Atomic Tonic

Matilda has her first cold of the season. I'm annoyed as she's clearly uncomfortable - runny nose, red eyes, mouth-breathing - and I'm sure I'm next, but I can't complain, not really, as this time last year we were well into months solid of sick and cranky and ear infections and antibiotics. This kid was so sick for so long I forgot what it was like when she wasn't sick. We'd finish one round of antibiotics, wait a day and head back to the pediatrician for another round. Her ears gave her a break once every week and a half for about 12 hours. It's a wonder this kid has any language skills at all, considering how much time she spent not being able to hear. (But boy does she have language. Two of them.)

Speaking of two. Tomorrow she is two years old. She's gone from 5 lbs. 13 ounces of screaming crank to 23-ish pounds of jumping running nipple-twisting naked-loving poached egg-eating comedy gold.

She makes jokes. She tells stories. She loves the water and doing things herself. "All by self." She needs everything. "I need that." The spoon and the coffee beans and the laptop and my cell phone. She needs that. She currently needs the paints a lot. She'll start off with brushes on paper but sometimes a stretched skin canvas is too much. "Paint tummy?"

(37 weeks, 4 days pregnant)

Sometimes going blue in the tub feels right.

She's getting more self-suficient. We went to a Toddler Brunch last weekend and I realized that 5 mothers of toddlers were sitting around the table having an actual conversation. The toddlers were in the kitchen chasing the cat and in the playroom reading books and in the living room taking apart a train track. They were, for the most part, visible. Mostly near each other as apposed to interacting with each other, as toddlers do, but they were breaking off from their parents for periods of time to do their own thing.

Two is sort of a relief. Sure, she can bawl her eyes out at a moment's notice if she doesn't get what she "needs," but I'd take two over one anyday. Two is "I naked!" and "Jump! Bounce!" and "No jump with baby" and "Nap on face?"

Two is "Help?" - either she needs it or wants to offer her services. She helps me make dinner and requests that we bake cakes and demands we sit right *here* while she bakes ice cream in her oven and fish in the frying pan and adds more soy sauce for taste. She teases her Dampa with crackers. "Can I have one?" And she grins and shakes her head. Eats the cracker herself. She takes over the bedtime stories and reads them to us. She currently wants the potty in the middle of the living room floor. Earlier today she propped her baby up on it and wrapped it in a blanket. She laughs when she farts. She's been sleeping till 7. She's been wearing her "cow boots" everywhere as they are good for stomping.

She just woke up for the second time tonight (head cold, coughing) and after lying with her for a minute, I asked if she wanted to come sleep with us. "Ya." I told her I needed to go downstairs for a minute but then I'd come back and get her and we'd all go to bed together. "Okay?" "Ya."

She's two. She's lying in bed waiting for me to come back and get her.