Dear Ana,
Today you turn twenty-six months old. You are probably wondering where your “twenty-five months” letter is and the truth of it is that I was trying to stop writing these letters every month. It was starting to feel like more of an obligation and I didn’t want it to feel forced. I know. I’m sorry. But I found that I kept thinking of things I wanted to say and share with you and I couldn’t find any other way to work it in. It wasn’t worthy of an entire post to itself and was generally longer than the 140 characters Twitter allows, so I was stuck. Then it happened: I realized I really missed writing to you each month. So here I am…again with the monthly letters. I hope when you are older you will have the same satisfaction in reading them as I do in writing them.

I guess the biggest thing to happen lately is that you are suddenly into all things princess. You discovered the Disney Princess empire and you embraced it with wide open, satin covered arms. We exchanged one of your birthday gifts you already had and I let you pick any toy you wanted. When you spotted that Cinderella Barbie it was like you two were meant to be together. You only had eyes for her. We left the store and you couldn’t open it fast enough. We brought that doll with us everywhere for an entire week. Then you realized there were more princesses. Cinderella was your gateway drug and she lead you to Ariel, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White.

More than just playing with the dolls or watching the movies, you love to dress up like a princess. The timing could not have been more perfect when a friend of ours gave you all her old dress-up clothes. You still need help getting them on, but once you are dressed you easily embrace your princess role and ask the nearest person, “you want to go to the ball with me?” and then you spin in circles and “dance” around the room.

Right about the same time the princess phase was developing, the ballerina phase began as well. I’m not entirely sure where you learned about ballet, but one day you informed me you were a ballerina and off you went twirling and jumping around the room. I decided to investigate my options and was thrilled to find a “Tip Toes” ballet class for two year olds through parks and rec and instantly signed you up.

Your ballet class is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. The way your teacher is able to hold the attention of TEN two year old girls is beyond me. But you simply love it. You run, jump, and spin all while wearing a tiara and manage not to trip over your tutu along the way. Then at the end of class you take turns hugging your teacher and all your new ballerina friends then frolic off to look at yourself in front of the mirror…err…I mean, to “practice on the barre.”

As well as ballet, I also signed you up for another round of swimming lessons. Since this is your third swimming session, I wanted to spice things up a bit so I signed you up for an evening class that you can do with Daddy. The two of you get so excited every Tuesday and Thursday as you get ready for class. I thought it would be a good idea for you and Daddy to have more things you do together. I love spending time with you, but I often feel like I am taking all the fun stuff and leaving Daddy with the leftovers. So swimming lessons will hopefully be the first of many daddy-daughter outings.

Now that you are two whole years old, we have been trying all sorts of new things lately. A couple weeks ago we went bowling with our MOMS Club. With the aid of ramps to push the ball down and metal “bumpers” blocking the gutter, you did quite well! In fact, there were a few times where your score was ahead of mine (I didn’t get to use the bumpers)! I was very impressed watching you carry the heavy (6 or 8 pound) ball from the ball return and place it on top of the ramp. You didn’t care how many pins were knocked over but you sure loved watching the ball “pop” up from the ball return. It was standing there that you discovered the fan and I soon lost your rapt attention and more frequently found you hoovering over the fan letting it blow air in your hair. Oh well, what was I to expect of a two-year old attention span anyway?

Since your art class ended, I have been trying to occasionally do some crafty sort of things. It’s hard for me, getting all messy and creative, so I apologize for not doing it more frequently. I try really hard to keep from inhibiting your creativity and try to just let you have fun…it was just easier to do when it wasn’t at MY house. So we have done lots of coloring and very recently introduced play dough. You didn’t quite understand the appeal at first, so I picked up some “tools” and you had a blast squeezing, cutting, pressing, and rolling the dough.

While I know that you are still relatively little, I understand that you are growing up. So a couple weeks back we got shifted and got transition services from https://onestopselfstorage.com/ and now I started digging out all the stuff I’ve been collecting for your “big girl” bedroom. I opened up the under-bed plastic storage bin with your quilt and pillows and you instantly climbed into the box and curled up in the blankets. You thought it was your new bed! While it was adorable (and I had to take pictures) I would never make you sleep in a plastic box. So to explain it to you, I brought you into the office and put your blankets on the “guest” bed in there and showed you where your big girl bed will eventually be. Now, we still have to do some shuffling and rearranging in the house before it will be official (Daddy’s office is moving into the media room so the office can become your big girl room, leaving the nursery as it is). You are very excited about it all, but my heart breaks a little thinking how quickly you are becoming a big girl and are no longer my little baby. Apparently it’s not enough that each time I slip up and call you “baby” you keep telling me, “Mama, I’m not a baby, I’m a big girl.” But no, you have to go out and show the world as well.

All my love,
Mama