Marissa's Birthday

Our youngest offspring turned two yesterday. It seems hard to believe to us, even though she's been saying "two" and gesturing with two fingers when you ask her how old she is for some time now.

I realized that I never really settled in to telling people that she was "one." It sounds odd, but when kids are between 1 and 2, whether they are closer to 1 or 2 makes a huge difference in their learning, their communication, their size, etc. So when people would ask how old she was, I would usually reply in months, much to many non-parents' chagrin.

"She's 14 months." [Non-parent's mental calculator: 1 yr and 2 mos old]

"She's 18 months." [Non-parent's mental calculator: 1 and a half years old]

"She's 22 months." [Non-parent's mental calculator: she'll be two in two months]

Finally...she's two! And I missed my opportunity to tell people she was "one." Not that they'd believe me.

Because she doesn't look two, she looks three. She is about the same height as a few 3-year-olds we know. She towers over most of her classmates and she's a bit of an oaf. She can knock her classmates down with her normal play, much less when she gets mad at them for taking a toy.

She's got more and more words and sentences all the time. She says each of our names, and we've been working on getting her to say her own for a while. Finally, today, she was talking about something that belonged to her and she said, "Sasissa's book."

Sasissa, now there's a name we hadn't thought of! But obviously so much easier for her to say!

She asks for all kinds of things now, she has a distinctive idea of what her bedtime routine should consist of. I should get her out of the bath, dry her off, get her changed, read her a book, and then she wants to wander off to find Daddy. "Daddy! Book!" she'll yell for him. Then after a book from Daddy she wants to say good-night to Lindsey. This evening that meant a trip back into the bathroom where Lindsey was finishing up a bath.

"Nigh nigh, Dinzee!" Marissa said, and blew her a kiss.

Then back to her room, where she wanted to be put in her bed with her books. We could hear her read them for a while, then she was out.

We found this absolutely incredible, considering that she had a four-hour nap today, lasting from just before 1 pm to 4:45 pm. And she went to bed, all on her own, at a little after 8:00, her normal bedtime.

It's tiring being two!