Two years.  They have gone by far too quickly.  The baby stage is gone in a blink of the eye and that makes me so sad.  I do love that now our little girl can talk and walk and play on her own.  Those moments when they are little babies are so precious, though.  They rely on you for their everything.  And they don’t talk back.

One of my best memories of Anya as a baby was the night she was born.  It was just the two of us in the hospital room, as Daddy went home with our little man to give him some normalcy.  Labor was short, comparativly, so I wasn’t overtired.  I had nursed her to sleep and she laid next to me in the bed.  She slept for 6 hours straight that first night.  It was quite the stressful day, with getting thrust out of her nice warm self-sufficient home.  I kept looking at the clock and thinking she would wake up soon and was just watching her.  It was so peaceful that night, watching my newborn babe and seeing how perfect she was.

She is proving to be a challenging toddler, but aren’t they all challenging really?  She has a tendency to want to do everything herself; pour her own sippy of juice, choose her own plate/cup/utensils, etc.  At least she hasn’t decided to choose her own clothes because then my head may explode.  It is nearly my favorite task of the day! 

She loves to aggravate her brother, and he gives in kind.  They play together nicely, and fight together fiercely.  The other day they were giving each other exhuberantly, forceful hugs.  Having children 17 months apart has at times been exhausting, but when they do play together it is so much fun to see them interact.

Anya loves to gives hugs and kisses, in which, I wholeheartedly advocate.  Our little man has not been a big hugger/kisser, but since he is a boy, I guess he gets a free pass on that one from his mommy.

So happy birthday to our lovely, challenging, kissy, tantrum-throwing two-year old.