I have a two year old!

My darling Punkin Pie:

You have walked this earth for two full years. You have lived and breathed and screamed its energy for 730 days. You are the earth, and the earth is you (and we are all together, coo coo cachoo). You are an amazement and a joy.

Life has been very busy for us lately, Punk. You are growing and learning and changing so much, it is staggering. You speak with the fluency of a three-year-old, yet have the emotional struggles of a two-year-old. You want to own everything, do everything, be everything, experience everything. You are conjugating verbs, identifying gender (though what is gender anyway, I wonder?), and... you HAVE PREFERENCES. Oh lordy, do you ever.

"Mama, I want a beautiful dress!"
"I want the purple one!"
"I want to brush first and you can brush after!"
"I want to have a blue bowl!"
"I want to do puzzles now."

It is so sweet and so exciting to hear you voice your opinions out into the universe. I hardly believe you are the same child from a year ago, the knee-walker who was beginning to say "ball." How does one little brain go from "ball" to "I want to brush first, and you can brush after!" in one year? It is staggering, my love. Staggering.



Things you love: books, puzzles, toy phones, trains, and beautiful dresses. And anything purple. And television. You have become a certifiable television junkie. You need a 12 step, for sure. You know the theme songs for every television show we have ever watched. You pretend to watch television using your dollhouse furniture. You request, "Let's watch some 'On Demand.'"

I think the most exciting thing, Punkeroo, is how much living your childhood is reliving mine. We are so similar and you are just so bright and exciting and fun and lovable. You have so much empathy, so much spunk, so much action... yet you have the most amazing auditory memory and are such a people-pleaser, just like yours truly. You are growing into your own person and we can do so much together. Mommy and I love having you in our lives so much - truly you make our lives worth living and make us better people. You are everything we could have imagined.

Happy 2nd birthday to my most beautiful shining star.

Love,
Mama


Punk and a friend sitting on the dog at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI. I have sat on this dog so many times in my own childhood. Amazing.