Two

Happy Birthday, Chicaboo!

You know you're the "birf-day guw" today, you've been talking about it all week. We've practiced singing "Happy Birthday" and you know how to blow out the candles. I think you know you're getting presents, too...you don't miss much and you've been to a few birthday parties lately. You were looking at a toy catalogue the other day and kept saying everything was a "birf-day toy!"

I can't wait to throw you your circle theme party later today! I haven't talked much about the circles to you, I want you to be surprised when the downstairs in transformed with circles. You have seen your party dress with circles on it, though, and you get sooooooo excited everytime you see it, wanting to hold it and hug it. Thursday night we went to the grocery store to buy food for your party. You helped me pick out decorations for your cake. And I found circles wrapping paper. You wanted to hold it throughout the rest of the store and you told me, completely unprevoked, "Gi'a yeuv circles!" When I laughed in delight you continued, "Gi'a aaaaaaaaaways yeuv circles!" Your passion for circles is something else, my girl. It cracks me up.

Now that you're two we've been putting away the last of the baby things. I'm sad to see them go, I have no qualms admitting that. But I'm so excited for you, too! You love your "big-guw" bed and you have only had one night where I've had to be firm and lead you back to bed multiple times. Every other night you happily climb in bed and stay there.

You're vocabulary is amazing. You are loosing some of your babyish pronounciations. You say "double-u" now, not "double." (That's still your favorite letter, too.) You speak in full sentences most of the time. You are so polite, too. You almost always ask "pees" when you want something (depending on your mood, of course). You say "thanks" and "no thank you" with out prompting, though you lately have decided that if you politely decline a request that means you should not have to do it....even when it was not a request to begin with, like changing your diaper. Thursday night when Daddy and I were putting you to bed you wanted us to sing you "Jingle Bells." After we serenaded you you said, "thank you so much." That just about did me in, Little Girl! I was in tears!

You have learned to do many things by and for yourself. You like to climb into and out of your car seat by yourself. You love to try to change your clothes by yourself. You pick out your own snacks. You would even change your own diaper if you could figure out how. I've developed little tricks, though, to avoid the screams of "Me, me, ME!" or "Gi'a SELF, Mommy! No!" I just step back, put up my hands and say, "ok, go ahead." Most of the time you work at it for about 5 seconds and then say, "Mommy, help you." If that doesn't happen I often conjole you that we can do it together and then burst into, "What's gonna work? TEAM-work!" ala The WonderPets. That usually gets your cooperation. However, you love to remind me that I don't have a flyboat. I guess that's your way of saying, "you're no WonderPet, mom."

Speaking of that, girl, that's one more thing I want to remember about you right now. You love to point out what everybody has and doesn't have. You are constantly saying things like, "Gi'a necklace." But then you say, "Daddy, HAVE a necklace" when what you mean is Daddy doesn't have a necklace. You forget to say "doesn't" but you reeeeeeeally stress the "have" instead, as your way of saying someone doesn't have something. I love it, even though I repeat it and add "doesn't" to help you learn. I know one day you'll lose that cute phrase and I will miss it. Another favorite topic for you is listing all the fun things in your life. I love that, too! You say "fun, Uncle Jimmy! Fun, Gramma house!"

Chicaboo, I love you. I know you love me, too, you tell me all the time now. I can't get enough of you! I'm so lucky that I get to watch you learn and grow. I often don't feel like I have much to do with it, you learn so fast, all on your own. I don't know exactly how or when, for example, you learned to count to ten in Spanish. But you do it all the time. You know several Spanish words, actually, and use them appropriately. I credit Dora with that. You call "ayudame!" when you need help, or say "enpujen" when you are pushing your doll stroller around. You didn't learn any of that from me. I wish I could take credit for all that you know. But it's all you, baby. You are amazingly bright. I'm so proud of you.

Happy Birthday, Little Girl. I can't believe you're TWO!