to our 22 month old bookworm

i will blame the tardiness of this post on your sickness last week, which had us all down for the count for a few days. it was no fun without our happy girl, and i am so glad you started feeling better just before our trip to michigan.
i could write about all the toys you play with, but lately you seem to want to look at books. books, books, and more books. you read the books in otto's room, you go up to your room by yourself and pull practically every book off the shelf. you like to look at the "mail", which is any paper that might be laying around. you point at letters you recognize, and we are noticing that you are memorizing books after only reading them a few times. to hear you read, "a fresh green leaf from a new tree" in your noah's ark book just gets me every time. you've also started to trace the words as we read, and today you said to yourself "those are the words that mama reads" while you traced them. as your mama it is amazing, and as an educator it is even more amazing to see you doing all these early literacy behaviors. like how you spot letters anywhere...like when you noticed that the beams for the swings look like a upside down U.
your favorite books lately include "happy", much to your papa's chagrin, as well as "this is my hair" which you have memorized, and "mary had a little lamb".
you can recognize the numbers 1-5, which i just realized but your papa says you've known them for a quite a while.
your favorite word all of the sudden is "mine". you will tell us it's "mine shoes" or "my ball" even there isn't anyone around threatening to take it from you. just letting everyone know which things are yours. you also will say "greta do it" and have taken a real interest doing things on your own. you are suddenly fascinated with buckles, and play for hours with your travel seat, buckling one leg into the seat over and over.
you have really started repeating things that mama and papa say....like when mama shouted "oh my God" in the car and you said it (in the same tone) about 15 times in a row. and you have started saying "excuse me" when you pass gas and i heard you say "sorry george" the other day when you bumped into curious george as you walked by him. how polite you are!
you are so sweet with otto...you will show him toys (which means shaking anything resembling a toy, often extremely close to his face) and talk to him. and you laugh when he laughs. if mama gets otto to laugh, you will come running to see him and laugh with him. you like to say, "otto spit up AGAIN" and "no crying in the car otto".
you are still a swimming machine, and you love love LOVE to wear your crocs shoes that you got from ellie.
i can't believe in 2 short months you will be 2 years old. some days i literally just stop and stare at you because i can't believe this person with opinions and jokes and stories to tell is our tiny little greta....