We love you so much.  You are so strong, bright, enthusiastic and happy.  You are so loving and cuddly, yet I have never known another child to fight nearly every diaper change quite so hard.  You know what you like and you know what you don’t and you always make sure we know how you feel.  I love that.

You love to be held, and you love to snuggle up to me, your dad, your awesome big brother or to Bailey (although Bailey doesn’t always appreciate your enthusiasm).  You love cars, trains, planes and buses, and one of your most favorite things to do is to mix those up on purpose as a joke and giggle like crazy when you make us laugh.
You’re fast and strong, and you climb and jump entirely too well (you have tons of bruises and bumps to prove it).  You love to be outdoors, to run and to play.  You’re a fantastic hiker — you would walk (or, more likely, run) everywhere, all the time, if we let you — but only if we didn’t make you hold our hands.  You are confident and bold and nothing seems to scare you.  You love your brother most of all, and you want to be like him as much as you can and as quickly as possible.

You’re starting to talk a lot — your first real word was “no!” but you’ve added lots of others since then.  I love being able to communicate with you, and to hear your wonderful voice, which is as strong and as joyful as the rest of you.  I love to see you smile.  You smile a lot.  You are a happy guy, except when you’re not (and then you scowl and growl, which I also love).

You are so independent.  You are often happy to play by yourself, until you’ve decided you’ve had enough of that and you come to find me, grabbing my hand or my foot and insisting I “come!” or “play!”, which I am so happy to do.  You love to play with Benjamin most of all.  It is so wonderful to see you two being brothers and great friends to each other.  You love to play hide & seek, and you love to draw and paint and color.  It is something you can be absorbed in for quite a while — it seems to be something that speaks to you.

And even just turning 2, you’re a world traveller!  You’ve visited 6 countries, and you’ve crossed the Atlantic 5 times.  You take everything in stride, and you make yourself at home wherever we go.  Your flexibility and willingness are inspiring and extraordinary.

You are a whirlwind of love and joy and spirit, my little darling boy.  I love to see how exuberantly you embrace life and how well you know and accept your own heart and mind.  I love you so much.  I love you completely, and I love you forever.  You are a wonderful child and an amazing person and I am so grateful to have you in my life.