Two!!!

Thursday, August 7, 2014
How is it possible that my little girl is two years old today? It seems like just yesterday that I heard her first little cry as she emerged into the world and then felt her smooth skin against my chest. I remember gazing into her dark, almost navy eyes, which have now developed into a soft blue and watching her sleep, a single tear hanging between her eyelid and nose. 

She was so plump that day, swollen and filled with fluid, but today she is thin and tall. She’s lost so much of that baby fat that I loved to squeeze and her face has changed into one of a toddler. Although she is no longer an infant, she will always be my little baby: my first. the one who made me a mother. 

I have been so privileged over the last two year to watch her develop mentally and physically.  She is now beginning to string 3 words together into sentences and asking us, “Where’d it go?” or telling us, “This is doggy. This is kitty cat.” And yesterday, for the first time without asking to tell me she loves me, she responded to my, “I love you,” with her own, “I lulu.” She knows and can point to just about every body part, she can count to ten and sometimes tries to go beyond, and she is learning her ABCs and loves to sing the song, prompting us by asking, “Ready?” 

Maddie has become an excellent climber and yesterday spent a good chunk of time going up the stairs and down the slide at the mall over and over and over again. While I was proud to watch her do it on her own without holding my hand, I did experience the first real twinge of a mother’s heart cracking, watching her become independent and realizing that her self-sufficiency in the world is actually one of our goals. 

Madelynn also loves to run outside and play.  She could spend hours going up and down the sidewalk, she loves to be chased and loves being tickled even more. Her and daddy like to crouch down and walk in funny ways, making each other giggle and she loves it when he plays tag with her, too.  

Our little girl also has recently become very interested in music, singing and dancing along.  She frequently requests that we put a song on by saying, “Music?” and when we sing “patty cake”, or “The wheels on the bus,” she loves to try to do the motions with her hands while chiming in with a few of the words, too. 

Sometimes meals are a little bit difficult, but Maddie definitely goes through stages of what she likes to eat. For the past couple of weeks, she has been obsessed with “samwich”es. It doesn’t matter what is on the sandwich (bologna, turkey, ham, tuna, boca burger, hamburger…etc) as long as it is between two pieces of bread. 

Maddie is also an expert at hugs and kisses now, landing some of the smooches right on our lips and actually wrapping her little arms around us and adding a little pat on the back for hugs.  She laughs and smiles all the time, loves taking pictures and could read books all day long. 

This is our little girl; the one who just 2 years ago couldn’t hold her own head up. Now she is becoming her own little girl with her own precious personality.  But, as far as we get from the day of her birth, I will never forget that moment when she joined us here on earth after having been fearfully and wonderfully knit together in my womb, created to be fully unique and special, yet made in the image of God. 

Happy Birthday, my first daughter! I love you so much!