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.