Two Years Old

Happy Second Birthday, my beautiful little Boo!

I can't believe that at 10:34 tonight it will have been two whole years since you were born. I've spent a lot of time this week looking through all the pictures your daddy and I have taken of you since then, and it's amazing to see how much you are transformed.

Still, some days it's hard to see how much you've changed in the last year. Physically, there's such a difference between the ages of zero and one, that comparatively it seems that you haven't grown much between 1 and 2. Then last week at your "cousin" Kaiva's first birthday party, Daddy and I both said, "She's so little! Harrison was much bigger than that on his first birthday, wasn't he?" But then we looked at the pictures from your first birthday party, and guess what? You were a little shrimp! You still have chubby thighs that I want to douse with Dinosaur BBQ Sauce and eat for lunch, but your face has changed. There is less baby and more little boy in you every day.

Monday I took you to the neighborhood playground, which is your favorite place in the whole world. (You call it the "Wee!" because that is what slides are called, of course. AND THEY HAVE SEVEN SLIDES!) You are very independent when we go there these days. You like to ride down all but the very tallest slide by yourself. You've memorized how to weave your way through the maze of stairs and ladders and climbers to get to the tops of all the slides. Monday you commandeered a six year old's bottle of bubbles and a second grader's basketball. (I hope this doesn't mean that you're going to be turn into a playground bully.) You also befriended a little boy who looked to be about Quinn's age: 6 or 7. Once you found him, you wanted to follow him everywhere and didn't want Mama to hold your hand when we ran across the bouncy bridge or ride next to you on the double slide. I gave you as much space as I safely could and watched you run and chase and laugh with this little boy and tell him to "Go!" when you were both sitting at the top of the slide.

Watching, I felt so proud of you, but also a little sad. I thought about how two years ago at that moment, you were still a part of my body, but that with every passing moment since you had been moving in a path away from me.

That is both wonderful and terrifying.

Sometimes I want to tell you and the universe "Slow down!" but then I see you becoming ever more intelligent and sensitive and perceptive and independent and adventurous. And I imagine all the things that you will be and become, and I almost can't wait to find out what will come next.

I love you, Harrison. Happy Birthday!

Mama

[Click here for Aunt Val's sweet birthday blog.]