The Two Year Old

April is here and for me that means that there is a birthday coming up! Specifically my baby girl will be turning two! TWO. I would hardly believe it except for all the definite two year old behaviors that have been making an appearance since January. It’s an interesting time to want to celebrate something like a birthday, when this world and country are in such disarray. Still, as the day has been coming closer I’ve been observing more and more what a wonderful and challenging blessing my almost two year old is. 

Yesterday afternoon for our snack, we sat on the kitchen floor and she watched avidly as I showed her how to help me peel an orange. We smelled the rind as we peeled off each piece and she helped throw the pieces away and we ate the orange on the floor. Each bite came with a messy result but the satisfied “yum” that came with each bite was too cute, and I knew that I could easily clean up the mess in a few minutes. The thing about two year olds is that they are such hungry learners! She watches everything I do! It can be kind of alarming- because I’m aware of how poor a role model I can be. The leaps and bounds of speech and communication blows my mind, even from just a few months ago. She strings together little two or three word sentences, narrates all her activities and makes sure I’m included when she does something “coo’!” 

We have rough days too. The waking up grumpy days. The “she didn’t get what she wanted days” and the days where I KNOW she can hear me but is clearly ignoring me. (How do they learn how to do that so soon!?) We have the days of many time outs. But even on those days, we take a bath and she puts on her jammies, we sit in the rocking chair and she lays in my arms for as long as I want and we sing songs, and read some bedtime stories and say our goodnight prayers to Jesus. Those times I get all the kisses and hugs, and the “luh yoo”s erase the day’s frustrations.

I can tell that she is going to be a very sweet and nurturing big sister, and that thought also makes these moments so precious! There are still three and a half months (ish) to go for baby #2 to appear, but these first few months have already flown by! It won’t be just the three of us for much longer, and there are less and less days when it’s just me and my first girl! 

Her favorite things are the Moana soundtrack (Moana muss-ee? Peesh?), apples (app-uh), bouncing off of anything she can (I bunce, I bunce!), dancing (‘anceeng), and generally wanting to copy whatever mommy is doing! Brushing teeth, brushing on makeup, cooking, and thankfully that includes cleaning! She’s a good little helper too (she loves positive affirmation, don’t we all?)

I don’t know how she can get any cuter or how I can love her more, but she proves me wrong every day and while I love watching her grow and learn, the phrase is TOO true: “The days are long, momma, but the years are short.”