A Letter to My Son on His 2nd Birthday
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Dear Nathaniel,
It’s hard to believe that you’re two years old today. So much has changed in a year. You’re running, jumping, speaking in complete sentences (“I want to go to farmers market.”), and becoming more independent every day (“No Mommy, go away.”).
Nathaniel chose his own outfit yesterday.
We just got home from a ten day vacation, and I swear you’ve gotten more grown up during that time. It was so cool to see how excited you got when we went to the airport and flew to Chicago. It was your fifth trip by plane, but the first one that you knew about in advance and were visibly ready to go.
Last month I wrote about how you’re not my baby anymore, and even though I feel a twinge of sadness in that, mostly I’m just excited about watching you grow into the person you’re becoming. You are such an awesome kid. I say that at least five times a day. You’re curious, creative, and compassionate, with a gentle and feisty soul. It’s an amazing combination, and it’s extremely fun to experience.
Here are some things that you like right now:
* Hanging out with Uncle Michael
* Gnomes
* Spongebob Squarepants, even though you don’t watch the show
* The painted bikers from the Fremont Solstice Parade
* Batman (“Batguy”), Spiderman, and Wonder Woman, even though you’ve only seen the intros and the awesome video of Diana Prince repeatedly spinning into Wonder Woman on YouTube
* Sweets - cookies, cupcakes, frozen yogurt, ice cream…you want it all
* Helping Daddy cook and bake
* Going to the playground
* All of the animals you meet on the street, including roly poly bugs and bees
* Drawing and coloring
* Lots of reading - Some of your favorite books right now are Hop on Pop
* Telling stories about your experiences - Your latest story is the one about the guy that bumped his head on the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago, and you’re still talking about the “Batguy” ride at Luna Park Cafe, “Running Guy,” and the painted bikers at the Fremont Solstice Parade.
* Playing in water - fountains, hoses, lakes, pools, “washing” your toys in the sink. Ironically, you’re anti-bath/shower these days.
* Dancing and skipping
* Grover and Elmo (and “Grover buddy,” which means reading Another Monster at the End of this Book on my iPad)
You can sing parts of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Frère Jacques, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the ABC song, and the Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spiderman theme songs. Sometimes you do mashups, like “Itsy bitsy Spiderman, Spiderman…”. Seriously.
You have an awesome sense of humor. You make jokes like insisting that your shoulder is your elbow, saying that you’re scared of things you’re not scared of, pausing, and then smiling and saying, “Noooooooo….,” calling me “Daddy” and Daddy “Mommy.” You have the most wonderful laugh in the entire world and you use it often. You also love making funny faces. One of your current favorites is your impression of “Mr. Norman,” a character from the awesome book Extra Yarn
I feel so lucky and grateful to be your mother, and I celebrate this every single day. You’re so much fun to spend time with and you’re such an awesome person. Happy birthday, my dear, sweet, loving, hilarious, adventurous son. I hope your upcoming year is at least as fantastic as the last two have been.
I love you with every single bit of my being and I’ll love you forever.
Mommy
