at what point do you stop counting the months and start counting the years? caylin is 2 now, so i no longer say she’s “25 months”. she’s 2. but i feel like if i stop documenting all of this i’m going to forget all the little things.
i’ve said it a million times at this point, but what a bizarre, wild, and amazing ride it is raising a child. i know the terrible twos have yet to begin, but right now, caylin is… so incredibly sweet. she’s my little buddy. my little gal pal.
- she loves to watch movies. more specifically disney movies, because she went to disney world with my mom. she knows the castle at the beginning. “minnie’s castle!” anything with a princess in a pretty dress, and anything with animals. she’s sold. my old VHS collection coming in handy–we watch a movie (or part of one) every night before she goes to bed.
- she gives out hugs like CRAZY now. and she asks for them. “a hug?” “HUG?” “HUG!” it is so cute and sweet and adorable, and comforting above all.
- she says bye to me when i go to work in the morning when i wave bye, most days. usually she’d be so zoned out eating breakfast or watching bubble guppies that she couldn’t care less if i left or stayed or whatever. but i get goodbye kisses now and that’s pretty much the best way to start my morning. she even kissed me on the cheek tonight while we were sitting on the couch. what makes it even better is she gives an audible “MWAH!” and i can’t get enough.
- she says “bless you” to almost any bodily function, and it’s hilarious. she is getting a lot better with her manners. please, thank you, bless you, and now you’re welcome is on the list. “here you go, mommy.” “thank you, caylin!” “you’re welcome!” i love it.
- she is obsessed with ham and HAM! SAMMICHES! she demands food a lot, so we’re working on the please at the end of her requests. nevertheless, she has been killin some ham sammiches lately.
- she feeds everyone. she fed a friend of ours at our other friend’s wedding last weekend. she had a bowl of goldfish and cashews and granola and just started handing them out like candy. shoving them in my mouth, putting them on people’s plates, hands, etc. then she turns and looks you dead in the eye and goes, “GOOD?” “GOOD MOMMY?” “MMM!” it’s so damn cute.
- she’s absolutely brilliant on the ipad and on my phone. i took the kids mode thing off my phone because it was messing it up, slowing it down, and taking up way too much space. so now i hand her my phone to play games. i didn’t do this before because she would just button mash everything on the screen. now… she knows to swipe twice to get to the apps, and she scrolls through them all until she sees the icons for her games. the ipad? even easier. it’s unbelievable how much she knows. she was navigating netflix this afternoon in the car. it blows my mind.
- she remembers EVERYTHING lately. we went to brett’s parents’ house like MONTHS ago, and caylin swam in their hot tub, and played with a bunch of plastic cups. the other night i told her that we were going to “pop and gigi’s house” this weekend. she immediately starts naming things off, “pop? gigi? mawmaw? [grandma] bobo? [their dog] swimmies? hottub? cups?” OH MY GOD.
- story time is short lived most nights lately. this girl can’t sit still to save her life. she tries to snuggle me and make me sleep in her bed, and i love it, it’s awesome, but she’s just crazy. she waits for me to close my eyes, and then when i open them she laughs like crazy. and usually screams bloody murder, followed up with, “I’M CRAZY!” so it’s a game, and she gets even more riled up before bedtime. flailing around, gathering all her stuffed animals around her. singing and pointing at things and telling me about her day instead of wanting books (even though she claims she still wants the books). she’s nuts.
- still obsessed with beanie babies, they are everywhere. i’ve tried to consolidate, but they’re still all over the place. beanie babies and bracelets and blocks are everywhere.
- she’s making all kinds of sentences nowadays, which is also scary. she is just so smart. she picks up on everything. i feel like that in and of itself is worthy of a parental HIGH FIVE! coupled with the manners.
- last but not least, whenever she wants you to join her, she says “come on!” “come on, mommy!” “come on, daddy!” and sometimes does the weird hand wave that i do when i’m impatient. like, COME ON CAYLIN, hurry on up. need to work on that. regardless, it’s awesome. she’ll say “come on!” and ask for your hand. “hand?” and take you with her wherever she wants to go.
i worked from home all day today for the first time in a while, and caylin sat at the kitchen table with me, colored, watched bubble guppies and movies, ate her breakfast, and was just so sweet the whole time. she didn’t mash on my keyboard, she gave me hugs, talked. she’s growing up so fast. just a few months ago it was so hard to work just being in the same room with her because god forbid you put her near a laptop. but now, it’s a breeze.
i took her to get thai for lunch. she was an angel at lunch. ate without being a butt about anything, even dipped her french fries in applesauce the whole time (ew). when we left, i went the wrong way and had to make a U-turn. the U-turn involved the cracker barrel parking lot, which she recognized. she said she wanted ice cream, so i parked and we went in. instead of ice cream, she played with toys and “pretty dresses” and halloween decorations for about 10 minutes. got in the car and left, then she said she wanted an orange bed. i have no idea. apparently orange is her favorite color right now, so i took her to kimbrell’s. it’s next to publix, and i needed a few things anyway. we walked in, and she literally climbed on beds for 5 minutes, and then we left. ran into publix, got her a free cookie, got what i needed, and left. we were gone about an hour and a half, and she didn’t whine, put up a fight, or fuss the entire time. it was awesome.
every day is different, every day is the same. it’s a weird dynamic watching her grow in the fortuitous, beautiful, blessed monotony of this lifestyle. come home, make dinner, clean up, wash up before bed, bed, shower, work out, work. same routine, but it’s always a little bit different thanks to her.
i absolutely love and hate watching her grow up.