and she reads

And then 2 years passed.... Ok, maybe not quite, but pretty close!

You are kind of like a person now? You want to be involved in our conversations. And you have conversations! We drive home and we can talk about how our days were. An actual conversation:

Me: "What did you do at daycare?"
You: "I play Riley" (a friend of yours)
Me: "What else did you do?"
You: "You work at liberry!"

So, the conversations include a lot of non-sequiturs, but they are actual conversations!

You are so fun right now. So hard and so fun and so hard and so fun. From minute to minute and day to day it's a constant up and down. This weekend for instance was quite difficult. Every transition (diaper changes, nap time, bed time, brushing teeth, getting in the car) was difficult and often caused you to become massively upset. But then Monday was lovely. You were fun and cooperative and just so nice! Usually it's just moments throughout the day that are difficult. And it's hard to change as quickly as you do, to not just assume that you are super crabby all day. Your emotions are so close to the surface that a small upset becomes a big upset very quickly.

And the patience. In the list of Eliza's top 10 phrases, "No, I do it," is near the top. You want to put on your shoes, climb up on the chair, spread peanut butter on your bread, get your water from the other room. It seems like half of the point of parenting is just to help you become more independent, so obviously these things are good, but they take soooo lonnnnng. I am stretching my patience every day. It's wonderful and it really does work much better for everyone in the long run. Forcing the issue often just starts a battle and the battle is not worth it.

I'll try not to wait 2 years before writing again.