Charlotte Ann is two!!

Charlotte Annie turns two today! 

People always say that it will be hard to remember life before a child enters it and I understand that statement now.  The last two years have flown by and I sit here in awe that we now have a toddler.  Just two short years ago we had yet to lay eyes on our child.  Now, I cannot imagine a day in which I don’t get to see our girl.  With her birth, I’ve experienced some of the happiest moments and also some of the saddest in life.  I wouldn’t trade any of it though.  Seeing Charlotte’s scrunched up nose or watching her wiggle her eyebrows to evoke a smile takes the edge off the deepest despairing thoughts that accompany the joy. 

Watching Charlotte learn something new (every day it seems!), interact with others, and love on her pups has brought so much joy.  There are days I wish I could keep her enclosed in my arms forever to spare her from being hurt or saddened by life.  Yet other days I’m so proud of her as she makes new friends or experiments with a toy without our assistance.  She is definitely a people (and animal) lover!!

Becoming Charlotte’s mom has taught me to love in a different way and has challenged and stretched me in so many ways.  Hopefully it has made me a better person, wife, friend, and teacher but I know I’m not the same.  Unfortunately, it has also added more layers of profound despair, disappointment, and anger but I’m working on that and I know it absolutely has nothing to do with Charlotte but with how I’m handling life’s curveballs.  It’s amazing how God gives us the chances to grow in virtue even when we think we don’t need any more lessons and are ready for the next chapter. 

I hope Charlotte always keeps her loving gentle nature with her pups, her goofy personality when she gets silly happy (usually right before bedtime), and continues to express herself as she gets older.  She definitely knows how to express her needs as her voice rises to a near crescendo if you don’t look at her according to her wished timeline (“Mama!     Mamaaaaa!     MAMA!!!!!”)


She loves to bring her toys one by one to us and line them up.  However, she loves getting in to my school bag of highlighters (thank you color coding) and pens even more.  The walls in every single room in our house can attest to that.  We have a budding Picasso on our hands you know.  There are so many things I love about our two year old but one of the things I love the most is how no matter where we are or what we are doing, when she clasps your hand as you walk down the street, hallway, around the living room, she giggles with glee and looks up with such glee in her eyes.  I hope she never loses her joy.

She cracks us up by excitedly saying “bye bye” and blowing kisses as soon as she thinks we or someone else may be leaving a place.  She doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to those kinds of transitions or rituals.  She excitedly says, “Byebye!” when she sees cars or trucks go by sometimes spending 20 minutes at a time staring out the living room bay window and calling out, “Byebye!” to the cars that drive up and down our street.

She enjoys spinning around in circles, dancing, climbing, pouring milk all over the carpet and coffee table, and running out on the back porch at all hours of the day and night when the pups are being put outside regardless of wearing shoes or not.

Oh, and smoothies!  She loves to drink smoothies and has called coffee, a cup of milk, and milkshakes smoothies.  She gets ecstatic when she sees a smoothie being poured into her sippy cup.  She loves coming to school and giving fist bumps and high fives to the college students often requiring everyone who crosses her path to do one or both actions. 

When she sleeps, she puts her left arm up by her head and nestles her nose into her armpit, again seeming like she is sniffing her armpit as she did when she was itty bitty little.  This is a quirk that makes her unique and all the more loveable but I’m a bit biased.

Lately, when brushing her teeth, she has fits of giggles and laughter.  I suppose the toothbrush tickles?  I love how we snuggle at night time before bed and she leans in the crook of my arm or throws herself across my stomach.  Then when she peers up and smiles, I about melt.  When she says her name, it sounds like, "LaLette", and she shows some of her spunkiness when she purposely calls me Daddy and her Dad Mommy.  She does it with a little smirk and shake of her head as she tries to get a reaction out of us in using the wrong name for each of us.  She'll point to her Dad, then me, then herself, and loves to switch up the names.  She also has a toy lamp from her dollhouse that she loves to carry around the house and "sing" into as if it were a microphone.  "Lalala!" is one of her favorite songs.  She also likes to point out that I wear "glasses" but is unable to say the "gl" sound just yet so she innocently says her word for glasses while Adam and I try not to laugh.

She is fuuuuull of personality.  She definitely lets us know when she is not happy with something or someone.  She has a mind of her own.  She grabs (and breaks) glasses with no warning.  She fights bedtime and naps.  She completely undoes a whole house being cleaned in minutes.  She leaves her mark on my students’ midterm exams (thanks to the red pen she gravitates toward).  She creates so much noise that Adam can hear her through his headphones when trying to listen to an online lecture for one of his classes.  She is a ball of energy who loves to zip around the house with her car, stroller, and even her high chair until it got stuck in the doorframe.

Most of all though….she is the best gift.  One I’m so not worthy of but am so so so grateful for and will spend the rest of my days working to ensure she knows just how loved and wanted she is.  She is the primary occupier and receiver of my prayers and has impacted me so much in her short two years.  Just when I think my heart couldn’t expand any more I find myself loving her more and more each day.  I’m so thankful God saw it fit to have me be her mom and to meet this little miracle face to face that Monday afternoon two years ago!

She is currently 31.5” and 22.5 lbs. but takes up every square inch of our hearts!  Happy 2^nd Birthday Charlotte Annie!!