Dear Little Peanut,

You are TWO AND A HALF YEARS OLD!!  Oh my word, Pumpkin, you are absolutely the most entertaining member of our family right now.  Your enthusiasm for life is contagious.  You are so smart and understand so much about life already.  I love watching you explore and marvel and push your boundaries.  You love us fiercely and are never afraid to show it.  You’re resilient and tenderhearted.  I love just spending time with you getting to know this little person that your dad and I made.  You are a piece of my heart and I couldn’t imagine a single day without you in it.

Some facts about YOU:

-        You are NOT potty trained yet.  Size 4 diapers (at night), size 2T-3T pull-ups (at school), and size 4 undies (at home).  You absolutely know the potty drill, have been successful many times, but do not WANT to go to the potty when there is something else more interesting holding your attention.  I believe this is why they say “wait until they’re ready”.  You’re too busy to be ready yet.

-        You wear size 2T shirts and shorts (shorts are still a little big).  You still wear size 18-24 dresses.  Size 6 shoes.

-        Your hair is getting long and curls at the end.  Since it’s summer it is white blonde and your skin is brown.  You have beautiful blue eyes that everyone comments on.

-        You still suck your thumb and I’m still not worried about it.

-        Your favorite breakfast food is porridge (oatmeal) with blueberries in it.  Your favorite dinner is chicken nuggets with ketchup (surprise surprise).  You still love avocados and can eat an entire one in one sitting. 

-        Your favorite thing to say: “Mommy whatcha doin?”  You also say “I love you, you’re my beeessstt friend!”, “I not want to!”, and “Mommy I need to hold you”.  Of course that’s not all you say…those are just the things I hear about 100 times a day.  You are VERY VERBAL.  Your vocabulary is fantastic (people are always commenting on it) and you enunciate very well.  You talk non-stop and I love it.  There is always something going on in that little mind.

-        You also sing all the time.  Right now your favorite song is the B-I-B-L-E.  You also make up songs pertaining to whatever activity we are doing at the moment. 

-        You know all of your letters and the sound each one makes.  You will be reading very soon…I just need to make time to work on it with you.

-        You love your little brother and are so sweet to him.  Most of the time.  Sometimes you can get a little rough, but I think you’re just over-enthused to have someone to play with at home.

-        You are shy when you are around someone unfamiliar.  You also get over it within about 10 minutes.

-        You are taking swim lessons and will hopefully be swimming by yourself by the end of summer.  So far you can go under water and jump in, but you are stubborn about kicking your legs.

-        You love your cousins and we just spent some time at the beach with them over the 4^th of July.  You think they are super cool.

-        You and the Stinker share a room now that Nana and Grandad stay with us during the week.  You still sleep with a noisemaker.  We do bath, pjs, stories, prayers, then bedtime.  You still need one of us to sit with you until you fall asleep, which takes forever right now.  You are starting to say your own night time prayer, which makes my heart so happy.  Last night it went “God is great, God is good…thank you Jesus for this day…Amen!”.

-        You and the Stinker have been sick a TON since you started school.  You’ve had strep a total of 3 times, a bacterial rash on your booty, several viruses, and a constant runny nose.  I hear it takes a year to get over it all, so let’s hope we make it!

-        You love your friends and your teachers at school.  I only hear good reports.  They say you are super sweet and kind.

-        You love ice cream day and water day the most at school.

-        You love to run.  I’m going to let you start running with me when you’re a little older, but for now you just run whenever you’re outside in a wide open space (and usually we have to chase after you!).

-        Sometimes you are not a very good listener.  This is the thing that gets you into trouble the most.  You completely tune us out when we are asking you to do something you don’t want to do.  We’re working on it.

-        You love playing in the sprinklers.  We put them on your little slide and on the trampoline to make a mini water park out in the back.

-        You wake up at least once every night.  You usually come into our room and climb into bed on my side.  Then your daddy takes you back to bed and end up falling asleep in there for the rest of the night.

-        You love being a “princess”.  Any time you are wearing something with ruffles you call it a princess dress. 

-        You are just now starting to talk about being scared of things.  You said you were scared of lions last night (probably because at school they had a big taxidermied lion out for VBS).

-        You love the beach and playing in the waves with your daddy.  You also like to build sandcastles and collect shells.

-        You are not self-conscious in the slightest and I hope you hold on to that forever.

We love you so much Peanut and I hope you hold on to your sassy fire for life.  We are so blessed to be your parents.