Cindy-Lu Hoo,

Tomorrow you turn 2 years old. Two years that you have been in our life, demanding to get your way, demanding that things be done for you right this minute, demanding our constant attention. I can’t imagine what our lives would be like without you. And amazingly enough, what with your bossy little attitude, I don’t want to.

You are the most beautiful baby girl I could have imagined having. I so wanted a girly-girl and you just love being pretty. Whenever you go rifling through the drawer in the bathroom vanity that I’ve told you countless times to stay out of you grab something to make yourself pretty. My nail polish to paint your toes. My hair brush to comb your hair. My make up remover to pretend your washing your face.

You also LOVE brushing your teeth, unfortunately you don’t understand that the toothbrush is only for mouths. It is not for floors or toilets or walls or TVs. Anytime we walk in the bathroom you immediately start screaming TEETH, TEETH! And boy do you get mad when we don’t give you our toothbrush. Unfortunately for Daddy I can only say no to you so many times before the screaming makes my ears bleed and I’ll then joyfully hand over Daddy’s toothbrush so long as you promise not to tell him. And, lucky for me, your usually to busy rubbing his toothbrush in the dirt to run and tattle. Don’t worry, I never allow you to play with the toothbrushes. That would be wrong.

You’re learning to form sentences, but you haven’t quite figured out which word goes where. The word "its" always seems to come last in the sentence. (Baby mine its.) You have also just started repeating any word that we say to you. It seems like your vocabulary has grown so much overnight. You are such a smart girl.

In the morning you wake up saying POOPY in your whiny little voice that you use anytime you ask for something. Anytime your diaper is wet you whine that you are poopy and you must be changed immediately. You will even go get us a diaper and lay down for us to change you. You hate having a wet butt, and I don’t blame you, but girl those diapers are gettin’ expensive. Your gonna have to go on the potty if you can’t stand a couple drops of pee on your delicate little butt.

After you wake up you are always so hungry and immediately ask for "cer-al too." Eeyore is always sitting at the table, eating his cereal when you come out of your room and you have such a bright, sunny smile for him. "Bubba!" you say and smile and point. Then you ask for your cer-al too so that you can be just like your big brother. You love that boy more than anything. You try to be like him and your favorite thing in the world to do with him is "boingy" on the bed. You will jump on the bed by yourself when Eeyore is at school, but if he is at home you scream Bubba! Boingy! until he listens to you. He, like the rest of the world, has a hard time denying you anything. You have a way of whining asking that makes us want to scream obey your every command.

In the mornings you love to watch your TV shows. The Wiggles, Mickey Mouse, Doodlebops, and Charlie and Lola are your favorites. When Mo-mo (Mickey Mouse) comes on you can name every character, but you seem to like Goofy the best. Deecee (Daisy) is probably runner up.

Landon comes over to play with you 2 or 3 days a week and you love to boss him around. He is finally getting brave enough to stand up for himself, and your not to sure how you like that yet. You play mommy to him all day. When you guys are sharing crackers you won’t allow him to take any. You have to pick the cracker up and put it in his mouth for him. You also like to spoon feed him. He just follows you around and mimics you all day long, which has got to be boring for him as you mostly just watch him to see which toy he is going to grab next. As soon as he heads for a toy, you run and beat him to it. Your whole day is spent trying to outsmart him in getting the toy that he wants. You are getting better at sharing and understand that if you want something that someone else has you have to give them something in return. What you don’t understand is that the other person has the right to refuse the trade. When I am writing with a pen you will come up to me and hand me one of your baby dolls and then try to take the pen away. You just can’t understand why I don’t think this is a good trade.

Bath time is your favorite time of the day. You love playing with the bowls and paint brush in the tub, especially when Landon or Bubba are taking a bath with you. You pretend to paint/put make up on them. After you get out of the bath you have to be immediately wrapped up in your towel like a little butterfly in a cocoon. I wrap you up as tight as I can and put you in the corner of the couch and you sit and watch Mo-mo. As soon as the show is over you ask for a "dipey."

You used to be such a little piggy, but lately you aren’t eating that much. You prefer to snack all day long rather than eat a meal, but I worry that you aren’t eating anything healthy. You would be content to have suckers all day long. I try limiting the suckers to one or two a day and I’ve stopped giving you so many snacks in the hopes that you’ll start eating more at meal times. So far its not working that well. You can usually whine your way into a good snack. You also will just go in the kitchen and get what you want when you want it. You are only 2 years old and yet you can open the refrigerator, get out a juice box, open the straw, and then put the straw into the juice box. It amazes me. Eeyore sometimes has trouble putting the straw in and yet you can do it all by yourself. When you want something, you work at it until you get it. I love that about you. (Hate it, too.)

You love to be helpful. When I am being lazy and sitting on the couch I will ask you to get me something and you’ll run and get it for me. You also love to throw things in the garbage. Fortunately, you are getting better at determining what is actually garbage and what just looks like it might be fun to throw away. You’ve definitely cut back on the fun stuff and are mostly only throwing away the garbage now.

You have the highest pitched little scream that I’ve ever heard. And you use that weapon often. You throw tantrums like nobody’s business and I’m ashamed to admit this, but often times you get your way. Its so hard to say no to you. Kinda scary, too.

You think its funny to ignore my requests for a kiss unless I pretend to cry. As soon as I start crying your wrap your little arms around my neck and try to kiss me. If I turn my head away and say no you just giggle and hold on to my head until I let you kiss me. You are always happy and giggly as long as you are getting your way. Your head starts spinning around in circles the minute you hear the word no. You can be so sweet one minute, and the next you are on the floor banging your head and screaming as loud as you can.

Lately, whenever you get hurt you come running and crying to me. If I ask to kiss your ouchie you hold it out for me and then insist that everyone else in the house kiss it as well. It does seem to make you feel better, though.

When you find something that you shouldn’t have you will show it to us and say Mine. When we tell you that no, it is not yours you mostly just think of it as advice that you don’t really have to take. You stand there with whatever it is clutched in your little fists and held up to your heart, and you just stare us down. I used to win those staring contests with you, but you have finally gotten better than me. I usually end up laughing because you just look so serious and you really think that I’m going to let you have whatever it is that you’ve got just because you won the staring contest. As soon as I start laughing you reinforce that it is yours and raise your little eyebrows at me as if your daring me to defy you. When I do you usually throw whatever it was you had to the floor and start in on a scream fest. It must be difficult to be you, not getting your way each and every time.

Cindy-Lu, I am constantly telling people how mean you are, and my god, it is the truth. But, I wouldn’t have you any other way. I love that you are so stubborn and strong-willed. I’m not used to it and it drives me crazy, but you have your own personality and you aren’t afraid to show the real you to the world. I hope that never changes. (Except maybe while your a teenager.)

Our family wasn’t complete until you came into our lives. Thank you for being such a sweet, yet rotten, little girl. Your mommy, daddy, and bubba love you so very much.

Happy birthday Princess!
Mama