Claire is independent and talkative and opinionated. She can tell us what she wants and most of the time she can get it herself but only if she actually WANTS to get it herself. Wanting an object and wanting to lay hands on it herself are two entirely different things. This feels exactly like what I imagine having servants that ignore you would be like.
"You'd like some water? Okay. Can you go get your cup? Claire? Your cup. CUP. CLAIRE. IT'S OVER THERE. Yes, I know you want some water. You need your cup to have some water. No, not that cup. Not a new cup. You already HAVE a cup. Ohmygod, never mind I will get your cup."
She can get in her car seat and buckle the top buckle (never on request, never when we have somewhere to be, but she CAN physically do it). She can pick what she wants for breakfast and maybe half the time she ends up actually eating what she requests. All the other times, she asks for something ridiculous for breakfast, like popcorn or jelly beans, and when I tell her that those aren't breakfast foods she wakes the dead with her cries of protest.
She can tell the dog to get out of the kitchen while she is eating. She tells him to get out of the kitchen even when she's not eating and I think it's partly because the dog is the only living entity she can boss around without much reprimand. (Admittedly, he is often misbehaving and needs reprimanding.)
She can spy bunny rabbits in the back yard. (We have two random ones that have taken up residence, which is beyond adorable to me.) She loves to organize, sort, categorize, line up and stack. She can recall things that we've done in the past and look forward to things in the future and will spontaneously, without prompting, bring them up and tell other people about them.
"We have a hummingbird feeder!"
"I saw a bunny in our yard!"
"I'm out of school for the summer!"
"I going to Chick-fil-A!"
She picks out library books all by herself and will sit for 20 minutes at home paging through them, inspecting them and, I presume, evaluating them for future bedtime requests. She tells her Daddy to "be gentle with my boo-boo" in the bath tub. She is a helper. She can bring me my water or a Kleenex or my phone from downstairs (particularly helpful at 9 months pregnant). She will watch Sesame Street and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, and that's about it on TV. Nothing else has captured her attention and believe me, I HAVE TRIED. (What I wouldn't give for a kid that I could buy thirty easy minutes from by simply turning on PBS.) YouTube though? Oh, girlfriend LOVES YouTube, which sounds like it might serve the same purpose (mindless child entertainment) but it actually requires a great deal of supervision and effort on my part to keep the Wholesome Kid YouTube train going and not venture into Weirdly Inappropriate YouTube territory.
She knows how to use an iPad and an iPhone and she gets very frustrated at my MacBook because it has no touch screen and "MOMMY, IT NO WORK!" She is a true child of 2011.
She can put her dirty clothes in the laundry basket (again, hardly ever upon request, but she KNOWS where they go and she has put them there a handful of times). She can express what she'd like to wear today. (Orange shorts or pink? Pink, natch.) She enjoys talking to her grandparents and uncles on the telephone, although she's constantly trying to SHOW them something on the phone and has a hard time understanding that it's audio only. (Again, my precious, modern child of 2011.) We have yet to introduce her to Skype, but I suspect it will be a very big hit.
When we drive by Chick-fil-A she says, "There's the french fry store!" She knows all of the words to Freight Train, Chicka Chicka, Baby Bear and a handful of other books that she can "read" to herself in bed at night. Listening to her run through the box cars, cattle cars and Black! Steam! Engine! on the monitor is one of those things I wish I could bottle up and visit over and over again later on when I'm old.
She sings constantly. Old Macdonald, 5 little ducks, Where is Thumbkin, Icky Sticky Bubble Gum and a song in spanish she learned at school that involves the words "Buenos Dias, Muy Bien." She can ride in the open carts at Walmart and help me shop. It is her job to throw something in the cart once I give it to her and she takes this job very seriously. She has a bicycle helmet but no bicycle. She can put on her shoes as long as they fasten with velcro, but she always puts them on the wrong feet. Her feet haven't grown significantly since last summer and her pink Converse are ratty and falling apart and while I know that she is THAT KID with awful looking shoes, I'm not buying her any more until her little feet actually don't fit in them.
She loves making rainbows with water and food coloring and I used to supervise her every movement but now I just let her stand at the sink and mix a hundred varieties of colors that all turn out brown in the end while I chop vegetables and make dinner right behind her on the island.
She's clever. She can move her chairs and various stools different places so she can reach things. She helps me load the dishwasher by pouring in the soap and closing the door and pushing the buttons. It's super helpful these days because that's one less thing I have to bend over to accomplish.
She tells me that she will hold baby ____ "like this" and she makes a tiny gesture of holding a baby in the cradle of her arms that she rocks back and forth. She shows me where baby _____will sleep and she talks about how she will hold her gently and keep her warm and cozy.
She is kind and compassionate and thoughtful. She is loving and freely throws her arms around us and gives us kisses and says I love you. She shares her bagel, her water, her crackers, her cheese but not her toys. (Consumables only, I guess). There is nothing she would rather do than whatever it is you are doing right that second. She enjoys mopping and she has her own spray bottle with water that she uses daily to "clean" just about anything I'll let her. (Cabinets and floor only, not the walls.)
She enjoys getting the mail, picking up packages from the front door and ringing doorbells. I bought her a cherry Chapstick at Walmart this week and she hasn't parted with it. She SLEEPS with it and applies it often and I'm shocked that she's not flat out eating it, but she's not, truly, I've checked several times.
In some ways, she's still so young. A tantrum if you open her cereal bar the incorrect way. She tears up at the mention of bedtime in a book (even if it's noon).
She's never had a haircut and my God, why would I do such a thing? Her curls are gorgeous and a genetic element I didn't know one of us had to pass on. She chooses clips and bows each morning and waits patiently while I do her hair. Sometimes, she requests a ponytail and gosh darnit, there's nothing like a ponytail on that girl to age her 6 years in a moment.
She is easier to discipline now than she was 6 months ago, I think because her grasp of cause and effect is so much more clear. "If you don't stop X, I will take away Y" is remarkably effective. She stays in her room all night and goes to bed between 6 and 9 and wakes up about 10-12 hours later. This predictable part of our lives is gratifying beyond description. Knowing that everyone will sleep tonight is a lovely bit of knowledge to carry all day long. Sometimes she naps and sometimes not but on the days when she doesn't, she's rarely a hellion, she's just a bit crankier come 4p and that's manageable with some strategic snacks and activities. This is a completely different story than 6 weeks ago, when no nap meant that a Crazy Person would be on the loose.
...
Life isn't a carpet of butterflies every day, but two-year-olds are a special brand of awesome that I wasn't prepared for. (I'll try to remember that at 3 am in upcoming weeks.)
Love this! It is a super-cool age.
Posted by: KLTTX | April 17, 2011 at 09:06 AM
What a gorgeous tribute to Claire at 2.5!
I have always said that I'm not a toddler person. I love babies and preschoolers and school-aged kids, but I struggle with toddlers. And while that's still somewhat true, I have found that Teddy at age 2 is a source of such unexpected joy. This parenthood gig is tough but so, so worth it!
Posted by: Sarah in Ottawa | April 17, 2011 at 09:11 AM
Elizabeth can buckle (and unclebuckle) the top buckle on her car seat too, and if you don't let her do it, she yells at you.
Hmm, Elizabeth can tell me what she wants to wear too, but her answer is usually "not THAT, mother, are you insane?"
Posted by: HereWeGoAJen | April 17, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Oh, I love this so much. Such wonderful details, and so lovingly, beautifully written. I think my favorite line is this: "Listening to her run through the box cars, cattle cars and Black! Steam! Engine! on the monitor is one of those things I wish I could bottle up and visit over and over again later on when I'm old."
Posted by: Roberta | April 18, 2011 at 12:43 PM
I love this. I need to write one of these about Kalena.
Posted by: Elsha | April 18, 2011 at 03:33 PM
I'm also surprised at how much I enjoy two (well, almost two). I've just never really cared for children this age, but I can't believe how much I LOVE having one.
What I'm not looking forward to is the posts to come - about having a two-year-old with a baby...I fear it may not be as much fun and I have a whole two months to hear how its going for you before I have to do it myself!
Posted by: Jessica | April 20, 2011 at 08:21 PM