To my sweet daughter,

I'm not gonna lie, the time from you turning 18-months-old until now (22 months) has been the most challenging for me since you were a newborn. Tantrums? Check. Messes upon messes? Check. Sleepless nights from teething? Check. You sure keep me on my toes! But I still love being your mom and consider it one of the greatest gifts in life to mother you and help you grow.

You make me belly-laugh every single day. You astonish me with the things you learn by observation. You warm my heart with your sensitivity to others. Time goes so quickly, and I don't want to forget.

So here are some of the things I want to remember about this stage and hopefully one day share with you...

If you think someone got a "boo-boo," you go to kiss it and pat their back and say, "It's okay..."
You ask to go "ow-side" all the time and love our nature walks in the woods.
Favorite game? I pour everything out of your owl bank, and you sit on the floor playing "monies" for a good hour.
You love it when we get to spread a blanket on the floor of the livingroom and have a "pic-pic."
You love to sit in the front or back yard and eat a "pop-co" (popsicle) made from coconut milk.
At bedtime, you run down the hall yelling, "MomMEE! DadDEE! C'mon!" and want us to come into your room and help you go to sleep.
You are definitely your Daddy's child! You love to share food with people and try to put some in their mouth and say, "Bite?"
You also love to put the oven mitt on your hand and say, "I cook."
You're obsessed with "kee-kats" (kitty cats) and ask me to draw them for you all the time on the sidewalk with chalk. You stalk the kittens on our neighbor's porch and squeal in delight when one of them comes near you. And your favorite book right now is One Kitten For Kim.
You know the colors blue, red, and pink and can count to two.
When I ask you, "Do you want some ice cream?" you reply, "OH BOY!"
You give air kisses to every person and animal that you see!