She's Going To Be Two

My little girl is going to be two. My sweet angelic cherubic doll will be two on Wednesday.

And I'm petrified!

She's a doll. She's a sweet little girl, who says "please" and "thank you" with little nudging. She makes "funny noises" and sweetly says "excuse me". She loves her dollies, she loves her brother and she loves her daddy. She's our little cuddlebug. Our Piglet...our girl. She's all I could ask for in a sweet little girl.

Until she's angry. And Holy Mother of Pearl, do we ever hear about it. That sweet little angelic, cherubic face scrunches up, gets red like a tomato and her eyes go wide and she lets it rip.

Seriously? This is my angel? My doll, my princess?

Yes, indeedy. It is. And we are entering the "terrible Two's" with a vengence.

With Logan, we never experienced the "terrible Two's". We found out what "real" toddlers were like when he hit the "terrifying Threes". God. Boys at three...Whoa. Not fun.

Girls at two...whoa. Not fun.

My daughter is a very independent (I want to get my own yogurt!) very opinionated (I don't wike that!) and very bossy (NO! Don't cook the steak Mommy!) little girl with a heart of gold and the emotional range of Meryl Streep. This kid can go from happy, laughing little girl to tantruming, foot stomping rage-a-holic and then back to the sweet little girl in about thirty seconds. I am thinking "Drama Queen" barely covers it. "Princess" is often high on our list of titles for her.

No. This isn't anything new. This is who she is, who's she's been since the start. I'm just finding that she's more capable of freaking out over the smallest things in a very quick period of time, more frequently. Ahhh...two. What a magical time.

The qualities I see in her, empathy, independence, opinionated, friendly, happy, sweet, and yes, even bossy, will serve her well in her future I hope. She's a truly empathetic little girl, who doesn't like to see people hurt or crying. It bugs her greatly. Her independence has been proven time and time again and has proven to be a great thing for her. She can be a little bit shy at times, but her curiosity and independence comes up and things get better. Her opinions and bossiness I could do without right now, but as she gets older, she needs to learn to assert herself. Pray I can teach her to assert herself a with a little more tact than her daddy.

She loves big, plays big and just in general is bigger than life.

Her intelligence staggers me on a regular basis. A normal conversation (yes...I have conversations with my two year old) can go something like:

"Where's the kitty?"

"I don't know. Where is the kitty?"

"Probably in the basement."

Or she asks me what something is in a book, tells me about a bird she sees or hears, or does more like me and chatters like no one's listening. She asked me about what something was in a book and I said "It's a constellation. Can you say constellation."

With very little thinking, she looks at the book and says "Constellation." My dad heard her today repeat constellation, cosmonaut, astronaut and reccommended. I'm guessing these aren't normal words for a two year old. But she says them so you can understand them. She's been speaking three and four word sentences since she was 14/15 months old, rarely if ever grunts or points for an object and is usually quite clear in her choices.

I love my daughter so much. She looks at me and smiles and I just can't help but smile back. She's such a sweet little cutie with her beautiful blonde curls and her big blue eyes. I think that's what makes it so easy to "forgive" her bossiness. She does it with such authority but is so cute, it's hard to be angry. I do try to nip it in the bud, but ... well. Just but. You'd have to experience it to understand.

When I had Logan, and I fell so madly in love with him, I couldn't imagine that there could POSSIBLY be anymore space in my heart. I guess I knew there could be, if there had to be, but I didn't realize just how much bigger my heart would become with the birth of a little girl who we tried so hard to have, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

For the past two years, Olivia has given me more joy than I could have ever expected. Logan and Olivia together are my perfect pair. They play together, they love each other and hopefully one day they will be great friends together. Even though we had tried and tried after Logan, with little success until the medication, I realized and understood something:

Children are given to us at time when we need them.

Logan helped us to move forward in our lives, giving us a reason to do the things we were destined to do.

Olivia helped me be a better woman, by making me understand that one day, she is going to look to me to help her become the woman I hope she will become. I am her strongest role model, her greatest ally and one day I hope we will be the best of friends. Until then, I am mommy to a remarkable little girl filled with more potential in her little finger than I could have ever hoped for in my entire body.

Happy Birthday my Little Princess! Here's to many more years together, through laughter and tears, joy and sadness, love and loss, and everything else in between! I love you more than you will ever understand!

Life is good!