Two Easy

Now that Charlotte is a two year old, she's really showing her true colors. Lucky for us, her colors are laid back, easy going, and holy cow I better not ever complain. 

While I totally know there are many challenges ahead, this girl is the reason why we wanted more kids. Charlotte definitely has her moments (sometimes those moments last a couple of weeks), but overall, she is just a little peach. People occasionally will sympathize and say how it must be exhausting having a two year old and a baby, and I gracefully choose to say, yes, it can be tiring. 

There are days like yesterday (where I found out a friend fell witness to the incident) where I needed to "quick" run into the store, and Charlotte was pissed. It was raining, puddles were everywhere, and as I was getting Lena out of the van, Charlotte plopped herself on the ground in a heap crying because she didn't want to go in the store. I parked right next to the cart thinger, only to have it completely empty, so I had to carry both girls into the store. Normally I wouldn't carry Charlotte, but she was having a meltdown and it was the only way to get her inside. Then her shoe fell off in the middle of the parking lot, so I had to bend down while holding toddler and infant carrier, and I put the shoe in the car seat. You would have thought I cancelled Christmas with the reaction of "giving Lena" the shoe. Once we got into the store, she zipped it up because I started singing the itsy bitsy spider. 

But most days are this: wake up around 9:30 after 13.5 hours of sleep. Enjoy breakfast all while telling me how "nummy" it is. Get ready, play with toys, head out of the house after Lena wakes up from her nap if we're feeling especially brave (or desperate), and then on the way home she tells me she's tired, and she goes upstairs and takes a 3 hour nap. 

There are tantrums, full on tears, snot and drool mixed together...this usually occurs around 5pm. There are days where she throws a bowl of cereal at me, and days where nothing can make her happy. But the moments of sweet innocent little girlness are far more common at this stage. I am writing this down so that one day, when she does a 180 and it lasts for so long I won't remember these days, there will be proof in writing that she used to be a sweet little girl.

Today we had lunch with my husband. She had the salad bar (free if you're under 5! our server actually asked if she was under 5.)  and her three plates consisted of raw broccoli, peas, strawberries, grapes, garbanzo beans, hard boiled eggs and diced ham. She was even calling the garbanzo beans "marshmallows" and was eating the peas by the handful. Where did she come from??

Charlotte loves to dance and I try to record it, but if she catches me, she runs up to my phone and looks to see, but of course there's nothing to see once she's behind it. She loves to cuddle, read, and pretend every toy is food. Some people build towers with blocks, she serves blocks up individually as cookies, cake and muffins. Rockets are her new favorite mode of transportation, and she has sound effects and talks about outer space. Probably because that's where she came from. 

Lena has a humidifier in her room and Charlotte thinks it's a rocket, and she never gets too close because she thinks it's hot. 

"Rocket."

I might introduce her to the Astronaut Jones theme song. 

She loves her baby sister, and even when she gets sick of her, she's still nice.

Yesterday Lena kept putting her hand on Charlotte's leg, and Charlotte would slowly take it off and act as if nothing had happened.

K, you're touching me, but I'll see if you move on your own.

no? okay, I'm just going to slowly move your hand away.

I make the call on when it's hand holding time.

And while I might only be writing these nice things because of this "story" that Kara sent me, it's also because of this, that was shared by Betsy.

So if Charlotte being herself was enough for us to want another child and having Lena was enough to make us want to be done, you might think that's cruel, or that Lena is so difficult. But the truth is, *if* we are stopping at two, it's only because we can't imagine it going any better, so why tempt fate? 

If you have younger siblings do you think it's because your parents wanted another one like you, or because they thought they could do better? 

I'm the youngest because perfection was finally reached once I was born.