She's Not A Baby Anymore

Yesterday Mathilda turned two. While she will always be my baby, I guess I have to face that she is not truly a baby anymore. She is so done with the high chair, feeds herself, has an opinion about what she wears, and gets herself snacks out of the cupboard. She wants to do what the big kids are doing...she is becoming a big kid herself.

Mathilda was born during a tumultuous time in my life. We had a lot going on. I tried to go back 2 years on my Facebook page to see what my exact post was the week Mathilda was born, but after going back one year I lost patience and gave up. I know it was something like:

To do this week: Move into our new house, attend two soccer games, dance rehearsals, finish school projects, grocery shopping, and oh yeah! Give birth!! 

And she wasn't easy, not from the first. I remember being utterly exhausted in the hospital and crying in the middle of the night because she was so hungry yet she wouldn't nurse. She wasn't a good sleeper, she refused to take a bottle, and she wanted to be with me always. As much as she frustrated me, she melted my heart with the way she needed me and snuggled up to me and wanted me to hold her...and hold her...and hold her. Now that she's two, Mathilda is still a study in dichotomous behavior: the sweet, loving and affectionate Mathilda vs. the demanding, loud & sassy little bully Mathilda. Her expressions are priceless, and deciphering her emerging vocabulary is both amusing and challenging. I am enamored with my little blue-eyed red headed stinker, who loves to watch Diego, would rather gallop than walk, is more transfixed by books than just about anything, has a beautiful head of hair that always looks like it's just been styled, carries around a baby doll with her most of the time (usually Tiana, aka Princess and the Frog), now knows what the magic word is, and yesterday told me, "my cute dress" with the hugest smile on her face when I got her dressed.Yes Mathilda, I think we'll keep you.

A couple weeks before she was born...Bethany's First Communion day

Birth Day!

Meeting the siblings for the first time

Sleeping with her friend Chloe at the Henry Ford Museum

First Halloween...little spider

Baptism Day

First Christmas

Disney World 2010

Big girl on her bike

Opening presents

Two years old!