Birthday Letter - Cara Turns 2!

Dear Cara,
On your 2nd birthday, your Dad and I picked you up from school early and you were wearing this cute crown that the teachers had made for you. There was a giant piece of butcher paper up on the wall that said "Happy Birthday Cara!" with green and black toddler fingerpainting all over it. You were happy and alert, and we whisked you and your sister off for a fun Friday afternoon of riding the Griffith Park train and then hanging out at Home Restaurant on the big patio. Mommy had a honeyed mojito while you and Jea Jea ate your chicken fingers and grilled cheese heartily, and then ran around to look at the fish in the Koi pond.

I looked at you while you were running around with your sister and just couldn't believe how big you've gotten. Sometimes I just have no idea where the time has gone, how you've grown before my eyes and I seem to not have remembered anything. Then I look back at some of our old photos and I remember everything perfectly. You still feel the same as you did when you were an infant - kind of round, heavier than expected, with a big smile unless you are hungry or tired, a sweet and playful spirit. You loved to cuddle then just as you do now, and when you were angry as a baby, that high pitched scream caused strangers to turn around and mutter, "Whoa, she's got lungs!" in shock that your curly-haired good naturedness could produce a soprano cry. This exact thing happened just this past weekend and I couldn't help but think back to the first day in the hospital when the doctor was examining you and were wailing like a banshee. She said under her breath, "They are gonna have fun with you!"


As a two-year old, you love to explore everything now. You love pictures and figures of animals but freak out at real ones. (Poor Aiko.) Your favorite song is the "We are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner because you saw the preschoolers dance to it at their graduation. You do all the motions perfectly and it is the cutest thing in the world. You are active and love to jump, dance, run, and hate being strapped in the car for very long. You can repeat nearly every word you hear, and are putting together some good sentences now - like last week, when you said, "Daddy, hole in sock." Sure enough, there was one!

In new places, you insist on being carried, all 29 pounds of you. You didn't cry at all when you got your last vaccine and the hemoglobin test. Your iron levels were low at 18 months, but they are now healthy and fine, and I don't doubt this with the amount of kalbi you can eat! Your skin is clearer than it has ever been, and though we have your eczema under control, I see how sensitive your body is to certain things and still constantly monitor you for redness. You are endlessly polite in your conversation, saying things like, "all done, please" or "up, please" and "thank you, mommy" but you can be provocative and violent. You've bitten many children in the toddler room at school (well, usually just the same one) and there is often a fierce look in your eye when someone tries to take something you want, or even worse, your food. They say second kids are fighters, and you are a fighter no doubt!

And though you are a bit rambunctious right now, you are also so sweet and sleepy. Like the other day when we got back from our trip to Ama's house and you slept until 10am the next day. I was completely confused, and when I went to get you I swear you had grown another three inches. Your eyes were clear and alert and beautiful, your hair straighter and only wavy at the bottom. You looked so big. And yet you were content to sit in my lap for so long that morning, and I felt nothing but thankfulness that I get to be your mommy. Tonight when you looked at a scratch on my leg, you said, "Mommy owie. Kiss it" and made a puckering sound. What a sweet delight you are, my little dumpling. You're a little dream.

Here's to a terrific year of TWO.

Love,
Mommy