2 years old today!

Two years has gone by so quickly! It's hard to believe that 2 years ago we bought this tiny thing home from the hospital just hours old.......

This time last year when she turned one I could hardly believe how much she had grown. She seemed so far away from our little newborn, yet she was still very much a baby and not yet a toddler.

Sometime while we were travelling in Europe we both concluded that she had hit toddler-dom. All of a sudden she was very grown up (or so she thought)!

These days there isn't much baby like left about her. Her speech is amazing, she understands and remembers everything (to our detriment it would seem) and is fiercely independent and bossy (wonder where she gets that from?).  The last year has gone so fast and Astrid has grown up so much.  I can't even begin to imagine what the next year will be like.

This time last year she was only just crawling and had not yet learnt to walk. Now she runs, jumps, swims and climbs stairs.  This time last year she had 20 odd words, now she has thousands and speaks in sentences and you can have entire conversations with her. This time last year we still had to guess what she wanted and needed. Now she tells us (often in excruciating detail).  This time last year she was cute as a button and now she is utterly adorable.

In her 2 years Astrid has completed 28 flights (12 International), 16 International train trips and visited 9 other countries.  She is already a seasoned traveler and loves nothing more than checking out new hotels, new cuisine and new people and places.  We aren't sure what her 3rd year will have in store for her but she has already told us she wants to go on more planes and to more hotels so we will have to see what we can do about that.  She is also very excited about becoming a big sister and can't wait to meet her little brother or sister. It's going to be a big and exciting year for her, and us too!

Happy 2nd birthday Astrid, we hope you have had as much fun this past year as have had and we can't wait to see what your third year has in store. Please be kind to your parents in the next year, we might be a bit tired!