I Be Two!

To my lovely Madeline:

Oh, baby girl, where do I even start? I guess, first, I should start by dropping the “baby,” since you no longer, and haven’t for some time, fit that label. Today, you are two (go ahead, hold up all five fingers and tell me you’re two), and there’s no more pretending that you still retain even the smallest vestige of babyhood. You sleep in a “big girl” bed, you wear big girl clothes, and you use big girl words (we won’t mention the fact that yesterday you confused couscous and goose, and told me that couscous goes “Honk, honk!”).

I wonder if you’ll ever get tired of your birthday being a bittersweet day for me (and maybe your Daddy, I’m not sure). I do love watching you grow-up, watching you discover your world more fully and find your place in it, but at the same time, your birth day will always be a reminder of the things we’ll never get back, the moments we’ve probably already forgotten. You move so fast (seriously, child, you’ve got to slow down at some point—it’s like you’re training for some sort of toddler Iron Man), and it’s all I can do to keep pace.

Sometimes, when I look at you, I can’t believe what I see. A year ago, you had a handful of words. At your last birthday party, you were still about 60:40 on your walk to crawl ratio, and you certainly weren’t jumping off the hearth while shouting, “Mommy, watch ‘dis! Watch me, Mommy!” Two years ago, you couldn’t even hold your head up or make eye contact. Now you have entire conversations (mostly about bouncy castles, The Wiggles, and cookies, it must be said), you’ve mostly mastered the stairs, and you insist on picking out at least one item of your own clothing every morning. (Note to older Maddie: I hope, by this point, you’ve learned that Elmo socks do not go with everything.)

So, now, you’re two, even if you don’t know it, and I just wanted to say that no matter how fast you keep moving, your daddy and I will always do our best to keep up with you, even when you’d rather we didn’t. You are still one of the best things in our lives, and we love you so very much. Happy Birthday, Madster! You be two.

Love always,

Mommy