Happy half-birthday to A

Dear sweet girl,

You are two and a half years old already. You are right in the middle of toddlerhood; there's no question about that. But you're also just an amazing little person.

I laugh every day at the funny things you say and do. You're also clearly a little ham, often saying "I'm so funny" (I know what you must hear a lot!). You talk all the time, keeping a running commentary on what you're doing or thinking. You are starting to get to an age where I can ask you questions and you can occasionally provide a reasonable answer. Your memory is amazing to me. I just can't believe the things that you remember and talk about.

You are doing really, really well at school. You are such a little helper. Not surprisingly, you love to follow rules and make sure others are doing the same. Your best friend is Hayden but you also love Saum and Luke. One day recently you excitedly burst out that "Josie was a tiger in the tunnel!" I have absolutely no idea what that means but it made you happy and that made me smile. You talk a lot about tigers these days. Sometimes you say that you're a scary tiger and you chase me around the house roaring.

Amidst all of your playing, you seem to be learning a lot, too. You know your basic colors and shapes, parts of the body, and animal sounds. You can count to eleven (though you reliably skip four and six) and like to 'sing along' with the ABCs. You can recognize the letters A, I, and E but think most everything else is a D (though recently you've been saying "tuh" for T so I think you're getting that one down as well). You now can tell people your mommy and daddy's names as well as your first and middle name. In the car, you often tell me to go and when I don't you say "Have to wait for cars, mommy" and more recently "red means stop." I don't think you know what either of those things mean since you're still rear facing but I must have said them enough that you recognize the pattern.

You love to run and will say "I running fast, mommy!" You went through a phase where you loved doing somersaults, too. They made us a little nervous since they sort of looked like you might break your neck at any moment.

Emotionally, things seem to have stabilized a bit. While there are still days that I lose my patience, you're in a good place right now. I hear that three is a tough year (threenagers) so we will just have to navigate that together. You still get upset when you don't get your way. It's hard to watch your face fall and to hear you say "mommy/daddy hurt me".

I don't want to talk about how well you sleep through the night but I will say that you've mostly given up naps on the weekend. We instituted an hour of 'quiet time' where you stay in your crib and look at books or play with your farm animals or cookie/cupcake baking sets. Sometimes you also will do that in the mornings, which is nice. You still love playing with your dolls, your kitchen set, all toy cars, and your "aminals." You really love going down slides. Lately you've enjoyed baking as well, which has helped a bit with your fear of the mixer (though you still note it's too loud, mommy. hurts ears).

You are still a little slow to warm up in new situations and with new people but now you sometimes surprise me by talking to strangers.

The biggest difference these days is that you just don't eat. You would eat junk food all day if we let you. Of course we don't, but sometimes I am tempted. Occasionally you will eat pasta (you would eat mac and cheese most any day, I believe but of course we can't do that either), you'll eat green beans, and sometimes you'll have cheese, cereal, raisins, fruit, or pancakes. We are sort of at a loss. We know that this is developmentally normal but at some point, I feel like you are going to have to start eating something other than fruit snacks. You're still so teeny tiny. I weighed you today and you're still at 24.5 pounds. While you can wear a few things that are 3t, you also can wear some skirts that are 18 months. That makes changing clothes for seasons a little trickier (so does weather that fluctuates from 50 to 90 to 60 in a week, though). You've been wearing the same shoe size for what feels like forever.

Your favorite song is Old MacDonald ("moo song, mommy"). Whenever we do anything you like (your new discovery of piggy back rides, funny sounds, etc.), you say "one more time" over and over again (I don't think you quite know what that means yet!).

Daddy says his favorite things are your sense of humor and that you are so happy. He also loves your long, curly hair and that you're just so pretty.

In looking back at old letters, the most noticeable and consistent qualities are your curiosity/inquisitiveness, your hugs, and that you love to laugh. It seems that these things are your constant. I hope we can rely on that to stay the same as you get older.

Today you were super excited about having a half-birthday cake. I think this means this should be a new tradition.