Lane at two years old

 

Dear Lane Rook, 

Today you are two.  Two years ago I had this crazy experience and you were at the end of it and my whole world was euphoric and freaky.  Five minutes after your birth I started calling everyone I knew.  "I had a baby!" "WHEN?"  "Just now!  Five minutes ago.  He's lying here on my chest."  "WHAT?!"

I thought you were an impossible baby, crying all the time, flipping moods on a dime, not good in restaurants, ALWAYS awake, but when I look back at videos of that time, you were so chill.  I was just new and together we were a jumbled ball of energy with bodies that were doing things so fast we couldn't keep up.  I was eager for this time - the time when you could walk yourself to the car and had words and understood ours.  I was eager with good reason, because this is the best age ever.  Terrible twos?  Whatever.

Sure you're kind of crazy and lose your cool when you can't have the third pack of fruit snacks, but what kid wouldn't?  Sure you're still bad in restaurants and really awful to travel more than an hour in the car with, but other than those things, you are the coolest most golden being right now. 

You communicate with your words almost all the time.  I can understand you perfectly but I don't know if it's clear to everyone yet.  Your sentences are complex and made up of 4-6 words.  In the evenings when we do our bedtime routine, you read every book along with me and then sing all the bedtime songs, your little voice reaching for the tune.

You love swimming in the bathtub.  You want to float all the time, and you'll lie on your belly and pretend to kick your legs and you'll even put your face in the water by yourself.  You like when the water dumps on your head and when your ears are in the water and you talk and sound muffled.  

You still prefer to play alone.  You see some kids on a regular basis, but you can take about 5 minutes of side-by-side play before you close your door and read books.  You're perfectly content entertaining yourself and will spend most of the day not needing our attention. 

You're brave when you're by yourself too, asserting your independence by doing things I'd never expect like climbing three-story-tall jungle gyms without fear, or going down winding tube slides that no other kids before you would try.  You've been talking to strangers lately, telling them facts about the park you've picked up (the elephant is hot.  We don't throw rocks.), but you're still shy with faces you haven't seen in a while and will take your time before opening up to most people.

You are really well behaved but definitely don't listen.  You intentionally ignore me all the time.  You hear me and understand me, but pretend like I'm not speaking at all, continuing to walk away when I ask you to come.  I should amend this to say you listen when you want to.  You always leave toys at the store when I ask you to, but that's about it.  When you break rules or say a bad word (and you know a lot of bad words, OMG) I ask you to look me in the eye so I can explain why we don't do those things, and you NEVER look me in the eye.  However you don't break rules that often and don't tantrum nearly as much as you did a few months ago.  You've figured out that you can do what you want (notice I didn't say get what you want) and you just do it instead of cry.

You have toddler-picky-eating syndrome but we have decided not to care and I think it's for the best.  Most of the time you only eat bread.  Sometimes you'll eat peanut butter and jelly on it.  Every now and then you'll get experimental for a week and love tomatoes or something, but more often than not you only touch the bread on your plate.  You still only drink water.  Not even milkshakes....no juice...only water.

You're a great sleeper at night still, even after the transition to a twin bed.  You stay in your bed right when we leave and sleep until 7am.  When you wake up you read the books we read the night before and wait for us to come get you.  But the twin bed transition has wrecked your naps, which you definitely still need.  We usually stroll you to sleep now.  The few times that doesn't work I sing you a few songs which works half the time.  The other half, you go without.

You love both of us equally.  When it's just you and me, you are always asking where your daddy is.  When its the other way around, it's all about mommy.  You give us both "a hundred kisses" and "a hundred hugs" which basically looks like cuddling, but is sooo cute to hear you say.

I'm never cutting your curls.  You've been mistaken for a girl twice and I don't even care.  Blonde ringlets?  They're staying forever, thanks.