Dos

It's really hard to believe you're two. Not because the past year has gone by so quickly (which it has), but because you're so tall and verbal that you seem more like a three-year-old.

What is hard to believe is that you were taking your first steps about this time last year. Now you run, jump, dance and occasionally walk. Your vocabulary has grown from just a few unrecognizable words to complete sentences. My two favorite sentences that you say now are "Don't do that, mommy" and "Bye, bye. I'll see you later." Make that three: you also say "Bless you, mommy" when I sneeze. Four: "I love you mommy." (NFD: Note From Dad: He loves that you say "Daddy's awesome")

Your love affair with books has only increased, but now instead of just chewing on books, you like to point out colors (every color to you is yellow) and count objects. The other night in the bath tub you make believe read to me for the first time. It was so sweet.

You LOVE music. You've started singing along a lot more when I sing to you. Current favorites are "ABCs" (you actually get most of the letters right) and "Happy Birthday." Of course, we can't just sing Happy Birthday once. We have to sing Happy Birthday to everyone you've ever met. Tonight at dinner we sang to Georgia (several times), daddy, Palmer, mommy, pops, nonny and Coco (even though Coco moved away, you're still obsessed). You're still a big dancer, too. You could be having the time of your life playing and you'll drop everything to dance to a silly credit card commercial. Then you look at us as if to say, "why aren't you dancing?" Because dancing to annoying commercials is totally normal, right?

We've noticed recently that you're starting to grasp the concept of first, second, last, etc. We think this is partially due to our "duck, wee" routine. There is a duck pond at the entrance to our neighborhood, so we stop and watch the ducks for a couple of minutes before heading home. Then we drive really fast around the traffic circle and say "weeeeeee." You ask to "see duck" and "go weee" everytime we're in the car, so we have ample opportunities to say "First we have to go to the store. Then we'll see the ducks. Then we'll go wee."

You've definitely become more affectionate, especially since your baby brother was born. You've always been so independent and not very cuddly. Now you LOVE to snuggle. You've become a little more gentle with Palmer...kind of. You don't hit him on the head everyday now. It's more like five times a week at this point. I noticed that the kids on Jon and Kate Plus 8 smack each other on the head constantly for no apparent reason, so I'm assuming this is pretty normal. However, I will ask about it at your 2-year check-up, and I will continue to put you in time out when you do it.

At two years old you are more fun than you've ever been. We do so much fun stuff together. We go to the park, take walks, color, read, sing. One of my favorite activities is simply watching you play amongst yourself. You've started playing make believe, talking to your babies and books. We're really looking forward to this summer, especially our trips to the pool. We're going to have so much fun!