Mabel at Two
My baby is two. It felt like just yesterday that I was reflecting on her turning one, but alas, here we are, celebrating another year of Mabel. I was surprised by how much she changed and grew as she moved from one year old to two. (And I thought the first year was dramatic!) When we celebrated her first birthday, she was still uneasy on her feet and speaking her own language. A short year later and not only does she walk, but she skips, runs, walks backwards, and dances with endless pizazz and grace and can intimate a joke with just the tone of her delivery. Watching her grow from a sweet, careful baby to a curious, determined toddler in a matter of months has been one of my greatest joys this year.
Perhaps one of my favourite things about Mabel is that she is so particular, detail-oriented, and meticulous. Even as a baby we could sense that she had very strong hand-eye coordination that resulted in certain particularities and a strong will to do things herself. Now, as she grows into more of a child, this is all the more true. Whether it be scooping small stones onto the slide at the park or finding a pretty leaf in the grass, she is so careful and intentional with everything she touches. You would think that small objects around a two year old would be any mother’s nightmare, and although I have always been careful to keep a close watch, I have always trusted her to handle these precious little treasures with great care. Yes, she occasionally tests me by popping a stone in her mouth for a big reaction, but usually she just likes to hold her newfound treasure in her little fingers and examine it with great care and very curious eyes. I love seeing the world through her explorations - she repeatedly reminds me to slow down and pay a little more attention.
This year hasn’t allowed us many adventures outside of our own home, but it has been a fun challenge to seek the excitement in everyday moments. Whether watching her Dad play softball or visiting her cousin’s playhouse, Mabel has loved exploring even the simplest of new places. The most significant new place she explored this year was her daycare classroom. As her mom, I felt more than ready for the help with childcare that part-time daycare would allow and Mabel seemed eager to be around new faces to help her learn and play. It surprised us all when the transition to daycare was actually a lot harder than we expected. Those early couple of weeks felt like some of my hardest as a Mom, my own eyes welling with tears as I drove away after dropping my crying baby at the door. It was the first time that I truly felt the weight of motherhood - realizing I wouldn’t always be able to shield her under my watchful wing and that she was her own person who would learn her own lessons and feel her own hard things in life. Thankfully, we all adjusted and settled into our new daycare routine and I’m happy to say that it is now one of her favourite places to be. Friends, crafts, good snacks, stories, outdoor play, and her favourite teachers make it a comfortable and safe place to learn even more independence.
At home, Mabel has grown into a joy-filled, independent little girl. She went through a phase where her favourite activity was flailing around on the couch cushions after Curt or I created a flop-arena on the floor. She regularly busies herself with her markers and crayons or thumbs through favourite books. She even pulls apart the drawers in the kitchen to create little beds for her stuffed animals out of clean dishtowels. She takes such good care of all her creatures, feeding them with “soup” she makes in her kitchen or taking their temperatures with the thermometer. She even likes to tuck Curt and I in to bed sometimes with a kiss and a pat on the back - one game that neither of us ever complain about. She has such a caring heart, tending to those around her, empathizing with others when they cry, and rubbing a stubbed toe or achy back when someone expresses discomfort or pain. She force feeds us her leftovers and insists on drinking our dribbles of leftover coffee from our cups. She must put on her own shoes and cries out no no no no if we overstep her own attempts in order to speed up the process.
One thing about Mabel that makes me feel both so proud and so frustrated is that she is always determined to do what we do and help in any way she can. It can be hard as a mom to let go of the reigns sometimes, but I truly am grateful that she has such a determined and can-do spirit. She loves helping in the kitchen by cutting shapes out of cookies, adding ingredients to the bowl, and cutting mushrooms. I know these memories will be precious to me, so even when I feel frustrated in my hurry to get dinner on the table, I try to take a breath and remember to cherish the time and skills we are building together. My Dad made her a kitchen stand for her first birthday and she put a lot of mileage on it over this past year. (She even took a header out of it that traumatized both Curt and I, but thankfully she was fine and we all learned a valuable lesson that day).
She has a killer sense of humour like her Dad. It’s not unusual for me to turn around from making dinner to find them up to some silly antic. Even if I don’t catch their shenanigans live, Curt is always so good at capturing photos of their funny memories. Some of my favourite photos of Mabel are ones that he took when they are together. Thankfully her phases of copying whatever Curt’s latest joke is don’t tend to play out very long, but repeatedly hearing her recite “Dad-dy” after he does something ridiculous makes us all laugh.
There are so many little things about her that I have loved learning about over this year. I love the way her little legs cross under her table or the way she shouts “mo! mo!” through smiles and laughter when she is having fun. I love the way she is becoming so creative in her play, often making her kitties drive trucks or staging them for a family portrait. She is so observant about her own lived experience that she insists we all recreate it in her play world. It’s not unusual for me to spend the first 2o minutes of every morning changing the diaper of every single one of her thirty stuffed animals before we can change hers. She loves doing puzzles and leaving little collections of items in random spots around the house. She sings Row Row Row Your Boat and the Go Dog Go theme song so clearly in her soft little voice. She scolds our cats when they are being bad and dances to ABBA. She is a light and a joy in our home.
As we hit this two-year mark, I know that we are just cracking the surface on who our precious little girl is. I have loved watching her personality develop and grow over this year and am grateful that she continues to push me to develop and grow as her Mom. With this new stage of toddlerhood, my own journey as a mother has been tested and difficult in new ways from the challenges of the infancy stage. In many ways, I feel so much more comfortable in my role, but in others, I feel just as lost as ever. Maybe that’s just motherhood. But the joy that comes from seeing your child be exactly who they are makes it all worth it.
We love you, Mabel Pearl. You are our sunshine on a cloudy day. Happy 2nd Birthday!
