and then you were two

to our greta girl,
we were walking today, just you and me. we were walking and talking, and without thinking i put my hand out for you. just put my hand down, placing it out there silently. and you took it, casually and easily. and then we held hands for a while, and i felt as if my heart would bust out of my chest from loving you so much. you...the sweet girl who held her mama's hand just because.
usually i write these letters full of all the things you are doing and saying and learning. but as you turn two i am amazed not only by those things but by how kind and gentle, how friendly and sweet, how funny and gracious you are. how you wake up so happy, jumping up and down in your bed, talking to yourself and yelling "papa" over and over again. and how you stay happy all through the day, talking and singing yourself to sleep happily as the day ends. you are not a shy quiet kid and you're not a loud, crazy kid either. you are this perfect mix....a child right in the middle who loves going new places and meeting new people. who loves playing with any toy and talking about anything and everything. who cries when other people cry and wants to know why they are sad, the empathy oozing out of you.
you are such a big girl now. you have started calling me "mom" instead of "mama", which sounds so grown up all of the sudden, and everytime you say it my mind fastforwards to a teenage version of you and i just want to freeze time. i want to have time stop but i want to be able to enjoy each day with you, all at once.
thank you for being so peaceful, so content. the world through your big bright eyes must be pretty amazing. it's pretty amazing to get to look into those big eyes everyday. thank you for these past two years....i had always dreamt of being a parent but i had NO IDEA what it would be like to be someone's mommy. YOUR mommy. there is nothing in this world that could be better...