you at 2

You’ve only gone 2 days in your life without a nap. You love French fries, chicken, broccoli, applesauce, blueberries, hot dogs, ketchup, rice, green beans, your morning Nutragrain bar, ice cream, pizza, carrots, cookies, and cereal.

You like to say ‘what?’ when people say things to you that you didn’t hear or don’t understand, and sometimes keep saying ‘what’ because you know it drives Mama nutty. You have your crib mattress on the ground because you mastered climbing out of it several months ago and I’m not ready for you to be in a toddler bed yet.

You sing ‘up the stairs, up the stairs, up the stairs’ to the tune of ‘Hook hook where’s the hook’ from the Robin Williams movie because I randomly sang that one day, so every trip up the stairs has musical accompaniment now. You absolutely love- Papa, Giggy, Martha, Buddy, Eli, Mary, Rick, Harrison, GAGE, Coco, TyTy, Arielle, Uncle Matt, Aunt Hannah, Laura, Jake, Khi, NayNay, Mia, Hunter, RayRay, Jaclyn and Dylan, and ask about Baby Christian all the time (still working on her connecting you to your baby, Chelsea!)

You study the pages in your favorite books and ask me new questions about them every night ‘what’s that Mama? a collarbone? I have collarbone! what’s that Mama? an owie. I kiss it.’ You love watching movies now (for about 5 minutes at a time which is fine by me) but only want to watch Frozen, Trolls, Moana, Wreck It Ralph or Sing.

You handle changes and being told no pretty well for the most part- unless it’s no to having your chicken pacifier, which you call a ‘him’ and have decided is your closest companion. You started waking up around 1-2AM most nights and crying to be with Mama, so you've now spent several months sharing my bed at least half of the night- I don’t mind it too much. You’re loving learning to do things on your own like climbing up into the car, strapping your car seat straps, putting your pants on, and cutting up your food.

You offer to "go time out?" when you hit or bite me, and then say "I all done!" 30 seconds later so who knows if that's really working. You love tickles but also scream ‘no don’t get me!’ when I do it. You say ‘oh man!’ when I explain things you don’t like or are disappointed by. You let Mama pick out all your clothes still but now have an opinion about what shoes you wear (preferably rain boots or Mary Janes). You ask for ‘baby show hair’ every night after bath, which means watching YouTubeKids videos on my phone while I figure out that nights hairstyle.

You are kind and compassionate and ask what happened when you hear babies cry and yell ‘it’s okay baby!’ across the store aisles at them, and you ask me if I’m mad if I cross my arms. You are full of energy and it wears Mama out often, but as soon as you’re asleep I miss you every night. You seem to get in trouble a lot more at Papa and Giggy’s house than you ever do at home or Mary’s house.

You can carry a tune well and have to get up and dance to any TV show theme song (primarily booty shaking).  You are more fun than I ever imagined and so so smart. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

All of her beautiful 2 year-old photos were taken by Oh!Davidson Creative 💕