Our sweet little O turned two last week. As trite as it sounds, the time really does fly. I can remember my pregnancy and her birth as if it were yesterday (but I’ll spare you the details). Although the time flies, I also can’t believe how much can happen and change in another year. I thought I’d write a letter to her and share a few memories and thoughts here on my little corner of the Internet.

Dear Via,

In the last year you have learned to talk and walk. We’ve had the joy of watching you discover the world a little more each day. You got to put her feet in the sand in Hilton Head and enjoy the feeling of salt water wash over your feet to which you exclaimed, “Bubbles!” as loud as you could manage.

We took you to the Magical Kingdom in Disney World this year.  You were so excited to experience Minnie, or “Mimmie” as you call her, and Mickey and all of the princesses. And we loved watching you take it all in. Your favorite character was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland because he had glasses just like you do! On the 4th of July we took you to see your first fireworks show. We were completely prepared for you to be scared and have to go home in the middle of all of it. But you loved them and were so brave during the finale!

You began mimicking us more and more this year. You started carrying a “pursh” (purse) like me and kicking a soccer ball around like Daddy. You like to brush your hair and put on “make-uk” (make-up) so much that we have given you a few pretend beauty sets and even one of my old compacts! You even laugh when we laugh and have become a parrot who repeats snippets of our conversations. Sometimes we have fun with this and teach you to say silly things like “Hot Mama!” or “What does a fox say?” (like the song). You have quite the sense of humor. In fact, you often throw your head back and laugh before you’re even finished saying or doing something funny. Don’t worry, we think you’re hilarious too. You are full of personality, constantly entertaining everyone you meet with your banter and giggles.

In a strange twist, you spent the first year and a half of your life only seeing accurately at a distance. For quiet a while you had trouble seeing up close (you’re farsighted in both eyes) and hadn’t even seen your own face in a mirror you were nearly 20 months. We were delighted to watch you rediscover the world through glasses. I’m still flabbergasted at all of the things you weren’t able to see and how well you see now. And I still get teary eyed watching you play in the mirror or look at yourself on Facetime. Additionally, Daddy and I are so grateful that we have access to medical care and the means to get you what you need and help you see as well as possible. And we are constantly amazed at what science can do… I mean, they can look into your eyes and see what the issue is and how to fix it without you being able to tell them anything on your own yet. That’s really cool. And we are so happy to be able to do this for you… and we can tell you’re happy to see.

This year was full of experiments for you as far as food. When we neared your first birthday we began giving you milk… only to find that you had some funky skin issues and insane dryness when you were consuming cow’s milk. Through a series of doctors’ visits, blood tests, allergy tests and consumption challenges we were able to weed through quite a few issues: peanuts, eggs, milk, dogs and cats. You have sensitivities to peanuts (it came up in blood and skin tests) but you passed (meaning little or no reaction) an in-office peanut butter consumption challenge so you are allowed to eat it now! Egg allergies came up in all of those test too. The doctors determined that your “numbers” are low enough that it is not dangerous and you are allowed to eat baked eggs (another consumption challenge) that are diluted with lots of other ingredients and baked well. But you can’t have straight egg in any form (so hard boiled, breakfast eggs, quiche and meringue are out). The same process showed us that you are also allergic to dairy. Again, your “numbers” are low so you after another consumption challenge you were okayed to eat baked dairy and cheese. We’ll be starting yogurt soon but we plan on keeping you off milk for a while since it makes you obviously miserable. Otherwise, you love carrots, green beans, hummus, pastas, applesauce, smoovies (smoothies) chicken, turkey, oreos, m&m’s, grapes, bananas and so much more!

I recently had to write a “bio” for you for another project… it proved to be quite a challenge but it got me thinking about fun facts.