It's been so long since I've written about you. I just reread the milestones from 23 months, and I can't get over how different you are today from 10 months ago. The talking is the biggest difference. You talk just like a regular person now, albeit with a lot more questions! Everything is "Why? Why? Why?" You also have a wonderful sense of humor. You love to make people laugh. You also love bossing people around. You tell EVERYONE what to do, where to sit, how to react, etc. Here are some your favorite things:

• You love singing songs. We have a lot of fun with this, especially now that you can sing full songs all by yourself. You sing the alphabet song quite a bit (and always leave out the letter "j"). You also sing, "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee," "Bushel and a Peck," "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," "Wheels on the Bus," and "Hail to the Victors." Just this week I taught you "Little Bunny Foo Foo," and we sing it dozens of times a day.

•  We read books every night before you go to bed. Your latest thing is to memorize the books and read them to me. For the past few weeks, the only books you want to read are the Princess book (a magnet book called Cinderella's Wedding ), Otto Goes to the Beach and Otto Goes to Bed . You can read the two Otto books to me and Daddy nearly word for word. It's amazing.

•  There are certain sayings that you use over and over again. You are very excited about saying "thank you" and "you're welcome." You also say "I love you" all the time. A few weeks ago, you said to me, "You not the boss. I the boss. You just the mommy." You ask us, "What you said?" over and over each day. You are determined not to miss out on any piece of conversation. Daddy has been working with you on manners, because you can get pretty whiney when you want something. When you ask nicely, though, it's very cute! This morning you asked, "Please may I can have some strawberries?"

•  You've gotten much pickier recently about foods that you'll eat, but there are occasional lapses where you seem to forget that you are in a picky stage. Last weekend, you actually ate five to six mussels, using the shell of one as tongs, just like I showed you how to do. However, one week before that, you pulled a tiny piece of spinach out of a casserole I made just to prove to me that you don't like spinach (you had eaten most of the casserole already, and had just found out about the hidden spinach). Favorites that you'll always eat include Annie's macaroni and cheese, beanies and weenies (franks and beans), hot dogs on the bun with mustard AND ketchup, watermelon, cherries and olives. You love anything sweet, and will harass us nonstop for candy, orange juice and chocolate milk. Just the other day, you stood on a stool at the counter, stared straight at the bowl of Hershey's kisses, and said, "I don't know what I want to eat." You seem to think that you have a better chance of getting candy if you don't ask for it outright.

•  You love watching movies, including Finding Nemo , Brother Bear , Dora the Explorer Berry Hunt and Sticky Tape , and The Wiggles Magical Adventure , which you call the Wally movie, because the main character's name is Wally.

•  You are in between camp and school right now, and you are missing your friends. During break, you are spending some of your days at Tobie's house, with her sons Ziggy and Ansel, and are having a great time playing with them. Your all time favorite friend is Benny, who you "love so much."

•  Activities you love include swimming, which you did everyday on our summer trip to San Diego, putting your foam stickers on paper and on your body, coloring, riding your bike, and taking care of your dolls and animals. You like to put them to bed on your little Dora couch and cover them up with blankets.

•  You are wearing 2T and 3T clothing, and your feet are 7.5. You wear your Hello Kitty flip flops nearly every day, and would be happy if you could wear hot pink sundresses every single day as well. Your favorite color is hot pink, so most of your clothes are in that color family.