2 just t.w.o.

I feel a little sad that we can now say, “Raelyn is 2.” That’s it. Not a number with “months” behind it. Just 2. She’s a big girl now. You know what I mean. She’s not a baby.

The morning of her birthday she came downstairs to streamers and balloons and a Happy 2nd Birthday message on her chalkboard.

It’s amazing to think of all the growth Raelyn has gone through over the past year. And almost impossible to fathom how our love for her continues to grow and grow. The moment I think my heart will burst, I realize that my love for her just expanded a little bit more.

Here are a few of my personal favorites since her last birthday.

• Night night waving – It’s adorable how she waves night night before I take her upstairs for bedtime. It started out as waving night night to daddy and Sheba and has expanded to waving night night to every inanimate object she sees. “night night books” “night night baby doll” “night night kitchen”  It could go on and on! She has taken this to a new cuteness level after naptimes and in the morning to waving bye bye to all of her animals in her crib before we leave her room.
• Bedtime tucking in – Several months ago she decided that the quilt on the back of her rocking chair needed to move to her crib so she could get tucked in. I’m not sure where she learned this but she won’t go to sleep until I cover her with the quilt and tuck her in.
• Kisses – When she kisses, she gives a big open mouth kiss. I love it. I will miss her “baby” kisses when she figures out how to pucker up. If I ask her to blow kisses, she puts her hand with fingers spread wide over her wide open mouth and then giggles. I melt every single time.
• Unending energy – Everywhere we go we are told how beautiful and cute Raelyn is (which is 100% true) but we’re also told how much energy she has and how much fun she is to be around. She really is such a joy to be around! Her Mom’s Day Out teachers comment each week on how happy she is and the other mom’s in our Kindermusik class are tickled by her enthusiasm. I even had one mom ask me to email her when Raelyn is grown up to let her know what she became.
• Unbelievable memory – Around 17 months (give or take a few), Raelyn started memorizing all sides of her blocks. It began with one block, the “bee” block and then it expanded to 6 blocks. We could call out a block name, “bee” or “elephant” or “acorn, etc and she would find the appropriate block no matter what side was facing up! She got bored of this game and after awhile refused to play anymore. After a month or so we decided to give it a try again and low and behold she still had all those blocks memorized! She also has a fantastic music memory. She has every Classical Baby dvd memorized and waves bye bye at the end of a song (even when she isn’t watching the screen). The same is true with her Kindermusik cd’s.

I could go on and on about all the wonderful things I love about Raelyn. As our first child, her birthday is not just a celebration of her birth but a celebration of parenthood. She made  me a mommy. I am so proud of Raelyn and am honored to be her mom. I thank the Lord every day that He brought her to us.

We love you, Raelyn Grace, and we look forward to discovering many new wonderful things about you as you grow up.

p.s. I think this post should wrap up the Raelyn had a birthday and turned two series. ;)