Rose's 2nd Family Day

Dear Rose,

We celebrated your 2nd Family Day on March 20th. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years!  We flew to Colombia over Spring Break to meet you for the very first time. So you will likely always get to celebrate your Family Day on vacation. This year we spent your special day at the Jungle Gardens in Sarasota. You are a huge animal lover so it only seemed fitting!  You had fun looking at all the animals, feeding the birds, playing on the play ground and even holding a baby crocodile (and you weren't even scared of it!)

The rest of the day was spent with two more of your favorite things - water and sand!  You had a blast exploring Lido Beach. You could spend all day on the beach - digging in the sand like a puppy, looking for sea shells, and dipping your toes in the water. You just may be part mermaid!

"Look I found a shell!"

Building sandcastles 

Digging like a puppy

"I'm a puppy!"

Running on the beach

Little Miss Rose, you are growing up so fast! And you sure are all girl! You love your puppy stuffed animals.  You have one that is bigger than the other and you named the big one "Mommy Puppy" and the little one "Baby Puppy".  You love helping Mommy Puppy take care the the baby.  You give them both kisses and hugs and love wrapping them up in blankets so they can take their naps.

You love puppies so much, you even pretend to be one!  In the morning when I get you from your bed, you'll announce, "Me puppy" while you pant and bark like a dog.  Or during lunch, you'll get down on the floor and say, "me puppy" and want me to feed you on the floor just like a puppy!  At bedtime, your favorite thing to do is howl in your baby monitor.  You love hearing your howl amplified over the speaker.  And yes, I even join you and howl back.

You love play-dough! One container of play-dough and a few tools and you are easy occupied for an hour. You love cutting it, stamping it, and rolling it into balls. You always ask for help rolling a "mommy ball" and a "baby ball". Everything is a mommy and a baby to you!

Your bedtime necessities include your two little elephant blankies and your pink afghan.  You had become so attached to your special elephant blanket when you were a baby that I was worried about it getting lost, so I bought a replacement on eBay to have as a backup.  But that backfired because now that you had two of them, you absolutely needed to have them BOTH. You call your elephant blankie "two".  You often ask "Where's my two?" and after you find one, you ask, "Where's my other two?"   My hunch is that you thought its name was "two" because I would always ask you, "Do you need two of them?"  Every time you grab your "two", your little fingers go in search of its tag. You sure love those elephants, but your #1 bedtime necessity continues to be your middle and ring fingers.  Those two fingers comforted you during your time at FANA and continue to soothe your little soul.

You have quite a unique set of taste buds.  You are always coming up with strange concoctions.  Some of the most unusual include eggs covered in peanut butter; salmon dipped in ketchup; and butternut squash soup with pickles!

Speaking of meal time, you love to drink Green Machine Juice.  It's packed full of spirulina (I'm not even sure what that is, but it must be something green!), alfalfa, broccoli, and of course some fruits too like apples and bananas.  It's your favorite drink and you are always excited to raise your juice bottle, as you say "cheers" and click your bottle against someone else's drink.

You love singing songs.  YouTube Kids is your go-to when you're in the mood for a song.  Your favorites include "Johnny, Johnny, Yes Papa", "Old McDonald", "ABC" and "Daddy Finger".  When you hear a song you like, you have just gotta move!  You spin around and around, dancing to the music.

You say the cutest things!  Nap time is not your favorite, so you always try to postpone it by saying, "No nappy time.  Eat time."  Or when you see something new or interesting, you utter in wonderment, "Ooooh, cool!"  Any photo or video you see of something fun, gets an eager, "Me go there! ME GO THERE!!!"  Or if I ask you, "Are you my baby?", you always respond, "No. Me Ro." You still can't quite make the "z" sound in your name and refer to yourself as "Ro" which I now find myself calling you too!

You still love bath time.  You can easily take an hour long bath every night, but if you had your way, you'd probably stay in for 2 hours!  You love playing with the water, filling up your cup, dumping it into your bowl, and repeating it over and over.  You call the water in your bath cup "tea" thanks to your big brother Owen who told you that.  You'll fill up your cup and say, "Mmmmm tea" and then take a big swig of bath water.

Playing outside is another favorite of yours.  You're always collecting rocks.  Sometimes you're looking for teeny tiny ones, but usually you go right for the giant ones - the kind that could easily break a window.  You love your swing set and have mastered climbing up the spiral slide.  You'll climb up, slide down, and do it all over again.  You've even managed to conquer the rock climbing wall, although it still makes me very uneasy and I'm always there to catch you even though you don't want mom's help.  You are just getting too big!

Even though it's been 2 years since you were first placed in my arms, I am still amazed every day I get to spend with you that out of all the families waiting, our family was picked just for you!  We are so blessed to be able to spend our days watching you grow.  You are a silly, smart, sweet, adorable little girl!  Happy Family Day, Rose!  We love you!