We Are Two

Kaden,

Where has the time disappeared? I have to shake my head and close my eyes to bring me back to the reality that you are two years old. I have a two year old. Boy, how old do I feel? I feel as if I have always had you and yet you are still so new to me, new to the world. I am in awe of how quickly you have grown into a little person. It terrifies me that sooner than I like I will be forced to call you a young man. I am not ready to let go of my baby. I don’t know what mom is ever ready to see her baby turn to tot to young man into an adult. I can see how quickly time disappears. Aren’t we lucky I have eyes everywhere; and I do my best to see every moment of your life unfold!

You are careful, funny and nurturing. If I was given three words to describe you those would be it. This is how I have described you since you were a baby-babe. I guess we are who we are from the very start. You have given me the gift of laugher like I have never known. . I have never laughed more. You are one funny guy. I cannot wait until you choose to speak. The days will have me in stitches. This morning is a great example.

Today you woke up and I knew you were two from the tantrums you preformed throughout most of the morning. Well, this Mama won’t stand for it. As someone once told me, “Kaden is stubborn, but you are determined.” I don’t know if truer words were ever spoken. In the middle of a tantrum I looked at you and said, “Birthday or not this attitude is not okay. Being two isn’t as bad as being the Mom of a two year old. It all stinks. We are in it together, so we have to deal with it! The good news is they tell me it gets better!’ It was like magic. You stopped looked at me with your crocodile tears and red runny nose and simply said, “k” and walked away. I giggled inside, for you had no idea what I said and yet you were so agreeable. I won.

I see you sit and play with many of the same toys you received on your first birthday. You love the yellow train from the Jones family. Daddy dressed you in your camo vest for one of its last wears that the Adams’ gifted you. You asked me to bring down the rocking horse The Glover’s had given you. And to watch you climb up and ride without any help took me back a year. This same day last year you didn’t walk! It is amazing how far we come in a year. I don’t see you growing before me, but it shows in your outgrown clothes and new learned abilities. Your awareness to the world is one that constantly reminds me you are growing-up.

I watch you get bread ‘toes’ out of the bag, open the door to the toaster, cram the bread onto the rack, slam the door shut and press the button. Each time I see this I question where you learned this. I didn’t take you aside and show you this step-by-step routine. As you climb into your car seat and put your straps on I rub my eyes to be certain you did do exactly that. I didn’t ask you to show me you could do this. Who taught you? I hear the Velcro of your diaper coming undone finding you wanting toe-pee on the potty. How did you know to do this? This past year you have been absorbing your surroundings and teaching yourself along the way. You sit alone reading a story aloud laughing at the same parts we do when I read the same story to you. Your memory is in overdrive creating an imagination that I cannot believe you have at the inexperienced age of two.

You have started to test boundaries. Your wants are becoming demands. You communicate through tantrums, which I hope will dissipate as your vocabulary grows. You continue to go to bed without hesitation often asking for ‘nye-nye’ in the middle of the day. You enjoy cooking dinners with me and garage time with Dad. The water is your greatest pleasure. Motorcycles are a fondness turning to passion. You have a best buddy, Bryson and a couple of best girls namely the Brooklyn’s. You love to create through coloring mostly with ink pens. You could spend all day every day outside. Your nature is to organize, clean-up and fix things. You are the first to run for a towel to absorb a spill, put a bottle on its side up right and use a wrench in the right area to fix a bike. You are a smart cookie.

Today is the day we celebrate you, but birthday or not I celebrate you every single day. I celebrate the person you are becoming. I celebrate the person you are making both your Dad and me become. I celebrate your love, trust, humor and creativity. I celebrate first words, new actions and learned behaviors. I celebrate the quiet moments and loud overtures. I celebrate mudpies and the wonder of butterflies all because of every single day all because of birthdays.

Happy birthday Mister Man, happy-happy birthday! I wish you a year of wonderment and exploration. Take time to follow the ants in the driveway and chase cotton in the wind. Get out and play in a puddle without your shoes and swing a stick at a bush. Test me as a person and mother each day. Scream from frustration, but mostly with glee. Fight me to induldge in cake, cookies and M&Ms every day. Just do it. Enjoy the joys of being two.

I will.

I love your guts,
Mom