A small funny detail: When you laugh really hard, you get the hiccups. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but it has happened ever since you learned how to laugh. It makes me smile every time it happens because it reminds me of when you were a baby.

You are still amazing. When you turned 2, you were already speaking in full sentences. Now you use full, complex sentences with multiple clauses, expressing mature thoughts and motivations. That said, you are still 2, with your contrary ways. I constantly have to remind myself that you are only 2 because you seem so much older with your speech and your sense of  humor.

The move to CA was rough on you. You lost Francesca, and there was no replacement. We visited many schools together which only confused you more. Finally, after about 15 schools, we decided to enroll you at the best one I found even though it will close in a few months. I hope it won’t traumatize you further. You never want to go but seem to have a really good time after you’re there. One of the reasons it was hard to find a school was the fact that you’re so advanced for your age. Because you miss the school-year age cutoff by a couple of weeks, they want to put you in a group with kids who are much younger than you. But your current school is mixed ages and you are the youngest. It surprises me when you don’t want to go since you seem so independent.

You love pretend play with cooking, shopping, and taking care of stuffed animals and a baby doll. This is the game that you can play with Noam for the longest. You’ve been doing pretend play well before you turned 2 and the games have gotten more and more elaborate. Your imagination is both astounding and funny.

You also love books and you like music but not all the time. You can sing ABC, Twinkle Little Star, Puff the Magic Dragon, Wheels on the Bus, Somewhere over the Rainbow, Rainbow Connection, and some songs in Hebrew (peas & carrots). Recently you have also started enjoying puzzles and playing boardgames. Since you can match and know your colors, we can play games like dominos, uno, go fish, and memory. I think you could have learned earlier but it was our fault for not teaching you. Currently there aren’t many games we can all play together that also interest Noam. You have started showing an interest in reading by yourself (reciting books, pointing to words) and writing as well. You can recognize many letters (A, B, C, I, L, M, O, P, S) and I think you will very soon make the leap to associating sounds with them.

You are daring and confident when it comes to trying new foods and trying new environments (eg playgrounds) but you still prefer it when mommy is around to comfort and encourage you. Sometimes you are shy when meeting new people but you warm up to them quickly. You love Noam and are very good about sharing with him even though I can see that sometimes it is very hard for you to share. Even though you still really enjoy going out (when given the choice, you almost always choose “restaurant” over eating at home), you have occasionally wanted to stay home instead of going on a walk or going to the park. I think it’s because of an increase in your ability to focus on games and books at home.

Of course, being a 2-year-old girl, your favorite colors are pink and purple. Sometimes you’ll include blue as well but purple and pink are clear winners. We didn’t do anything to encourage this. You just have clear preferences for things that are pink or purple and believe me, you make your preferences very well-known – about everything: what to eat, what to wear, where to go, what to play.

Almost everyday your father and I look at each other and say, she’s so amazing, or she’s awesome, or she’s so clever, so smart, so strong.

A couple of months ago you started singing along when I sing to you. You almost know the words but not quite. You do seem to be in tune and on rhythm. The 2 songs you sing most with me are ABC and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

In the last month your vocabulary has exploded. You pretty much now the words for everything around you, and you are regularly string together 2 word phrases, sometimes 3. Just 2 days ago you started picking up pronouns only you refer to yourself as “you”.

One of the sweetest things about you is how considerate and welcoming and friendly you are. When we go out you wave and say ‘Hi’ to people. Just this morning, the 3 of you were already seated having breakfast when I came downstairs. You invited me to sit and asked if I want any strawberries. Also recently you deliberately do silly things, like wear Noam’s bike helmet in the house, and say “Funny!”. You are also confident and adept. You love climbing and will attempt to climb anything at the playground, even big kids stuff. At home, you like to hang upside down in my lap and then flip over backwards.

One of the highlights of my day is hugging you and giving you kisses, which you only sometimes let me do. Sometimes you’re just too busy. You always want to go out and you’re very proactive about it. You go put your shoes on and say “outside”. Yesterday you put your shoes on and said “Go. Choo choo.” (which means you want to go play with the trains at Barnes & Noble near our house.)

There are some little things you do that I absolutely love, and it’s hard to explain why. One thing is how you cock your head to one side when you smile when you’re really happy, or you’re trying to get someone else to smile too. Another thing you do is get really close to something when you really like it, like a head-butt. It might be a picture or a toy. Yesterday you were cracking me up just by walking around with your blankie tucked under your chin (look ma, no hands!).

I’d thought maybe with our 2nd child we would cease to be as amazed by your daily developments. But every day, your father and I say to each other, over and over, “Look at her!” followed by “She’s so cute!” or “She’s doing xxx (new thing).”

We traveled for 3 weeks in Dec and Jan. You were a major trooper through it all. In Israel, people kept commenting on how beautiful and amazing you are. I think the amazing part pertained to your tenacity and strong personality, as well as how clever you are.

Once you are intent on doing something, you are very persistent and don’t give up easily. You were even moving a stool around to try and reach door handles. That’s a lot of planning for a 13-month old! Yaakov was also amazed by how hard it was to try and distract you. Other babies are much easily diverted to different activities.

People were also happy to see how happy you were to try new foods. Not that you loved everything you tried but you ate hummus, falafel, even a stuffed pepper. One thing you loved and ate lots of is cheese. You have four front teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. Just today we noticed that you have 1 upper molar and another one coming in. I think the teething explains why you have been fussy all week.

In the last month you have started picking up more and more words and have been less enthusiastic to use your hand signals. Sometimes you babble sounds that sound like you’re speaking only we have no idea what you’re saying. This you find very frustrating.

You have also started to like books, which I am thrilled about. Your current favorites are Hungry Caterpillar, Birds, Hop on Pop, From the Zoo, Moo Baa La La La, and lots of baby books with real pictures of things. You continue to love dogs and cats and birds. You also love going out. Frequently, especially in the morning after Noam’s left for school and Aba’s left for work, you bring me your shoes or jacket and ask to go outside. I try to take you somewhere fun every day, even if it’s just to the playground close by. It’s hard to be outside a lot in this Seattle weather though. You are still very active and love running and climbing. One of your favorite games is being chased by Noam around and around, which results in the two of you in giggles.  But you can also do small motor things. Today you stacked 8 blocks up and repeatedly picked up 5 dice into a cup. Yesterday you were putting marbles into a marble run.

There are small new things that you do every day, like walking backwards, and learning how to get on/sit on a chair (your favorite place to practice is the last step by the door), getting dressed and undressed. Sometimes after I put on a sock or shoe of yours you roll your foot around as if admiring it. I don’t know why I just love it when you do that.

You can walk! You started walking more and more during Thanksgiving week. At first you would take a few steps and when you fell, you would give up and just crawl. After a couple of days you started getting back up on your feet even after falling. Then you started falling less and less. Actually you think you can run. You’re as adventurous as ever and still love to climb everything.

I don’t know how you are so strong and so flexible. You are only about 2 feet tall and try to climb in and out of the bathtub by yourself. It’s funny to watch you lift your leg up all the way up past your waist.

Just this week you’ve started using words. Most clearly, you say “Yah…. ” and “Aba”, which thrills Aba to no end. You also so “oh” for “Uhoh”, “baby”, “appa” (apple). Noam tells people that you can say banana. Your nanny told me that earlier this week you said puppy when you guys saw a dog outside. What I love most is not a word but you make the tiniest blow when we say something is hot. Because then we blow on the food. So sometimes when you want food, you make the sign for eat or more and then puff out tiny breaths.

You’ve started liking books, which is nice because then I can cuddle with you for longer while you sit in my lap. Your favorite books now are The Hungry Caterpillar and Moo, Baa, La La La.

You are funny and clever and adorable and cuddly. You have also started being more social with others. Ruth calls you the automatic smiling machine. Well, you have always liked her but you smile at more people on the streets now. I have a hard time explaining why it is you’re so funny and your grandma Judith said it’s because you’re so small and yet so opinionated. It’s true. You know what you want and you try hard to get it.

Dear, dear Liora,

Happy Birthday! You were very happy tonight when we sang to you. At first you weren’t sure what was going on, but then I think you realized a celebration was on.

For the last 2 days, you’ve been taking more and more steps. Last night you walked/stumbled/ran halfway across the room. I think you could walk if you were slow about it, but you just want to run.

You are also communicating a lot more. You can do hand signs for diaper change, drink, eat, more, and you wave hello/good bye. I think you’re also touching your head for something but I haven’t figured out what it means yet. Whenever I say something is hot, you make a small blow. It is so cute. And you say, hi which sounds like “aye” and uh-oh, which sounds like “ooh”. But you haven’t said Aba or Mama again in weeks. Most of the time, you just say “Ah” or “Eh” for everything and start screaming if you don’t get something that you want, especially if that something is climbing the stairs.

The thing that you like to do best right now is pushing things big and small. Big things you use as walkers and push them all around the room, hitting walls and whatever else is in your way. What’s impressive is that you know how to back up and walk backwards so that you can turn. Or you walk to the other side of the object so that you can push it back the other way. When you are pushing small things, you just push it along on the floor. You also love taking baths. And you love giving hugs to stuffed animals. Then you pass it back to us for us to give them hugs too.

It is so much fun to cuddle with you, not that you stay still for very long. You still love hugs and kisses from Noam best, which he’s willing to give you occasionally. You even smile happily when you see us hugging each other.

Everybody thought you would be able to walk by now because you stand so well. But at the playground other mothers were telling me you crawl too well to ever want to slow down and walk. They were so impressed by how you could climb the stairs, then back down feet first, go down the slide and then crawl away to the stairs again. It it true you look too tiny to be able to do any of that. Many of them were nervous for me and offered to catch you as I let you down the slide, but you can do it all on your own.

A few nights ago, Aba told me that you took 3 steps all by yourself. I didn’t get to see this. I got to see you take 1 or 2 steps but then you get down and start crawling. Noam saw you taking a step too and said that he was proud of you.

Your favorite activity right now is pushing things around. I know that sounds funny, and it is funny to watch too. One thing you like to do is push things about your height so that you can walk. You also like to push Noam around when he is sitting on his truck. But you also like to push small items around when you are “crawling”. You hold it with one or two hands and just do a scoot thing on the ground so you can push it along in front of you.

On Wednesday, one of your top teeth finally poked through. So now you have almost 3. We are waiting for the 2nd top tooth to pop through any day now.

Since I’ve last written, you’ve done amazing things. You can stand! Actually, you can stand so well I thought you’d be walking already but you can crawl so well, why bother trying to walk.

You love going to the park and playground. Climbing the stairs, playing with the mulch, and going down the slide. You can go down on your belly pretty much by yourself but need help if sitting up. Sometimes you love the swing and sometimes you just hate it. I don’t know why but it probably has something to do with Noam. You adore Noam. If he gives you a hug or a kiss it makes you giggle.

I think we can officially say that you’re trying to do hand signs. They are not exactly the way we would do it but the point is that you are trying to communicate. The 2 main ones I can spot are “more” and “drink”. I can’t really tell if you’re just experimenting or frustrated.
For about 6 weeks now, you can play peekaboo. I mean, not just get excited when we are playing but you are hiding yourself -behind your blanket or a box or a curtain. You also recently started teasing me. You would stand in your crib like you want me to pick you up and then crawl away squealing when I come to get you. Or you would hand something to me and then take it away and laugh.

You are making more and more sounds. Just today you said “buhbye”. And yesterday, it sounded like you said “hi”. You also make syllables that sound like “mommy” and “arye” but as far as we can tell you aren’t using them to communicate. Sometimes you switch between speaking and screaming in the very same word. So you say, “ababaAAAAHHH!” And that can go on and on for an hour.

I know for sure you scream with excitement every time you see a dog or a cat. You want to touch and pet them and it can be hard to walk around with you in a stroller. There was a dog the last couple of times we were at the playground and all you wanted to do was play with the dog. Whenever we turned away you would scream, and when it was time to leave there were real, sad tears. You also love looking at and want to touch other babies/toddlers, but don’t scream for them the way you scream for dogs.

This week Aba bought me some flowers and you wanted to touch them every time we walked by them. At first you were very rough and wanted to grab and demolish them. But eventually we taught you how to touch them gently. Then you even wanted to sniff them.

My sweet girl!

You still have that squinty smile, which makes it more bearable when you get up at 6am. Aba is the one who most frequently gets up with you so that he can get alone time with you before he has to go to work. That way you’re also getting a lot of Skype time with your grandparents in Israel and Ruth.

You haven’t been saying your Ba/Ma sounds as much but I thought I heard you saying Pa sounds. And you are learning some hand signals. So far just clapping and waving. You are still clapping with one hand closed (fisted) but I can see you concentrating, looking at your hands, and trying to keep them both open. I am still waiting for you to do the other hand signals we are teaching you for “milk” and “more” but I think those take more dexterity. Your motions are currently still very broad. For example, when you wave you move your entire arm up and down excitedly.

Actually, you are very excitable. You don’t cry much but you do scream when you aren’t getting your way. Usually, it’s when you’re being denied something that you want. But you seem to be trying to control yourself. Sometimes you open your mouth and begin a scream but it kind of dies down and becomes a sigh.

You still try to hug & kiss Noam quite unsuccessfully. He always shies away. Well, you aren’t very gentle and he does shy away from us as well so both of those things combined means he hardly ever lets you kiss him. Overall he is incredibly nice about sharing his things with you and dealing with your drool all over everything, although sometimes it does make him a bit teary-eyed.

I love your kisses and your emotional, passionate personality – how you get excited by things.