Dearest Reese, Reesie-Roo, Reesie-Pie, Reese-a-roni,

On November 29th we celebrated your second birthday over a chocolate cupcake and a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

At two years old you are talking up a storm (in a weird Boston/NYC-ish accent) and we love coming home from work and hearing about your day, even if most of the details are fabricated.

You are a little boss lady and one of your favorite things to do is to tell people where they should sit. “Mama, sit here!” “Dada, sit on the floor, read a book!”

You love music, instruments and dancing. Every night after your bath you run to your CD player, press play and dance like a naked maniac to whatever song comes on. Most nights the dance party ends in tears when I pick you up to put you in your pajamas. From your changing table, with fat tears rolling down your cheeks, you often cry out, “I want to dance!” Jessie Spano style. It’s both sad and hilarious.

And oh yea, you are a drama queen. You have taken to burying your face in your hands and shaking your head when you don’t get something you want.

You love telling us what you don’t like. You say it sternly and tersely, “I don’t like it!” Your father and I often use this and a few of your other catchphrases (said in your voice) when we are talking to each other, and we crack ourselves up. Dislikes noted include the doctor, your unborn sibling, Miles, whatever I make you for dinner, candles, and Elmo when he wears a disguise/costume (you get particularly offended when he dresses like a cowboy.)

You are a Daddy’s girl. You want Dada to give you a bath, Dada to read you stories and Dada to sing “Kookaburra” to you around the clock. I am accepting the fact that you have no loyalty to the one who carried you for 9 months. I see how it is.

We know you are our child because you love food. Certain food. You are super picky but you would eat all day long if we let you (sorry, girl.) You like to say, “I eat like cookie monster”, and then shove food into your mouth with both hands. At Thanksgiving, when Dada asked you what you were thankful for you said food first, then your books. We like your priorities. You love graham crackers, Cheerios, apples, oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, raisins, rice and beans, and little else (aside from the obvious; cookies, cakes, ice cream, chips etc.)

You let us put you down to sleep every night with no problem.  When we go downstairs we look at your monitor and see you sitting in your crib, turning the pages of your books in the pitch dark. In the morning when we open your door the first thing you say is, “Go downstairs and eat oatmeal!”

You are coming out of your shell a bit more around other kids. You are slowly getting braver and don’t always run away from other kids, especially if they have the good toys. It takes you awhile to warm up to new people, but usually after 15 minutes or so you feel comfortable enough to tell them where they should sit and what they should do.

We look forward to your third year so much; to seeing you as a big sister and to hearing more of what you have to say. We wish you would stop growing up so fast, but we love seeing the little person you are becoming. You make it really hard to not be one of those parents who brags about their kid all the time, so I just do it on this blog instead.