mommy to believe that you are 2!

But you very much ACT like a two year old. You repeat everything anyone says, you are and have been speaking in complete sentences for a few weeks now, and you are able to do so many things on your own.

In just the past week, your vocabulary has probably tripled, which never ceases to amaze Mommy. It means that you really heard all those things we were saying around you (which we occasionally hoped would go unnoticed!).

And the way you enunciate, with that sweet little-boy voice of yours…melts Mommy’s heart every time. You are really good about saying, “Bye-bye, love you mommy!” when she leaves to teach. You fearlessly attempt words that are really hard, such as “Seventeen” and “Hyena” and the ever-dreaded, “W”. You love the ability to be able to express exactly what it is you want. Most often, you say things like, “Play game, please?” (you’re a fan of “Temple Run”), “Have a stinky in the dipey!”, and “Need Die-Die, please!” (“Die Die” is your pacifier…yes, you still use one!). When you say, “All Done”, you very carefully enunciate every single consonant. It’s adorable!

You also clearly tell us the difference between all your different balls. There is the “Fuht-ball”, the “Bees-ball”, “Backs-ball”, and “Vie-vie-ball”. Sometimes you say, “Orange ball” or “Boo ball” too.

But Mommy’s favorite thing you do….by far, is when you point to yourself and say, “Big Brudder!” and then pat Anthony and say, “Lewww Brudder!”. You love to kiss his tummy and make him laugh. And you know what? It makes Mommy and Daddy laugh too!

You’ve also become very sensitive to Baby Anthony’s crying, and will either run up and try to soothe him (often you’re the first one to the room when he’s woken up crying from a nap!) or you yell “ALLLLL DONNEEEE!!!” right into his face. You yell, “QUIET! HUSH!” at Claire when she barks. All of these things show us that you like your peace and quiet, that’s for sure!

One of your obsessions right now is going outside with Daddy at night and pointing out every single “Leww STAW!” and then the “BIG MOOOOOON!”. You love to sing nursery rhymes at bedtime with Mommy, including your own rendition of “FAHFAH JOCK JOCK” (Frere Jacques). Often, after we’ve put you to bed, we hear you humming away for quite a while afterwards.

As always, you are still Mommy’s champion sleeper. I have no idea what we did to deserve you, but you go to bed without any soothing, despite the fact that it’s almost always a different time every night (Mommy and Daddy’s schedules have been a bit unpredictable lately!). You often sleep in until 10am (UNHEARD OF FOR A TODDLER!). And then you take a 3+ hour nap 90% of the time! You are just a kid that needs a lot of sleep!

You have an extremely determined and focused personality. When you set your mind on one thing, you obsess about it until it comes to completion. The other day, you really wanted the big orange ball to stay put in the net, so that you could then knock it out with a second ball. Grandpa and Mommy watched you, trying so hard not to laugh, because every time the big ball went through the net instead of catching, you growled or shrieked in frustration. All we need to do is give you a piece of chalk, and you’re consumed for the good part of an hour, covering the entire back patio in scribbles. You also hit the ball off the tee with a TON of force and distance, which is shocking considering how “un-orthodox” your swing is (it’s more like a golf swing). When you get your hands on a baby wipe, you obsessively wipe off every surface in sight, without looking up. You love to push the kiddie-sized grocery cart at Trader Joe’s, and whenever Mommy takes too long to make a decision, you grab whatever you can reach, throw it in the cart and keep on going!

You’ve become a lot more imaginative the past few weeks. Without prompting, Mommy often finds you crawling around on the floor pretending to be a doggie (which is okay, until you try to lick the floor or eat out of Claire’s bowl!). You play pretend with different animals, having them kiss or talk to each other.

One of your favorite games is “Where did Dadda go?” You throw a blanket over him, and then giggle as you take it off. This game applies to any person or object. Occasionally, we hear, “Where Ra-Relle go?” or “Where Gigoly (Gregory) go?” or “Where Wee go?” (this one scares us, because you throw a blanket or pillow over Wee’s head!).

Speaking of pretend, you love to play church! After Sundays, you obsessively “cense” the house with whatever will swing. You hold books over your head and sing the “AW-AY- OO-YUH!”.

While in church, you spend your time finding every cross or icon possible to kiss! You’ve even used your pacifier to “cense” different members of the congregation. Everyone finds you so irresistibly cute and asks “how did we train you to be so good?”.

Your favorite foods right now are definitely mac and cheese, any kind of fruit, and salsa! When we go to a Mexican restaurant, we can usually count on you to not only dip chips in the hottest salsa, but also take the container and actually DRINK from it! Woah! When we ask if you want to go get food, you say, “Rice? Beans? Ladas? TACO??!!” Surprisingly, you also love asparagus!

You’re just getting used to having a new “Sisss-ter Cat-luhn”, but you’re actually pretty easy going and haven’t had any difficulty adapting. Most of the time, you’re just happy to have someone new to play with! This comfortability is probably due to the fact that you love all your aunts and cousins that occasionally babysit you for short periods of time when Momma has to go to appointments.

You are so helpful to Mommy. Just this morning, as “we” finished bathing Wee “together”,  she asked if you would go grab his diaper out of the other room. Just like that. And you ran and got it for Mommy! Sometimes, we ask you to throw something away or to put certain toys and books away. You love to please us and comply every time.

You also have such a special relationship with both of your Grandmas! Just like last year, your “Nana” Esther watches you for 3.5 hours on Mondays, and “Gran-ma” Courtney for 1.5 hours on Wednesdays and 3.5 hours on Thursdays. You get so excited when they come to the door to play with you, and eagerly show off all your toys and books. You barely even notice as Momma walks out the door for teaching 🙂

When you do get cranky at night, we sometimes turn on youtube videos of elephants or giraffes. Calms you down every single time. It can be the world’s most boring video, but you still watch it happily, for sometimes half an hour! This is the only TV you watch (other than the 45 minutes of Beauty and the Beast that you barely made it through before moving on to play with something else!), but we are happy to have it in our arsenal full of tools during the cranky-6-8pm hours!

Little Man, if you need to know anything about these past 2 years, know this: you are such a neat boy, and so so loved. Everywhere we go, people stop to adore you. Your aunts and uncles and grandparents all fight over who gets to spend the most time with you. You are so much fun to be around. Mommy loves getting to experience your little world on a day to day basis and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Love, Mommy