Dear Jace.

Dear Jace,

We are in love with this two-year-old age. Everyday you surprise me with something new, some form of cuteness that fills my heart, even though I always thought it to already be full. Sure there are more temper tantrums than normal, and sure you are a busy body, but you never fail to melt our hearts everyday.

You are kind of the best, do you know that? I hope you do. I hope you know how we think the world of you. Even when you scream because you don't want to eat your dinner or when you put up a fight come bedtime, we still think you are kind of the best.

I have said this a million times so far in the past couple of years, and I will probably say it a billion more times: you have so much personality! It is amazing to me. You were literally BORN with this personality that is all you. You are ALL yourself baby.

You are a leader. You never join the crowd. In fact, you pretty much hate crowds.

You are independent.

You are smart.

You are funny. Oh my goodness, already your sense of humor is coming out and it is the greatest. You make your own jokes and show off and we are always laughing together.

You are stubborn. In only the good ways, of course.

You love to learn new things and explore new places.

You love the water.

You are overly-stimulated and learning to adjust better to things like large groups of people and loud noises. Your initial reaction is always to scream. More like...squak. You know the flying pterodactyls in your favorite dinosaur book that we read together? You sound like them. We get through that, baby, but it's a funny thing you do. It's your way of handling stressful situations.

You love adventure, just like your daddy.

You hate car rides. But you love the ipad, so we can make it work.

You are sweet. So, so sweet. You have this sensitive heart that is made of gold.

You are at your worst when you are hungry. Kind of like someone ELSE I know... (cough, cough, DAD...)

You sleep like a champ.

You are always begging me or daddy to play with you lately. You hand us things and say "train? mom, sit! train!" and we choo-choo the train all around. You are even getting into the stage of playing pretend and it's pretty darn fun. I can already see your amazing imagination at work.

You are obsessed with bicycles but refuse to try pedaling. I don't blame you baby, that pedaling is a lot of work. Don't stress it, we'll try some more next year.

You are happiest when you get to do big kid things like the rest of us. You want to be a grown up too badly baby, slow down a little!

You are animated. Oh my heavens, are you. I love sitting by you while we watch a movie, as you laugh loudly at all the right places and quote your favorite lines with a big grin on your face.

It takes a lot of work for anyone outside of our little family to win your heart. Even though sometimes that stresses me out because I worry for the feelings you are hurting, the truth is that I like that about you baby. You are guarded and careful with who you trust.

I love the thought of you reading this twenty years down the road while nodding along because these qualities you possessed at two years old are all who you are now. As you read this you realize that you are independent, stubborn and strong. You are a leader with an amazing imagination. You are smart. You are adventerous and fun-loving. You have a great sense of humor. You don't like large groups of people and the few real friends you have let yourself open up to are the best of them.

I can already see who you will continue to become, and I will love you forever and ever. Through the ups and downs, I will always love you so.

But for now, I'm grateful to have you so little, totally dependant on me, full of perfect love with no shame for a hundred sloppy kisses a day. I will never take these days for granted.

Love,

Mama