Two

Two. 

Terrible Twos?

No way. 

I love Two.

Just a few of the things that are terrific about the Twos:

When she wants you to love on her, she'll hold both arms up, stomp her feet, and says (repeatedly), "Hoh-djoo, hoh-djoo, hoh-djoo!" (Hold you).

She sings the word 'Liedel', always in sets of three, as in: 'liedel, liedel, liedel'. I have no idea what this means, but it's very cute.

She can get out of her crib all by herself. When she gets out after nap time, she opens the bedroom door, shuts it behind her, walks down the hall and stands at the end of it until she sees me. She then waves, says, "Hey-ey!", and runs and gives me a hug.

When she is awake, I must be also. If she catches me sleeping, she'll crawl on top of me and smack me in the head and say, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!". I find this mildly annoying.

Her favorite dress-up character is Jessie from Toy Story.

She loves to play 'tea-pahty' with Madelyn.

We call her Ni-Hao-Car-lyn. It's based off of the kiddie show Ni Hao Kai-Lan, but I'm not really sure why we started calling her that.

Anytime is story time.

She is quite fond of wearing her fuzzy pink jacket and pink rain boots. Everywhere. All the time. (Nap time and bedtime included).

She has stinky feet because of wearing said boots.

Every morning when she hops into bed with me she says, "I-wud-joo." (I love you). It always makes me smile (no small feat, mind you, in those early morning hours).

Her eyes are fabulously blue and sparkle like mad in the sunlight.

She knows what day it is by the way her daddy is dressed. Monday through Friday when he's in work attire, she kisses him and waves goodbye as he heads to work. On Saturdays and Sundays when he's in his LLBean chamois cloth shirts, blue jeans, and hiking boots, she doesn't let him more than 3 feet away from her for fear her might leave on an adventure without her.

History will surely remember her as on of the great Snuggle Bunnies. She nestles in good and tight, is as still and quiet as a church mouse, and liberally sprinkles in lots of, "I-wud-joos.", as she leans her head in close and flashes those big ole baby blues up at you.

She's like her mama in that:

• she's a big fan of nap time and bedtime
• she loves books
• she's a bit fashion challenged
• she likes the icing more than the cake
• she needs and loves a good routine

She's like her daddy in that:

• she rarely turns down a hot meal or a tasty snack
• she loves to be outside in the garden
• she's a bit grumpy when she first wakes up from a nap
• she needs to throw a good fit once in while
• she loves me

She sings, "I'm wishing, for my prince to come, to find me, today.", and it's absolutely precious.

She loves to aggravate her daddy by hopping in his favorite chair whenever he gets up. He retaliates by trying to sit on and squash that 'bug' that got in his chair while he was gone. They both find this whole exchange hilarious.

She and Madelyn hold hands across the middle aisle of the mini-van as they are strapped in their car seats.

I love that each time we're reunited, whether we've been apart for 10 minutes or 2 hours, she always greets me with such enthusiasm that you'd think we hadn't seen each other in 3 whole months.

Two is such a precious age. It's really hard not to wish for them to stay like this forever. And I think we should do away with that horrible Terrible Twos monicker and hereby and henceforth dub them the Terrific Twos.

Did I mentioned that I love Two?