Girl’s Life

Happy 21 month birthday, Sophia!

It’s been a whirlwind month of activity with you, as always. Your dad and I struggle to keep up. Thank goodness there are two of us. Because by the end of a day of chasing you (usually sans-pants) through the house, dancing with you to 80s music, “cooking” in your kitchen and listening to you explain life in your thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining toddler way, we are usually pretty exhausted. You are life and laughter and noise and messy fun all rolled into one cute and energetic little package.

You’re definitely settling into your role as our little sidekick. We love hanging out with you — watching you become more self-sufficient each day. Don’t get me wrong, you were a cute baby, but man, are we glad to have graduated you from the blob stage — with all its spit up and mushy jarred baby food — into a little person who can do so many things yourself. You make sure we know that as often as possible, too. “Self!” you say assertively whenever you want me to give you back your fork, or you want to read the book on your own or you just want to be freed from my arms to roam around. “Self, mommy!” I know, sweetie. Forgive me if sometimes I linger just bit before I put you down and watch through misty eyes as you run off on your own. I’m sure I’ll do that many more times, so you might as well get used to it.

You’re learning new things all the time, like counting and singing. You love to count to ten, and sometimes you get all the way there. But most times it’s “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven…TEN!” Sorry, eight and nine. You’re going to have to wait until it’s your day on Sesame Street to get your chance to shine, or at least to get a toddler shout out. The singing’s cute, too. Your first song was a very short rendition of the ABCs (which basically consisted of you singing A-B-C over and over). You’ve since moved on to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” From the back seat of the car we’ll now randomly hear “tinkoh, tinkoh…STAAAAAAAAR!” Really cute, kid. Seriously.

You are such a joy to spend our days with. Yes, you sometimes have those moments when you feel like you’re losing your footing, and things get crazy. But thankfully, the beautiful, quiet, snuggly moments and the hilarious, goofy laughter outweigh the times you loudly protest being put in the shopping cart seat or your periodic revolts against bedtime.

I do still remember life before you were around (imagine that!). And I remember it being quite full and fun. But you, my dear, are the overflow of happiness in an already pretty cool and abundant life. I’ll take that kind of sidekick any day.