carly at two.

Our sweet Carly turned two over a month ago. Her birthday was a particularly hard day for me. Chris's parents had come to town the weekend before. I was in bad shape, right when I was first trying out Zofran. Chris had a busy week ahead of him as the summer term was coming to a close. His parents offered to take her home with them for 4 or 5 days. I didn't want to, because I'd miss her birthday. But I was in bad shape, and it would be so good for her. So she went. Spending the anniversary of your child's birth without said child, feeling like you can't take care of her, is not highly recommended. Fortunately, a) she had a wonderful time and was spoiled with fun and attention, b) I kept reminding myself we are getting a second wild bundle of craziness out of this deal . . . and I got to sleep A LOT, and c) we got to celebrate her birthday the day after she came home. It turned out being a winning situation for everyone involved, but it was hard.

I've been getting comments lately on how much Carly has grown. I was out of the social scene for a while, so know that I'm crawling back in, people say she looks like a little girl now, and not so much a baby or toddler. Its true. She is so much little girl, and so little baby. She remains in her crib and in diapers, because I just couldn't deal with it these last few months. But my goal is to get her out of both before the baby comes. Ha! I know, right? Ok, at least out of the crib. I just love her in the crib. We all sleep so much better. Maybe we'll just buy a second one and keep them both in there until we move (when they are 2 and almost 5, good plan).

But I've been keeping a list of wonderful things I want to remember. Perfect Carly in all her two-ness:

Her beary best friend is a red teddy bear by the name of Red Baron (aka "red bear-nun" or "Carly's bear!"), which was given to her by Chris's grandma, Baga. She loves all her stuffed friends, but Red Baron is the king of the crop. He has been on airplanes, the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific, to the ER, on endless walks to numerous parks, and is by her side at every naptime. Red Baron is one of those things we'll keep forever, and when I think I've misplaced him at a store, I literally panic. He's a good bear.

She has recently started to "say prayers", where we tell her what to say and she repeats. She usually only repeats the last word of each phrase, and if we give her a phrase that's too long, she says "Yeah". So her prayers go: "Father . . . mommy . . . daddy . . . Jesus . . . yeah . . . AMEN!". There is nothing as heartwarming as watching your daughter offer up her very first prayers.

The rest appear to be funny things she says. Its funny how when they are younger you focus so much on what they do, but now her little personality is completely revealed in what she says.

When she wants to bring something somewhere (usually a stuffed animal), she looks up at you with those pretty blue eyes and sweetly asks "Red Bear-nun comin' wit us?". "Daddy comin' wit us?". And if she thinks she is going to be left behind, "Carly comin' wit us?".

She is very curious and we have begun the phase where I am asked "What are you doing?" or "What's that?" every 15 seconds. What are you doing? Washing my hands. What are you doing? Drying my hands off. What are you doing? Closing the door. I try to be patient and answer every single time. Its not easy. But she is so sweet because she also often asks, "Are you ok, mama?".

She also narrates her actions: "I'm running!" We'll ask her to come eat dinner and she says "No! I'm jumping!" Priorities. She also announces her presence with all sorts of gusto: "I'm here!!!" and "Look at me!!". These get lots of laughs at the grocery store.

[helping with pumpkin cupcakes. yes we bake on the floor.]

She has recently started calling me Erin. The other day she got up from her nap and started calling "Erin! Erin!" I went in and told her, You call me mommy. The smart alec replied "Whats your name?". I laughed and said, Well, my name is Erin, but you call me mommy because I'm your mommy. It was pretty funny, but the girl has got some spice. Not sure where she got that.

As she has been from the day she was born, she remains a lousy, picky eater. We are already to the point where we have stand-offs at the table insisting she have "3 more bites". It usually turns into "just 1 more bite." Without fail, she'll eat pancakes, fruit, tomatoes, and guzzle gallons of milk. I swear we go through milk like a teenage boy lives here.

She is still a great sleeper. She went through a phase where she was waking up before 7 and I just can't do that. And that's really not enough sleep for her. So Chris went in a few mornings in a row and told her "Its still night-night time". She went back to sleep almost every time, and now she is back to sleeping in past 8. She's always been a champ sleeper, and I'm hoping for another one just like her.

Last but not least, few fabulous one-liners:

"Cute bag, mama."

I put one of her tank tops on her monkey, named Green Ah Eee (she named that one), and it came down past the monkey's legs down to his feet. She was very excited and said "Green Ah Eee's a princess!".

She has two stuffed lions. One is big and she says he says "roar". The other one is David and is smaller. I said "David says roar too" and she said No. I said Well what does David say? She replied "mmmeeeeeoooowwww!". Poor David.

We came home from the store and Red Baron was on the living room floor. She ran to him and said "Red Bear-nun! Its so good to see you!"

I was sitting in the arm of the couch and she said "What you doing up there, mom?".

[chocolate chip sneaker.]

She just does so much and says so much and learns so much.

I can't believe what a little girl she really is.

But she is so so so much fun.