Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Girl!

Sweet Pea,
Today you turn 2! I can hardly believe it. This year has flown by - I feel like you just turned one yesterday.
It has been a busy year for our family. Here are some highlights from the year:
* Papa's commercial was on national television!
* We had a MAJOR snowstorm in Seattle that kept us stuck in our house for 10 days and prevented Santa from buying everyone Christmas gifts. I've heard Santa is going to be preparing much earlier this year!
* You met your Great Grandma Rose and Great Grandpa John over Christmas. You loved them and Mommy was in awe watching you play with them.
* Papa sold his company! Yay! We are so proud of him, Ethan and Patrick.
* We spent a month in Hawaii on an Urbanspoon "work-cation" with the Urbanspoon families. We rented a house on the beach in Lanikai with Ethan, Nicole and Paia. And Patrick, Carolyn, Emily and Casey rented a house close by. What fun! And a much needed change of pace from the grey Seattle weather. I hope we do more trips like this!
* We got pregnant with a little boy that will be joining our family in a few months. Yay! You are going to be such a good big sister. You're already toughening this little guy up by ramming various body parts into mommy's belly as you attempt to cuddle with my ever increasing midsection.
* We bought a new house! Our growing family means we need some more space so we're moving to a beautiful house in Magnolia, a neighborhood very close to where we currently live. We're having some work done on the house to make it feel more like a home and hope to move in right before Christmas. You LOVE going to the new house and running around all the empty rooms and hiding in the closets.

Phew! It's been a busy year.

You, also have been very busy lately:
* You can pretty much carry on conversations now. From 18 months to 2 years you went from saying (a lot of) single words to putting words together to speaking in simple sentences to speaking in more complex sentences. It's been amazing to watch. When I pick you up from preschool, for example, I will ask what you did that day and you can actually tell me ("you played with toys, you sang the dinasaur song, you ate pretzels"). Everyone who interacts with you comments on how verbal you are and is surprised to learn how old you are. You still aren't clear on your pronouns (you say "you want mommy to hold you" or you want to drive in papa's car.") but you are getting better, actually using "I" and "me" sometimes. I feel super fortunate that you can talk so well - it really makes interacting with you more fun and interesting. And funny. You say things all day, every day that make me laugh. For example, lately when we're driving you will hold up whatever animal you have with you to the window and say "what do you see bunny?" Or "Do you see the trees bunny?"

* You have clear preferences and you make them known. You can tell us what you want to eat, what you want to do, where you want to go, who you want to play with etc. Last night I went into your room to cuddle you while you were sleeping. When I put you back in your crib and covered you with a blanket you (while being half asleep, with eyes closed) rubbed your hand on the blanket and then said "you want the soft one." When I put the other blanket on you, which apparently is the soft one, you rubbed your hand on it the same way and then, satisfied, rolled over and went back to sleep. You also want your apple "with skin" and a "warm bottle", not just a bottle. You want me to close any cabinets that are left open, close the microwave door if I leave it open etc. It cracks me up. And it also kind of explains why you were such a cranky baby - I'm sure you had all these opinions then of what you wanted or what you liked and just had no way of letting us know. I'm SO GLAD you can let us know now.

*You like to walk everywhere now and view having to go in the stroller as a punishment. You're actually pretty good at going where we need to go and listening to me when I need you to stand in one place or move to a new place. Although every once in awhile you will do the complete opposite with a huge smile on your face.

*You're developing a sense of humor. If I do something silly, like forget to put your bib on while you are eating you will say "silly mommy, you forgot the bib!" and you say it with the right intonation, like whatever I did is just the most hilarious thing in the whole world.

This year we were really able to see more and more of your personality come out. It has been so exciting for Papa and me to learn more about who you are and guess what you will be like in the future. I think the most surprising thing about parenting so far is realizing - through you - just how much of a personality people are born with. I have been thinking about yours for two years now and trying to come up with a list of words to describe you. It is impossible - you are obviously so much more than a collection of words - but if push comes to shove here are my top choices (with some help from Papa):
-goofy
-eager
-social
-dynamic
-independent
-quick
-intense
-curious
Oh, and you have an AMAZING memory.

Sweet Pea, there are not words to describe how much I love you. As I used to say to you when you were a baby: I love you to the moon, the stars and around the world five bazillion times! Happy Birthday baby girl!

Love,
Mommy