2 years, 2 months.

My baby, the holidays have been particularly exciting for you this year. You've made your very first snowman with Papa, tasted the flaky chill of snow and added decorations to our little Christmas tree. You love to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, read your 12 Days of Christmas book and open the little doors of your Playmobile advent calendar each morning. You refer to all Christmas trees and decorations as "Kissmass Stuff!" and you all but lust after cranberry sauce and egg nog. I have to lure you inside from playing in the snow to warm up with "hot chockatea wif keem" (hot chocolate with whipped cream).

You've also become quite the comedian in the last few months. For one thing, you've taken to mimicking your best friend's laughter, which you are completely aware of and find hilarious. After a recent play date with one of our pregnant mommy friends, you came home poking at your tummy and pushing it out as far as you could, exclaiming "I'm a BIG tummy!!" One of the first times I gave you a cup of eggnog - you sipped and sipped until it was all gone, then pulled the cup away from your face slowly. Looking shocked, you shouted into the empty cup, "Oh Egg Nog! Come back! Come back!" While reading one of your word books, I was teaching you what a jellyfish is... when you exclaimed, "ohh Mama! A jelly-shit!" I about died laughing.

On another note, we fully weaned from breastfeeding a couple of weeks after your second birthday. After slowly cutting down the nursing sessions, night-weaning and reaching my goal of two years, you almost effortlessly accepted that my milk was "going nigh-nigh" for good. However, when we're snuggling together on the couch or you're watching me get dressed in the morning, you will occasionally ask me to pick you up. Then you'll pat my chest gently, and with a very matter of fact tone remind us both that "memes go nigh-nigh." And then, you go on with your day, perfectly happy to drink from your cup and simply cuddle with me. Weaning seems to have helped you grow closer to your Papa as well, which I know he appreciates very much.

You are very perceptive of emotions and fully recognize happy, sad, grumpy and tired. You often voice your own emotions, muttering "I'm sad" or "I'm grumpy" when I've told you something you dislike. A few days ago while we were at the market, you most uncharacteristically refused to listen to a word I said and kept running away from me. As we were leaving, you ran back into the market and I had to chase after you and grab you. I scolded you a bit outside the market, though you didn't cry as I think you knew you'd done something unacceptable. We talked about how "you're a good girl, but we need to work on your listening." You told me you were sad and grumpy and after a few minutes of walking and discussion, you sighed slowly and said, "okay, I'm sorry. I'm happy now." I feel that much of what is considered to be "terrible" two year old behavior has been curbed by honest discussion of emotions. I try to remind myself often that children learn by example, so I do my best to model stillness and empathy. Letting go of the reactive behavior I was programmed to create has been a long journey down a path I will continue to walk, probably for the rest of this life.

My little bunny, you are such a loving child. Our friends are constantly reminding us of what a pleasure it is for them to be around you. You've fallen in love with your best friend's mama; you're constantly wanting to show your affection to her, to Mama and Papa, and to all of your animals too. You've taken to bringing your hard plastic Schleich animals to bed with you. How you sleep through rolling over their hard little plastic figures I will never know! You mimic the way I put you to sleep at night with your animals. After our bedtime routine is over, I give you All The Kisses before you go to sleep. When I sit next to the bed to let you drift off, you give your animals All The Kisses too, repeating "Okay one more All The Kisses and then time to go nigh-nigh. Muah! Muah!" Your pretend play as really taken off and you recreate stories we read and movies we watch with your toys. You love to make art with glue and sparkles, and you are simply thriving in our homeschooling pre-school environment. 

You've grown into such a beautiful little person and you are so, so very loved.