Dear Bella,

You’re TWO! Oh, so very two! And, honestly, I love every second of it. You’re adorable, stubborn as all get out, and the sweetest, kindest little girl I’ve ever met.

Oh, where to begin?

You are SO smart. You know all of your letters, most of your letter sounds and can count to 14 (which is sometimes followed by 16, some random teens and then 20). You speak as clearly as many three year olds and your grammar and vocabulary far exceed many of them as well. You regularly speak sentences like “Daddy will come home before supper and then we will go to soccer and I will cheer for Primo!” It’s seriously amazing. You do have some of the cute “little kid” speech idiosyncrasies though, like l=w (I will = I wiw; Primo = Pwimo) and th = d/v (they=dey/vey). You can read a few words (a, I, it, the) and love to look through books while making up the story that goes with it. You do so many things that are expected of kindergarten students that you blow my mind on a regular basis.

You love with wild abandon, and you love many many beings. You, of course, love Daddy and I. Primo is definitely your favourite person on the planet. You love your grandparents, and insist on phoning Grandma Betty every day. You love Chloe. “See’s a bootiful cat! I wuv her!” You love Thai & Mavi. “Thai & Mavi awe my BEST fwends! Dey awe so sweet. My sweet puppy fwends. I WUV dem!” You smother us all with hugs & kisses (especially after you pinch or hit us, and also include an “I so sowwy Mommy. I wuv you sooo much!”) I can’t think of anything better in the world that cuddling you and feeling your cute little cheeks pressed against mine. I have no doubt that we will have our struggles as we both deal with the female hormones of different ages & stages (particularly because you got your stubborn streak from yours truly, but know that I will always love you just as much as I do this day. While I can’t imagine loving you more, my love for you does seem to grow daily so perhaps I may even love you more when you’re acting like a moron during your teenage years.

You love – and I do mean love – pink. When I get your clothes ready for you, there must be at least some pink…preferably all pink…or you shout “Dat’s not pink! I WUV pink! I wear pink! It’s my favowit!” When I asked you what kind of birthday party you wanted to have, you replied “Pink. Princess and pink.” When I asked what kind of cake you wanted, you replied “Pink.” When I asked who you wanted to invite, you initially replied “Primo, Daddy, Mommy, Grandma Betty, Taffy and Baby Ty-ah and Pink!” Of course, you added all of your other grandparents and family members and a few other friends as time went on, but you never removed Pink from the list! I think you were just making sure I really understood that your party was to be a pink party no matter who came.

In addition to pink and your family, there are other things that you love. Babies top the list – real ones and play ones. You have more babies than you can play with but you rotate in a fair manner. You put diapers on them (actually, you get me to do it for you), take off their diapers and put them on the potty, get them dressed, feed them, tuck them in for naps, wake them up, take them for a walk in your stroller and then start all over again. You love ponies of all kinds, but especially your My Little Ponies (because there are lots of pink ones).

You have the best laugh, and when you and Primo get going the sound of the two of you cracking up makes my join right in. It brings tears to my eyes to see the two of you having so much fun together every single day. Your laugh is loud, just like mine (which is just like Grandpa Jack’s was). You laugh from the heart, and it shines in your eyes. You love to be tickled, and say so sweetly “Pees tickle me Mommy?” And, of course, I do – just to hear that giggle!

You, of course, play all day long, and you love to do crafts. You love to paint, colour, glue, play with Play Doh, stick stickers and do pretty much everything else that would qualify as crafts.

You are currently rather a crappy sleeper. You go to bed easily but wake up and spout the cutest little “Hi Mommy! I need a cudduw! Pees sing to me?” Therefore, it’s completely our fault that you’re used to coming to bed with us sometime between 11 pm and 3 am every night. You always go right back to sleep once you’re with us, but you generally only last about 10 minutes without crying if we put you back in your bed. I absolutely love to wake up to a smooch and a “Good mo-ning Mommy! I wuv you!” so I’m not really complaining, but it does affect Daddy’s sleep a bit. Just last night we decided we’d better start giving you a little cuddle and putting you back in your crib instead, and you seemed pretty fine with that. You’re still napping – about 45-75 minutes a day at home and anywhere from 2-3 hours when you’re at Michelle’s. (How is that even fair?)

Grandma Betty bought you your first package of big girl panties for Christmas and you’ve had one dry day in them already. You look so darn cute in them that it’s tempting to leave you in them all the time but we aren’t in the frame of mind for that yet. You do super many days but there are still times that you’re too busy to want to go to the potty so you’re obviously not really ready. You won’t poop in the potty yet either. You stand right in the middle of a room to poop in your pants and tell everyone else “I’m pooping. I need pwivacy. Pwees go away?” Maybe Easter vacation – we’ll wait and see when you decide to be ready.

Your second Christmas last month was a big hit. You were so excited about the songs, about Santa, about the presents…everything just thrilled you. You just loved our tree and asked to have the lights turned on as soon as you woke up in the morning. You were deservedly spoiled, but not rotten at all. In fact, when you opened the first pony from your stocking you hugged it and were just thrilled. When I asked if you wanted another, you said “I already got a pony, Mommy!” You loved everything – but more so the things that were pink, of course. We spent Christmas – ten days, actually – at Grandma Betty’s, which was awesome. Grandma Jeet & Grandpa Roger were in India so left gifts for us all at their house and we picked those up early to keep you entertained until Christmas. It was perfect as you and Primo both loved everything they gave you.

Bella, I just can’t imagine a little girl sweeter or cuter than you. I know all mothers are biased, but I know that you’re the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever met. I wish for you a lifetime of uninhibited joy, loud laughter, and dreams come true.

I love you from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky, and all the way around the world!

Mommy