Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Two years old!

Today we celebrated 2 years in the life of Miya – and 2 years of being a family, of being parents.

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I found it strange to think that 2 years ago I had been getting ready to give birth. How much my life has changed since then. How full it now is.

To be honest, sometimes it feels over-full. Parenting can be overwhelming – so much responsibility, so much to try to understand. I think of the many conversations I’ve had with other parents over the last couple years in which we try to understand our children and figure out how best to respond to them. How to respond to a baby that doesn’t sleep, to a toddler who melts in tears for reasons we can’t understand? How do we respond at 6 a.m.? At 3 a.m.?

Two years in, I know there is still a lot I don’t know about being a parent. There is still a lot to learn. But at the same time I can feel proud of the journey we come through together so far, of all the things we’ve learned together – V, Miya and I. She learns from us. We learn from her. We’re all in this together trying to do the best we can.

V and I both took the day off work today to hang out with our daughter. I asked her where she would like to spend the morning and, not surprisingly, she chose the nature museum. She also chose what she would wear – a fun new outfit from her Grandma.

When we were at the museum I took her into the gift shop and let her pick out a new toy. Out of all the different animals, she chose a penguin and then spent the rest of our visit showing the penguin around the museum.

For her birthday dinner we invited her closest little friends and their parents to join us at a nearby diner. It wasn’t exactly relaxing to eat a meal out with 4 toddlers, but it was fun in the chaotic, multi-tasking way that has come to define so much of these rich past two years.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:44 PM

    so beautiful to see a pic of Miya on her birthday; I've been thinking of her all day today! thanks for keeping this blog!
    -Erika

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