You are Two

My Little Bugga,

You are two, in every sense of the word, with all it has to offer.  Your sister wasn't quite the two year old that you are becoming! You love to climb, you love to yell, you love to cuddle.

Your little body is covered in scabs and bruises and scratches right now. You have a bit of a shiner from banging your face on the table in your playroom, a knee that's been skinned twice in as many days, scratches of an unknown origin on your cheek (Rachel claims innocence), a purple toe from when one of the kitchen chairs toppled over on top of you and bruises right up your shins on both legs. It's a good thing you're a tough little girl. I feel the need to explain to people whenever I catch them looking at you, that you are two years old and like to climb and get into mischief. It's a bit of an understatement.

You are so much louder than your sister. I don't even need to wonder whose voice I hear when it's a yell or holler - it's you. Your favourite time to start screaming is about 30 seconds after Kingsley closes his eyes for a nap.  Truthfully, sometimes I want earplugs when I'm around you. Once you get riled up it's like you'll never stop crying/yelling/shouting/screaming.  Add to that the fact that you love noise-making toys and it's amazing that your brother gets any sleep at all.

But you are also adorably two. You are still a little bit squishy with the baby chub. Your fingers and cheeks are chubby and so delicious. You're just starting to say "Mommy, uv oooh," (love you) and it melts me every single time. You have the absolute sweetest little face and smile.  Every night before bed you want to cuddle and sing Baby Beluga. Then Twinkle Star. Then more Baby Beluga. You sing it to your brother sometimes, but it sounds like: "Bay-bee buuuuuh-ga, oh bay-bee buuuuu-ga," over and over until you get bored and move on.

Rachel is your best friend. You want to be like her and have started dancing like her with your eyes closed doing various yoga moves along with the music. You've got a bit more sass to your moves though, with lots of bum shaking already. You love music. You also adore Kingsley and all your baby dolls. You feed them, change them, put them to bed and even cath them on occasion. You love making Kingsley smile so you can announce: "Kinky Mi-yo! (smile)"  If he's upset, you get concerned and try to comfort him.

Right now, our days begin with a snuggle and end with a snuggle. And in between is the utter chaos of being two years old.

Love Mommy

Toilet Trauma

Dear CorBear,

Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know that we started toilet training this week. You're doing alright with it. You seem to have been wanting to do it for some time now, but I've been avoiding it for one reason or another. Either way, we started last Friday. It was a disaster.  You had 7 accidents and 3 successes.  The next day you had 1 success and you held it a lot. I think you must've let it all out in your naptime pull up. Yesterday was fabulous. You went on the potty all by yourself! And today was similar. Two accidents, both poops. But at least you didn't sit in them like your sister used to do. You're learning and growing up. I want to keep you small and see you grow at the same time.

Love Mommy

Your Party

Hello My Dear,

Today was your birthday party. It was a rainy day, but that didn't really matter. You slept in, as did your sister, brother and father, so I got up early and got a head start on cleaning and getting things ready.  When you all got up, you and Daddy and Rachel went out to run errands. I think you went to Tim Horton's, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Everything for a Dollar Store in Westmount Mall. You got home in time for lunch and then I rushed you up for your nap around 1pm. 

Your first guests arrived before you were even up! Jill, Evan, and Maeve Maloney got here just before 3pm.  Jill and I went to highschool together and Evan has been here for a few play dates. The gift they brought you was a Jesse the Cowgirl doll from Toy Story 2/3 and he was so excited for you to open it that he kept taking it out of the gift bag to show you throughout your party until we finally told you it was okay to 'open' your gift. 

I got you up around 3pm and got you dressed for your party. You wore a gorgeous little white and green dress that I had bought at a second hand sale, but it looked brand new and was the perfect colours for you. I didn't try it on you ahead of time and it ended up being a little big and the straps slid down all afternoon. By the end of the party, you had spent some quality time with the chocolate fountain, dipping marshmallows, and the dress is now touch and go as far as surviving the stains.  In your hair, you wore two clips that my friend Dawn made for you. They were ribbon clips with pink and green birthday cakes on them.

The other guests at your party were Silvia, Ron, Eric and Scarlet LeClair, Nana and Grandpa, Grandma, Tony, Patty, and Katie Farrell, and Madelyne Gonzalez.  You had a great time. We played Pass the Parcel (the prize was animal crackers) and a pretty intense game of Musical Books which ended with Eric and Evan going head to head (almost literally!) over the last book.

Your cake was a chocolate barn with pink butter cream icing and 3 kinds of cupcakes: chocolate with mint butter cream icing (sheep), rainbow bit with pink butter cream icing (pigs), and lemon with lemon butter cream icing (chicks).  You chose a pink pig to eat, but didn't end up eating much of it at the moment. You did an awesome job blowing out  your candles and weren't too shy about being the centre of attention. 

Aside from the Jesse doll, you got a sandbox, sand toys and a couple outfits (Grandma), 6 trains (Nana and Grandpa), a train table and blocks (me and Daddy), a set of garden tools (Madelyne), a worm sprinkler (the LeClairs), and a Gator Golf game (the Farrells). 

It was a great party overall. You and Rachel played hard with your new toys after everyone left and you slept well when it was finally time for bed.

I am so proud of you, my little Strawberry Bug. You were such a sweet little thing today and I just wanted to smother you with love and kisses.  Happy Birthday!

Love Mommy

Birthday Girl

Hello My Sweet Birthday Girl,

You are so beautiful. Today you turned two years old.

If we ask you, you say you're, "DO!" and hold up all your fingers trying to figure out how many and which ones you should be showing me.

I had to wake you up this morning so that we could take Rachel to preschool. You were sleepy faced and gorgeous. Your hair was matted into the biggest rat's nest on the back of your head that stuck straight out. You picked a dress to wear and we got you dressed. For breakfast, you had Honey Bunches of Oats with cinnamon clusters and juice in your Elmo cup, which you spilled everywhere.  While you ate I showed you an e-card that Grandpa sent you. You gave me your shy smile when you heard it say your name and you just kept saying, "More," over and over whenever it ended.

I dropped you off at Nana and Grandpa's on the way to Rachel's preschool. Nana told me later that you played outside and in the basement and had a great time. She also told me that you peed on the toilet!  You've never done that before. I guess that means toilet training is in your near future.  While you were there I took Kingsley grocery shopping and to the mall to get your birthday present. I know, I should have gotten it earlier, but we've been so busy the time slipped away from me.

I picked up Rachel and then picked you up. I gave you both a little packet of animal crackers and a juice box and we went to pick up some cloth diapers that we're trying out. When we got to the store, you pushed Rachel because she was trying to hold your hand and she fell and skinned her knee. She was quite devastated by this.

For lunch, you chose to have leftover quesadilla's over a peanut butter wrap, but you were so tired by the time lunch was ready that you just asked for your blankie and I took you up to bed. You go down for your naps really easily. You seem to know that you need one and just curl up with your thumb in your mouth and your blankets over you. 

When you woke up, Grandma was here. She likes to bring you guys pink roses on your birthdays. She stayed for a bit and then went home. We went outside and you and Rachel played in the little pool while Kingsley and I watched. You had an awesome time. You were quite upset when I started to drain the water so that we could go in for dinner.  We'll go out again tomorrow, it's supposed to be nice again.

For dinner, we had four cheese penne pasta with tomatoes. You had two bowls of applesauce while you were waiting and then gobbled it up.  After dinner we webcam'ed with Auntie Kristi and Karis and then we gave you your present. It was some new sand toys (because Grandma is giving you a sand box on Saturday) and a ball that sprays water everywhere... I'm not quite sure how it works, we'll find out tomorrow!  The five of us walked to McDonald's after dinner for ice cream cones. You rode with Rachel in the red wagon and I wore Kingsley in the dragonfly mei tai.

Daddy put you to bed when we got home. I think you had a good day. You certainly looked happy and seemed like you were having a good time!

Your birth day was one of the most beautiful, magical days of my life. The day you arrived brought me happiness that you can't even imagine yet. Your birth was amazing. I want to remember it on every birthday you celebrate and celebrate the day the world became a little bit sweeter. I love you so much, Strawberry Bug. Happy Birthday!!

Love Mommy

Your Name

Dear Cordelia,

I love your name. I love love love love love your name. I love the way it rolls off my tongue: Cordelia Capri. It's so pretty. I hope one day you feel the same and never hate it for being unique or a bit unconventional. I'll tell you where I got it from.

Your Daddy and I do not agree on names. It took us ages to name your sister and I was pretty happy when I was able to find out halfway through my pregnancy that you were a girl. That narrowed down the name choices by half. At least we had a gender!

As with Rachel's pregnancy, we went to baby name books for ideas. I can't even remember how many books we went through. It feels like about 100 when I think back, but I'm sure it wasn't that many. I would get about 5 at a time from the library and just devour them, passing them back to your Dad to let him have a look through for something, anything that we could both agree on.

Also, like when I was pregnant with Rachel, Daddy and I would regularily toss out names that were quickly and forcefully shut down by each other. We could not agree on anything! Between you and I, your Daddy has horrid taste in names.

Finally, one day I was looking through a book:(I think it was: The Penguin classic baby name book 2,000 names from the world's great literature by Grace Hamlin) and it had a bunch of names from literature. There were so many older, classic, rare names in that book and one of them was Cordelia, from Shakespeare's King Lear. I called that one out to your Daddy (I can even picture where I was, sitting on the couch in the TV room, closer to the door) and he said something, sort of commenting on how that was a name from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (true! And I do love that show), but all I heard was the absence of NO! I knew that was it. He pretended to not like it over the next few months, and hem and haw and say that he wasn't agreeing to it, but I knew I had him and Cordelia was going to be your name.

From there, I needed a middle name. We had sort of set something up with Rachel having the double consonant name. Daddy really liked that and insisted that your middle name be a hard C/K sound as well. That was limiting!

I don't remember when it was exactly, but I got a new CD from the library by Colbie Caillat.  I listened to it one morning while commuting to Lansdowne Children's Centre in Brantford. When I was a couple blocks from work, the last song started to play. The first line was: "She's got a baby inside" and my ears perked up.  By the chorus, I was tearing up and knew that I had found your middle name. I went home that night and told Daddy that your name was Cordelia Capri and he said I was having a 'hippy moment' and that Capri was not a name. I googled. It's not technically, but it's an island and a car and a pizza place on the corner of Wonderland and Sarnia.  And a pant, of course. But, once again, I could see that your Daddy was going to come around. I offered Caprice as a compromise, but he didn't like it. He tries to pretend that the names I pick out are weird, but inside I know he loves that your name is unique.

And so, Cordelia Capri it was.

Capri
She’s got a baby inside
And holds her belly tight
All through the night
Just so she knows
She’s sleeping so
Safely to keep
Her growing
And oh when she'll open her eyes
There'll be no surprise
That she'll grow to be
So beautifully
Just like her mother
That’s carrying
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
Baby inside she’s loving
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
There is and angel growin’ peacefully
Oh Capri
Sweet baby
And things will be hard at times
But I've learned to try
Just listening
Patiently, oh Capri
Sweet baby
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
Baby inside she’s loving
Oh Capri
Your beauty
Just like your mother
That’s carrying...Oh Capri


Love Mommy

Swimming

Dear Cordie Bean,

I took you and Kingsley swimming today with Nana at the South London Community Pool. You were amazing! You wore a little pink bathing suit that looks like a two piece with a big bug over the tummy. Your hair was a mess all over the place.

You haven't been swimming since last summer and we barely even went then. You went to the wading pool at Southcrest a few times and the beach, but that's about it. I wasn't sure how you'd do and at first you didn't seem to have any interest in the swimming thing.  You asked to leave, "All done!  All done!" (which sounds like Aw, dunn!).  I swished you around in the water a bit to get you used to it and by the end of the 25 minutes we were there, you were doing beautiful back floats with me just holding your shoulders, jumping off the underwater ledge into my arms, blowing bubbles, kicking and paddling your arms. You even went under one time by accident and didn't fuss at all. 

I was so proud of my little swimmer. I can't wait to take you again next week.

Love Mommy

Lately

Dear Cordie,

You are a little monkey right now. It's easing up, but the first few months after Kingsley came home were rough.  Right now you are very calm. You are sitting beside me on the couch, wrapped up in a bunch of blankets eating popcorn, drinking hot chocolate and watching Elf. It's a rainy Sunday morning and this was the movie Rachel picked. You guys love it and it makes me laugh.

This is you trying to play on my computer. You are always dragging these chairs around the house to reach things you shouldn't.

We went to Eric LeClairs birthday last Saturday and you were such a sweetheart. You didn't play much of the games that were organized, preferring instead to sit by yourself and play with toys, or sit with Rachel and eat, or hang out by me. There were a lot of people there.

I love you, Strawberry Bug.

Love Mommy