Happy Two-Year Anniversary

Dear Kevin,

Tomorrow marks the two-year anniversary of you joining our family and of us joining yours. Usually when I note some sort of appropriately significant amount of time since we met you, I spend more time thinking about what it was like at the beginning. This year, I’m ready to tell you more about who you are now.

1. You are charming to those people that you allow to see some of the real you.
2. You dance like there may be no music left tomorrow.
3. You love to look at books and have them read to you. Lately you have a strong interest in learning to read.
4. You love role-playing, whether with toys or other people.
5. Your feet are more coordinated with a ball than your hands are.
6. You love swimming lessons.
7. You can turn off the TV and the video player by yourself.
8. You enjoy watching Leapfrog videos, Thomas the Tank Engine, Blue’s Clues, Kipper and Berenstain Bears.
9. Your favorite books are Berenstain Bears stories and you like to pick out stacks of dinosaur books from the non-fiction section of the library.
10. You are testing the waters of telling lies, particularly when we ask if you did something wrong.
11. You are learning to play independently and that is usually with little people or other toy figures.
12. You have a grand time playing energetic and rough-house type games with your cousin, Julia.
13. You don’t like most people touching you, especially younger kids.
14. Your favorite part of preschool is Show ‘n Tell on Fridays.
15. Your imagination is off the charts.
16. You take good care of Alyssa, watching out for her.
17. You use words like "actually" and "similar."
18. You’ve learned to ask Papa, "Are you joking?" instead of immediately crying when he tells you something you don’t want to hear.
19. You know that you like the taste of orange medicine but not always the red kind.
20. You like to help in the kitchen, particularly with measuring and mixing ingredients.
21. Your tastebuds have become more refined and pizza is still your favorite food.
22. You eat all of your vegetables when your teachers at preschool tell you to.
23. You would like to drink “Sprite soda” all day but you are happy enough with milk when I say no to soda (which is 99% of the time.)
24. You have figured out how to solve the cases of Freddi Fish and Putt Putt on your computer.
25. You have a tendency to tell us you can’t do something because you’re too lazy to try or because you tried once and it didn’t immediately work.
26. Your manners are impeccable for a 4-yr old.
27. You rarely have to go to timeout.
28. You delight in making us proud of you.
29. You work hard to make me laugh.
30. You are afraid of dogs, although you sometimes try taking steps to get past that.

Know that no matter what I’ve left off the list, you are an incredible person and I can now see past myself to want the best for you and to enjoy seeing you as my child.

Love,
Mama