Biophilliac Mommy: Dear 2 year old Meo

Dear two year old Meo,

When I kissed your soft little lips and wished you sweet dreams the night before your birthday, I thought about how much our nights have changed this past year. At the start of this year, you were still nursing to sleep. You snuggled close beside me and had your mama milk and drifted off to dream land. I was pregnant for much of this year, and the long process of nursing you to sleep was difficult for me so we adjusted. Soon you were falling asleep to favorite lullabies and stories created from our imaginations. I realized that you've changed even more. Because after I sang you a song and told you a story about your beautiful birth, and after I kissed you goodnight, your eyes were still open and you said goodnight to me too. If someone would have told me a year ago that soon you would be able to put yourself to sleep I would hardly have believed it. But here we are; how you have grown!

Here are some things about you as a two year old:

1. You love to be read to. Long books, short books, novels, or even just baby pictures books...you never turned down being read to. And as I love reading too, this is something that I really love to do with you.
2. You have a musical ear! You love not only to listen to music but to play instruments and sing as well. You even have begun to make up your own songs! Sometimes you make up words to the tune in your head, and other times your songs tell stories. We think you are amazing.
3. You love spending time outside. Whether it is swinging, riding your bike, going for wagon rides, swimming, blowing bubbles, going for nature walks, or helping me work in the garden...outside is your favorite place to be. And you prefer to be outside without shoes on.
4. You are quite fascinated with cars and trucks...all things with wheels really. Because of this, I've had to learn more about cars and trucks than I ever thought I would...and I still feel clueless. But we are learning about them together. One of your favorite things to do is sit at the end of the road and watch the cars and trucks go by.
5. You like to play games like "BINGO" and "Snails Pace Race".
6. Your favorite foods are blueberries, yogurt, apple sauce, cereal bars, coconut covered raisins, cheese, cow shaped graham crackers. Your favorite drinks are milk and apple juice.
7. You are still nursing, though usually its just before you go to sleep and when you wake up. You would nurse more if you could, but I'm starting to be more restrictive because you're getting to be a big boy and this milk is more for baby Linky now. But I don't have the heart to ween you yet since it's such a special time for you (and I).
8. You learned how to snowshoe this year, are a speedily little runner, have excellent balance, love doing yoga, can stand on one foot, and are beginning to learn the mechanics of swimming (position and kicking...not so much scooping yet).
9. You love to pretend. You can entertain yourself for long periods of time making up little adventures for you and your little toys. You have a great imagination and can magically turn two LEGOS into a truck with a "trail-EE-or", or likewise to a pincushion from my sewing kit. You love to ask us to "make [this toy] talk to me". It's fun to be playing make-believe with you.
10. You learned how to use the potty this year! And you did an amazing job with your transition into undies. You pretty much started wearing undies to bed right away and since you've been potty trained you've only had one accident at night and one during the day...that is incredible!
11. This year you took Music Together, Chinese School, some yoga classes, and two series of swim class this year

Probably the biggest change this year though is that you became a big brother! You had to learn how to share mama and dada, and you had to learn how to share your toys. You have been learning how to be patient and kind when you feel frustrated. But even though there has bee lots to learn about being a big brother, you have taken on your new role very well. You have so much love for your little brother! You are usually gentle with him, you like to teach him new things, you sing to him, you try to comfort him when he is crying, but your favorite thing to do is to make Link laugh. No one can make him laugh as much as you can. And Link absolutely adores you. We are so thankful that you are such great brothers, and hope that you will continue to grow in love and friendship for the rest of your lives.

Meo, we are very proud of how well you have been growing in all ways! You had your three year old check-up today with Dr. Zamboni, and she thought you looked fantastic. Verbally, you are ahead of the curve. Physically, you are right on track:

Height: 37 inches (33rd percentile)
Weight: 31 pounds (38th percentile)

She said you have excellent hand-eye coordination, and a wonderful imagination and lots of creativity. I hope you continue to grow so well!

We love you very much and are excited to witness how you continue to grow and develop in years to come.

To celebrate the start of your reign as a three year old, your Dad and I got you a big wooden castle to play make believe in. I also worked very hard to make you some knights to live in your castle from wood and wire dolls and wool felt. You watched and "helped" me to make the dolls, so they weren't a very big surprise. But I had you chose what to put on their crests (you chose a whale, bumble bee, dinosaur, and frog...which you later changed to a tree with a frog...which I changed to a tree) and you were very excited each step of their creation.

We also got you a book about tractors (Tremendous Tractors) and a book about bats (Stellaluna).

On your big day, we were going to take you to Funtown, but it was supposed to rain so we stayed at home all together instead (we went the next day). You loved having both Mom and Dad home and loved that we just spent the whole day playing with you! We made you're favorite oatmeal blueberry pancakes with fresh berries for breakfast, and alphabet mac and cheese for lunch. In the morning we played outside doing some of your favorite things: swinging, blowing bubbles, tea in the garden, bike riding, etc. In the afternoon you made playdough with Dad and played playdough with animals, we read books, and played board games. We made cauliflower tots for dinner and you and Link had a bubble bath before bed. Your bedtime story was Dr. Suess's birthday book followed by your new favorite "My Neighbor Totoro" book. It ended up being really nice just spending the day together at home and you had so much fun!

Meo called Link a beaver all throughout breakfast

watching videos of rocket ships blasting off

Gone Fishin

The next day, we went to Funtown as promised. We spent the first half of the morning going to rides at Funtown: we went on the carousel, bumper boats, antique roadsters, airplanes, and boats. Then we had some pizza and fries for lunch. It was really hot, so we went over to the Splashtown portion of the park and played around in the water. You didn't want to go on any of the water slides, but Dad and I couldn't resist going on one ourselves. After that, Link was very sleepy and he fell asleep in the carrier on mama. But you were still ready for more fun and went on a helicopter ride a couple times, went on some swings, the teacups (technically you shouldn't have been allowed to go on this, but Dad sneaked you on), and finally on a little train coaster. You love the fast spinning rides and had a blast! We ended our big day by stopping for ice cream on the way home, and you were so tired that you fell asleep with ice cream still in your bowl!