August 13, 2018

The Magic Of Two



This post is all about celebrating the magic of two

Because I'll be honest...most the the time, parenting a two year old is no walk in the park. We have attitudes, independence, and strong wills galore. 

"One day she will use that strong will for good," my mom recently told me. 

I do believe that. In fact, in a lot of ways, I am proud to have a strong willed little girl. She is the opposite of how I was as a child. I was pretty easy and compliant, but I also didn't have a lot of self confidence and leadership didn't come naturally to me. So I am reminded that her strong will is a gift. I keep telling myself that when she fights me on everything. 

There have been many moments that I want to savor in my two year old. Like recently, when we went to the beach and she just wanted to run in and out of the waves and giggle. She never got tired of running back and forth as the waves crashed over her feet and she never stopped giggling. She looked like a little fairy prancing there on the beach, inspiring the name "Twinkle Toes." I'll never forget that messy bun on her head, her squinty eyes, or the way her silver bangle glistened in the sun on her tiny wrist. But most of all, I'll never forget those precious giggles and splashing feet. 

That vacation week was a particularly hard parenting week and I found myself overtired, irritable, and not myself. But as she was prancing on the beach, I deeply wished for time to stand still. I remembered the year before, when she wasn't a fan of the sand and the waves, and how differently she was responding in that moment. I looked to the next year and realized she probably would not respond to the ocean in this same way at three years old (though I'm sure three will have magic of its own to revel in).  

I'm never going to have this experience with her again, I told myself. This is the magic of two. The way she experienced the ocean at this exact age, as my twinkle-toed-two-year-old, was beautiful to behold. 

There are other magical parts of this age as well. The way she will push her daddy and I toward one another for a kiss. The way she cups our faces with her hands. The way she thinks our freckles are "boo boos" and kisses them. The way she warns us that our coffee is hot so we won't burn ourselves. When she growls at us like a monster and we can't help but laugh because she is so tiny and fierce. 


The truth is, it's so easy to feel like I'm going to lose it most days. And then there are also many days when I actually do lose it a little. There are many parts to this stage that I just cannot wait to move past, parts that I will not miss. But I know that for every part that I am wishing away, there is a part that I will long for again one day. So I will cherish the sweetness of two. I'll remember that there is chaos and there is magic in every stage. I'll choose to cling to the magic. And I'll probably eat a lot of chocolate to cope with the chaos. 

What gets you through this crazy, hard, and beautiful stage?

Thanks for reading!

xx,
Court