As it turns out I can call you 2 y/o now. I don’t have to count the months in my mind anymore when people ask how old you are. Yay! That’s the up side. The down side is this is going by too fast! we went to your 2 year old check up today. You got your Polio shot and took it like a champ, but the minute we walked into the office you said “I don’t want to go to doctor’s office. I don’t think so!”. You cried about that for a while but you calmed down after Dr. G told you she fell down and got a bruise too (you have one on your knee). You are off the charts on height. Literally higher than the 100th percentile and at 50% for weight. (You are always at 50 for weight and 97 for height). 37 3/4” tall and 25.3lbs. Ooh and the Dr says you have a big head, but it looks normal to me and she says it’s probably to hold your big brains. Now that makes sense! Dr. G was impressed with your “advanced” vocabulary and conceptualization of time and space. In your 24th month you became a great story teller. You have a superb memory and can account, with great detail, what happened weeks, even months, ago. You just started telling me stories this month. Mostly about things that really happened, but occasionally you’ll throw in some fiction. You also say things like, “Last night” or “yesterday” when describing events and you use it correctly! It’s apparent when you are searching for the right word. You will stop mid sentence, give a little stutter, and look away while scrunching your brow. You choose to address one person or a group of people when the message is big enough. You always tell me “Be careful” when I’m working on something. You became an ‘expert’ (still a few stumbles here and there) in numbers, colors and shapes this month. You did so in both English and Spanish. You can count to 12 unassisted (English) and to a wobbly 10 (Spanish). You recognize hearts (shaky in Spanish), triangles, octagons, ovals, circles and squares in both languages. To reiterate a previous entry (because a lot of mom’s family doubts this), you completely understand the same amount of Spanish as you do English. You choose to speak and/or reply in english almost all of the time, but there are some words you say primarily in Spanish. Mom always teaches you everything in english and Spanish, pop only in English, and Tata and papo used to speak to you in only Spanish, but papo speaks to you in mostly English now and Tata does both. Either way, I’m proud of you and all of your talents! Now, for a nasty new development… tantrums/emotional break downs. You have had them more frequently in this month (about 2-3 xs per week). You even had 2 in one day this week! What happens is I will tell you no for something or you will be refusing to get dressed or something of that nature. Then you start to cry and lay on the floor and ask for or say no to me…incessantly! You don’t flail or kick or anything, but when it goes on too long you begin to lose control of your emotions, meaning you are past the point of calming yourself down and you need me to step back in. We are trying to find the ‘right’ way to deal with these episodes but so far it feels like a dance. I’m doing some soul searching, research and prayer in this area. We need all the big guns we can get! You’re such a sweet, happy, loving child, I want to help you stay that way as much as possible without letting you walk all over me because….that ain’t gonna happen! I’ve loved watching you grow and mature. It is honesty bitter sweet though. I’m going to miss the baby stage, but I know I did all I could to be present in every moment! And so it begins…the pre-schooler stage. Bring it on!