My Amelia,
Two years ago my life changed. Two years ago I took on this stressful, crazy, rewarding, fulfilling, magical role of being a mother. Two years ago I started living and loving in a way I could never have imagined.
You’ve taught me unconditional love, selflessness, patience (ok, maybe not) and so much more in the last two years. This last year was even better than the first. You started the year out by fine tuning your walking skills which you started perfecting just before your first birthday. You started calling me Mommy shortly thereafter too…and Dada turned into Daddy. You went from saying about 10 words around your first birthday to saying more than we could possible count by your second. People who know you say that you’re the most verbal toddler they’ve ever met.
You can count to 20 in English, for the most part to 10 in Spanish and you know your entire alphabet. While you know your numbers you’re actually already making associations with counting, you can count 2 penguins sitting on ice in your book or 4 airplanes flying in the sky. You love to sing; you know Row, Row, Row Your Boat, You are My Sunshine, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle and a few others.
You’re pretty good with sharing, except when it’s with your cousin Keira…we’ll work on that more in your third year since you’re going to be a big sister in about 7 months. You’re trying to potty train yourself, you ask to go potty and you often run to the “big girl potty” yelling “come on mommy!” I am certain we’ll have you potty trained much sooner than later. You’re a fantastic little artist; I am constantly amazed at all of the projects you bring home from school. You’re a big helper, from helping your teachers change diapers to cleaning up your toys at home.
You’re curious; you’ll climb on anything. You’re fearless; you’ll slide down big girl slides head first and jump up and down on any bed we’ll let you stand on. You’re stubborn; you won’t eat something unless you really like it. You’re independent; you do what you want on your terms when you want to do them and you won’t follow anyone’s lead. You’re infectious; I’ve never met a child more loving, more willing to give kisses and hugs. You’re sensitive; you feel others’ emotions and feed off of them. You’re loving; you know when mommy is sick and you know exactly what to say or do. In just one year you’ve turned from my sweet little infant just learning to take your own steps into a curious, fearless, stubborn, independent, infectious, sensitive and loving little girl.
I sometimes miss that sweet little baby I enjoyed the first year because you grew too quickly. But I can say with absolute honesty that I love the Amelia I know today more than the one I knew yesterday. I can’t believe it, I can’t believe how my heart has grown and how it keeps expanding to take all of you in. I still cannot believe that you’re mine.
I hope and pray that the things you’ve learned during your second year will lead you down the right paths in life. I hope that when you read this when you’re in your twenties or fifties that some of the lessons you learned during your 2nd year will still be with you and that you’ll still be my curious, fearless, stubborn, independent, infectious, sensitive and loving Amelia.
With all of my love,
Mommy
