You have a book entitled, ‘You are My Sunshine’, which includes the words of the common song. While reading it to you earlier this week, you pointed up on your bookshelf at your stuffed sunshine and asked me to get it for you. It used to be mine when I was a little girl, and I didn’t know that you even realized it was up there or had noted it before. I gladly got it down for you. Now it too has become a part of your bedtime buddies sleeping party that is rapidly overtaking your bed. You ask for it every night before bed and it joins you, your lovies, Cayman and Camel in the bed. Tonight you asked for it by saying, ‘Where is my sunshine? My only sunshine?’. You are the cutest!

We took you to an Easter egg hunt today at a nearby park. We were excited to see how you did and if you understood the concept. When we got there, eggs were all over the grass and scattered throughout the playground area. You kept picking them up and opening them; you definitely understood the concept of something fun being hidden in the eggs!We had to keep telling you that we couldn’t pick up the eggs until the hunt began. Finally, they announced that you could start. But they also announced that there was a six egg limit per child. You were so excited and really focused, you immediately ran and started filling up your basket. You seemed to be more into it than any of the other kids in your 0-2 age group. Quickly, you had way more than the six egg limit, and I was slyly grabbing eggs out of your basket and throwing them back on the ground for others to collect.

When the hunt was over we found a nice shaded spot to sit down, and you began checking out your loot. They mostly contained tiny foil-wrapped candy bars, and you immediately asked me to open them. You really haven’t had much candy, so it was fun to see you have a tiny Reese’s peanut butter cup and a Snickers (I believe your first of both). You were a fan of both. You also had an egg that had a carrot in it; this meant that you got to go pick out a prize. We headed over to where the prizes were laid out. There were stuffed animals, water toys, sand buckets, so many options. You pondered over them for awhile, then walked over to a package containing five monster trucks, and said ‘This one!’. You grabbed it and were so happy with your prize. I never in a million years would’ve guessed that you’d pick out the trucks.

This afternoon we dyed Easter eggs. You had fun helping me mix up the dye, vinegar and water and helping to put the eggs into the cups of water. You didn’t have much patience for waiting for the eggs to sit and become brighter colored; you wanted to get them out and check their status frequently. You had lots of fun, and didn’t even make too big of a mess.

Your bedtime routine has evolved (devolved?) into you sleeping with quite a few friends. At first you always needed your lovie. At Christmastime when you got your stuffed camel, he immediately became a necessity at bedtime too. Then while on vacation you got your stuffed turtle, Cayman, and he, too, must snuggle up with you at night. Also on our trip you took to sleeping with both of the lovies I’d brought (one as a back-up), and hence, your sleeping buddies now include Camel, Cayman, and two lovies. It’s really quite cute, and recently has proven to serve another purpose too.

This past week or so you’ve been waking up in the night, getting out of bed, and trying to open the door to get out of your room. Your dad wakes to the sound of you continually trying to open the doorknob, and when he opens the door he finds you on the other side, half asleep, arms filled with Camel, Cayman and two lovies. Because of your grasp on your bounty, you’re unable to get a good handle on the doorknob, and haven’t yet been able to get the door open. I much prefer this to you walking around the house at night, so for now, I’m thankful for your stuffed friends for keeping you in your room!

We flew to Grand Cayman today for a much-needed week of sun and relaxation. This was your first flight with your own, purchased seat (as was forced on us by you turning two, darn it). We’re new to the world of you having your own seat, and did some research and decided to bring your carseat with us on the plane. Your dad got it installed and it worked great in keeping you confined on our first flight. When we got to Houston, where we had what seemed like a comfortable hour and a half layover, your dad tried to unbuckle the carseat from the plane and we could not get it undone! There wasn’t enough clearance behind the seat to fully open the buckle to release it.

We tried and tried, than eventually we got a flight attendant. We all tried and tried, we leaned on it to try and free up some tension, we tried everything. In the meantime you were having a great time climbing over the seats in the adjacent row, stating, “I like plane!”. The entire plane emptied, and we were still there. I was beginning to worry about making our connecting flight (which, incidentally, ended up being the exact same plane!). Finally the flight attendant called a mechanic, who I thought would be able to release the seatbelt from the seat fairly easily, but in actuality did nothing but stood and stared at it. Finally after the flight attendant and mechanic talked about it for a while, and he left to get ‘a tool’, she tried one last time, leaning all her weight onto the seat while trying to release the buckle, and was able to free it from the seatbelt!

By this time you were loving playing on the seats, and it was a struggle to get you off the plane. The flight attendants were sick of us being on the plane, and apparently none of them can leave until all passengers were off, so they all helped carry our stuff off the plane so I could carry you (screaming that you wanted to stay on the plane) off. We grabbed some food, then dashed back to re-board the same plane, this time opting to gate check the carseat. We learned, however, that without the carseat you find it great fun to simply unbuckle the seatbelt and get up. So during the rest of the boarding process I held you, we read you a book, and you immediately fell asleep (it was naptime, after all). The flight attendants were preparing the cabin for takeoff, saw you in our lap, and proclaimed that if you had a purchased seat you must be sitting in it! Despite me telling them that we had a carseat, but that we had some complications and had to gate check it, and therefore you couldn’t sleep just sitting in your seat (you’d just fall over with no support), she forced us to sit you down and strap you in, which was ridiculous. There is no way you are safer in that big seat, with one seatbelt around your teeny self, all flopping around, than you are bound tightly in our arms. And on top of it, you of course woke up when we put you in your seat and tried to prop you up with blankets, and didn’t sleep the rest of the flight. So, thanks very much, flight attendant! Luckily, you weren’t fussy and did great on the flight, and we learned not to have you fall asleep in our arms until after takeoff.

We made it to Grand Cayman, got our car and navigated to our hotel without any more drama. We immediately threw on our bathing suits and headed to the beach for sunset. You loved looking at the ocean and watching the waves, though didn’t want to go touch the water. We kept prompting you, trying to encourage your first little dip in the Atlantic, but it wasn’t going to happen tonight. We grabbed dinner, enjoying the live music by the pool, then headed in for bedtime.

You’ve started to proclaim, “I did it!” excitedly after doing something yourself, usually putting on an article of clothing or your shoes. Today your dad and I were in the kitchen preparing dinner, and you were entertaining yourself elsewhere. I heard you happily announce, “I did it!” from the other side of the kitchen counter, and upon walking around the counter to discover what you did, saw you seated in your highchair! You’d climbed up the highchair, navigated into the seat (which had the tray on it, making this feat even more impressive), and were happily sitting there. You were very proud of yourself, and got really upset when I explained that in fact, no, we do not climb into our highchair.

We switched your bed from crib setup to toddler bed this morning. I’ve been anxious about making this change, wondering when would be a good time and how you’d handle it. But we decided it’d be better to do it sooner rather than later, since we need the crib for the baby and want you used to sleeping in a ‘big kid bed’ before that happens. So your dad made the change this morning, and you had fun crawling around and exploring on it soon thereafter.

You went down without any problem at nap time, and slept for a couple of hours as usual. So far so good!

Today is your second birthday. For the last couple of months, as your friends at school have had their birthdays, you’ve celebrated them there with treats and the singing of the traditional birthday song. You’ve learned the song by now, and sing it at least once a day, often asking us to sing it to you. You tell us who to sing it to, demanding ‘Freja’, or ‘Kate’, or ‘Jonathan’. For the last few days we’ve been saying that your birthday is coming up. We ask you what you want for your birthday. You almost always say, ‘cat’.

We woke up and snuggled in bed this morning, and wished you happy birthday with kisses and love. I told you how happy I was that you came to meet us two years ago. Then I gave you one little gift to open before school, Mickey Mouse shoes and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt. You loved the shoes, and tried to put them on over your pajamas; they didn’t fit. You didn’t show much interest in the shirt, and when I asked if you wanted to wear it today, you instead requested your Broncos’ shirt. Good to see you’re still a fan after their sad loss on Sunday!

We took you to school for the day but your dad and I came back this afternoon for your class birthday celebration. When we walked in you had a pink crown on your head that said ‘Emma is 2’. I’m not sure if you wore it all day, but you certainly seemed happy to have it on. We brought mini cupcakes and everyone sat down and sang to you. You had a special chair that you had decorated yourself, with pink and purple crepe paper. You sat there and had your cupcake first. You ate the frosting off, then the cupcake. You made a mess and seemed enthralled with the cupcake. You asked for more when you were done.

We left school and went to meet Nana and Papa for dinner. We had a nice dinner and celebrated both yours and Nana’s birthdays. You were a little fussy and I think just tired from your big day. We had a cookie with ice cream and two candles on top, and you enjoyed eating that. You’ve had lots of sugar today. I’d brought you a few gifts to open at the restaurant, thinking you could play with them while we ate. They were a glue stick, tape and scissors. I’d brought paper and poms poms for you to make a masterpiece with. You became obsessed with the scissors and very frustrated that you could not make them work. The scissors quickly were put away.



We headed home and opened gifts. Nana and Papa bought you a very nice art easel, and many art supplies to go with it – paint, dry erase crayons, chalk, paper, and paintbrushes. You’re going to have so much fun playing with all of it tomorrow. Nana bought you a cute, metal Madeline-themed tea set. It is tiny, and you immediately loved playing with it, bringing over your dolls to give them some tea. You also got a nice book about tea time.

Gretchen and family gave you a stuffed camel and a book about camels. While reading books tonight before bed you clutched onto the camel, and when I laid you down in your crib you clung onto it. I was worried the eyes might be a choking hazard, and tried to take him away from you after you’d been lying for a while, but when I tried to pull it away, you grabbed on to the camel and said ‘CAMEL!’ and I gave in and let you sleep with the camel. When we came in to get you this morning you were still holding on to him.

Your favorite things include:
• Mickey Mouse Club
• Mickey Mouse books (your favorite is ‘Mickey Mouse Picnic’)
• Diapering and un-diapering your dolls
• Yogurt
• Singing the Happy Birthday Song

You currently weigh about 22.5 pounds and are thus firmly in the 2nd percentile for weight. You are 34 and a half inches long (2’10.5” as your dad puts it) and in the 77th percentile in height. You are happy and healthy, active and smart. You keep us on our toes always!

We’ve taken you skiing a couple of times. Your first attempt was just a few minutes in our backyard, sometime back in December. We strapped on your skis and let you walk around the yard a bit. You were perfectly content until I decided to pick you up and put you in the snow; you’d been walking on the bare concrete. That you did not like and that quickly put an end to your first ski adventure.

Your second ski adventure comprised of us taking you to the base area at Beaver Creek the weekend of your dad’s birthday, in January. It was a beautiful sunny day, and you had a blast. First we let you just walk around on the flat surface, getting used to having the skis on your feet. You did great, never falling or tangling your skis. You did do something curious, multiple times: you’d stop, lift your hands over your head, then bend your body in half and put your head and hands on the ground. You were trying to do somersaults! On skis! It was pretty awesome. Next your dad took you to a little hill, and skied down with you between his legs. You kept asking to do it again and again. You caught the ski bug!


This weekend was your latest skiing adventure. We took you to A-Basin, and hiked up the beginner run – Molly Hogan – with you. Your dad skied down with you between his legs. This was quite a long run for you, but you enjoyed it and kept asking for more, despite the frigid, cold temperatures. I got cold before you did, and soon we both headed in to warm up while your dad, nana and papa skied. I took videos of the event, and kept telling your dad someday they’ll be showing this when you’re a pro skier!

It is pretty amazing to hear all the new words and phrases that come out of your little mouth. At least once I day I hear something new that I’ve never heard you say. A couple days ago you said ‘I do it’, as opposed to ‘Emma do it’, which is what you usually say. You’ve also recently started saying ‘Go away’, as in ‘Mama go away. Go away mama!’. It’s a little sad! I think you’re picking up a lot of these things at school. You’ve been doing great at school, and the teachers are so happy with your behavior. You haven’t been hitting or biting in a few weeks. I’m hopeful that you’re past that phase. Perhaps they taught you to say ‘Go away’ when someone was bothering you or in your space? I don’t know.

We’ve been holding a secret close for a couple months, though you have been in on it: we’ll be welcoming your brother or sister to our family this summer! We’re so excited, but also a bit overwhelmed at the thought of preparing for and actually having two little ones. You like to talk to my belly and often say “baby” and point to and kiss my belly. You like to say “shhh, baby is sleeping” and “night night baby”. At least once a day you point at my belly button and say “baby out”. We explain that the baby has to stay “in” for a while longer, has to get lots bigger, and that my belly will get lots bigger too. You clearly do not understand.