Your first haircut, camping, bows, and your expressions

My lovely little star,

Your beautiful curly hair has been growing rich and wild, with your baby hair frizz, hanging on the edges. It was hard to get myself to take you to a hair dresser, because I love it so much. But it was time, and we knew you'd love the experience of being in a kids' hair salon, with the car chairs, cartoons on the TV screens, the hair styling the glitters, and the nail polish.

When your session came to an end, you receive a balloon, stickers and a lollypop, and you looked beautiful!

Your teachers say speech set you free, and that since you started expressing yourself verbally, your personality and your confidence, have been coming through. At home you were always confident, so I have not seen a personality change. But you do become even more enjoyable, friendly, surprising and assertive as your language grows.

Around the house, you always come up to us and ask "Hello, what are you doing?" Never forgetting to greet us first with your sweet "hello." If I"m doing something you find interesting, you add "I'm going to help you."

While driving, when I catch you suck your thumb at the back seat, which happens often, I ask you what's in your mouth. We pretend its a piece of fruit, and you give me some. I pretend to take taste, and spit it out, saying yucky, you are trying to trick me. You laugh and we repeat. I ask you not to suck your thumb. When I insist, you get upset. You pull it out, and put it right back in. On your face, I can see the struggle, and the failure, which leads to anger. Sometimes you kick your leg. "No. I kick you out of the car!" you say.

When someone touches you when you don't want to be touched, you put your hand forward and say "go away." Once papa replied "you go away," to which you replied "you go away," and this dialogue went on and on.

At bed time, you get under the covers without much resistance. By the time you go to bed it's so late that you are exhausted. "Mama cuddle," you say, persistently. By that time I'm exhausted too and I just want to sit on the couch and relax a little before I go to bed. You are a persistent little girl. "Mama cuddle," you repeat. "Mama cuddle with me." How can I say no?

Sometimes, after you fall asleep, I pick you up and carry you upstairs to sleep with us all night. Next day, on the drive to daycare I tell you about how I got you out of your bed, carried you to the big bed, we got under the covers, and cuddled all night. You ask me to tell it again and again, until we reach your daycare.

You have a nursery rhyme book, passed down to you from Zoe. The cover is designed like the head of a sheep, fluffy. You love reading the rhymes. So did Zoe. One of the pieces is called "Kitty in the Well" and it talks about a boy that threw a kitten inside a well, and another boy who rescued it. The illustration i of a boy holding a dripping wet kitty in his hand. To explain to you who is who, I once pointed at the boy who threw the kitty in the well and said "bad boy." This stuck with you, and became the highlight of the story. You point at the boy and say "bad boy!" and every time one of us does something bad or something the other person doesn't like - me, Zoe, or papa - you point at the person and say "bad boy!" The highlight for Zoe was the wet little kitty. She'd point at it ad say "o-oh o-oh!"

We went camping. Going camping with kids is hard work for parents - from set-up to feeding, to cleaning, to entertaining. But it can be magical for kids, and giving you the experience and seeing you happy is our satisfaction. It can easily turn to nightmare for all if the kids are not entertained. We got lucky that there were two girls in the camp site next to ours, which provided plenty of entertainment for Zoe. Partly your age, partly your personality, you were ecstatic.

We stopped by a local Walmart and bought you a new toy each, a pinata and a bag full of candy for you two to fill it. Everything we did was exciting to you - swimming in the lake, canoeing, sleeping in the tent, peeing in the bushes, running around wild, having tea around the camp fire... but most of all, you enjoyed eating shelled peanuts at night around the fire, and banging the pinata with a stick. More than 2 weeks after the event, you still talk about it: "I'm going to bang it!" We went hiking yesterday, and you used your walking stick to bang the rocks by the river bed, like a wild little warrior. Bang bang bang!

I love you!

Mommy

My Little Pony and other cool stories

Your sister Zoe decided it was time to introduce you to My Little Ponies. She put the show on the tablet, and the two of you started watching, and watching, and watching. Not only that you were hooked, but her interest in the show reawakened. Next day when I came back from a run, I found the two of you watching the show on the TV screen.

The shows fueled your interest in My Little Pony toys, which Zoe already had a few, and the good sister that she is, she passed them on to you. You noticed Applejack was not in the collection. Zoe wasn't a fan of Applejack, and it turned out that you are. I needed to go to Target anyway, so I offered to bring you along, to get you one. You got excited, "Buy Applejack!" you said. On the way to target, we went over our shopping list multiple times. "Hairbrush, hair color, diapers, buy Applejack!" When we got to target, you repeated "Buy Applejack." We browsed through our options. Of course you wanted them all, but soon understood that you needed to make choices, so you told me to put some of them back on the shelf. You picked one good sized Applejack stuffy, and one little hard pony. "2 Applejacks?," I asked. "Don't you want one of them to be Pinky Pie or Rarity?" The two other ponies that were missing from your collections. "No. Applejack," you said. Later that day papa had to go to Fred Mayer, and he came back with the other 2 little ponies. Your collection was complete. We made a little living space for them with food and water.

You were sick, so at bed time, I took you to bed with me, as I always do when you girls are sick. You broke fever and got all sweaty at night, so I changed you into my T-shirt, not to go all the way down to your closet. You were so amused to find yourself in my shirt when you wake up, you want to wear it to bed every time you see it.

I picked you up from school on the bicycle earlier this week. We were in a lot of hurry, because I had a time sensitive surprise planned for you two. It's a tough route, with lots of hills and lots of cars. I was pushing myself, pedaling as hard as I could, to the sweet sound of your unexpected cheers "You Can Do It! You Can Do It!"

Zoe is a very loving girls, and we often hear her say "I love you mommy." Last week you came to the kitchen while I was preparing dinner. You looked at me, and quietly said "I love you mommy." I don't know if you meant it, or were you just repeating because you heard Zoe say it. Either way, you knew it was something special that makes mommy super happy to hear.

"My Mommy!" you say, mouthful. "My Echo!" I say heartful.

I love you, my Echo.