She's Two

It's finally happened. Julia has realized that she's two, which means she shouldn't be my mild mannered sidekick anymore. No, she should be inflexible and whiny. She should cry on a whim and collapse at the word "no". It's a good thing she's cute because in the last two weeks she has needled my nerves more than necessary.

Our conversations are frequently interrupted with her saying, "Quiet, Mommy. Quiet Daddy. No talking. No talking." All the while she is signing STOP as though speaking in two languages will make her heard more easily. When we reprimand her for some misdeed, she lowers her chin and looks at us out the tops of her eyes and says, "Don't say that to me. I don't like that." When she is tired we go through a grating routine of "I want that. No, I don't want that. I want that. No, I don't want that." And then there's the inconsolable crying when she doesn't get her way. Grace, though a tyrant in her own way, could almost always be consoled or at a minimum distracted. Not so with Julia.

Craig and I shake our heads because whatever skills we picked up with Grace clearly don't work with our second born. We're learning all over again what it's like to parent a two year old. All the same we find her ridiculously adorable. I suppose that's how it's supposed to work.

Case in point: Just this morning, I watched her play with her friend Sofia. She was laughing and running and having such a good time. At one point she knocked over some toys, and when she bent down to pick them up I heard her say, "Oh Dear," and then "Dammit."

I couldn't say a word because I was laughing so hard. Therein lies the balance.