Notes on having a two-year-old

A two-year-old who is going on 13.

Well, first of all, she gets funnier every day. I started writing down one or two things Nora says every day on my calendar (great idea a friend gave me). She knows the words "cucumber" and "rainbow" and I have no idea how. She said "I don't know" for the first time today while looking for a book. Oh, and tonight, while we were reading "Where the Wild Things Are" for the millionth time, she said "trees tall mommy!" I think someone at preschool is teaching her words!

Speaking of preschool, she already knows the names of ALL the kids in her class (there are 10!). She tries to tell me what happens at school, but I can't understand a lot of what she is saying. She is using "then" to connect parts of stories and it's hilarious. She opens her eyes REAL wide and babbles unintelligibly for several seconds, says "then", followed by more babbling. At the end she says "kay?" and "your turn, mommy." And then I tell her about my day (which basically goes something like this, "I ate breakfast with Nora, then Nora and I walked to school, then mommy went to work, then I got Nora at school and we walked home"). She listens to me very carefully, nodding the whole time. It's just amazing how attentive she is to social interaction and communication.

She thinks that all sadness is related to not having a mommy--either because mommy is at work, or because there is no mommy. John drew a picture of a sad monster (at Nora's request) and Nora said "monster sad. No mommy. Make monster mommy, daddy!" He had to draw a mommy for the sad monster and then the monster was happy again!

Time is, apparently, important in the life of a toddler. She is big into "later", "not yet", "already" and "tomorrow." "Mommy brush teeth not yet", "Daddy rub my back later, Nora wake up", "Nora school tomorrow."

While preschool is going well, mommy is so exhausted, she's having a hard time keeping her eyes open past 8 p.m. Work is kicking my butt and I've only been back three days--three easy days. I don't know how people do this with more than one child!

Sadly, I haven't taken any pictures recently. I'll get on that...