Life With a Two-Year Old

I love being a parent.

But sometimes my two year old drives my nuts!

And since I hate feeling that way, I decided to reflect on why I love being a parent, to give me patience during these sometimes oh-so-terrible twos.

I think the thing I love most about being a parent is watching Evie grow into her personality. Some people say she gets her attitude from me--but if that's suppose to be an insult, I don't get it.  I think it's amazing how independent she is, and I don't see anything wrong with having opinions.  Of course she can be demanding too, but she has amazing manners for a two year old.

I also love watching her learn new things.  I think at every stage in her development I've said, "I love this age" and meant it with all my heart.  It has been amazing to watch her grow from a tiny newborn to a crawling infant to a toddler who can hold a pretty steady conversation.  Just a year ago, she was seeing a speech therapist because of a perceived speech delay and now she talks more than most children her age.  Every new thing she learns makes me burst with pride.  I know every parent thinks her child is smart and perfect--I just happen to know it's true.  :)

I absolutely love how girly Evie is.  I may be a feminist to the bone, but that doesn't mean that I'm not completely in love with fairy tales and the color pink.  And thankfully, so is my daughter.  Everything is pretty or beautiful to her, and if you somehow label it princess, she's automatically in love.  She wears tutus over her clothes, carries a purse, and has a million pairs of shoes.  It's awesome.

Especially when she dresses herself in the middle of the night.

Being a parent often leads me to think about my own childhood.  It is easy for me to get lost in the past when television shows and toys from my childhood are readily available for new parents to buy.  Evie loves watching all the old Disney movies as well as Fraggle Rock.  I was perusing the aisles at Target one day and found dolls of some of my old favorites:  Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, and Rainbow Bright.

Were they really so awesome that twenty years later they resurface or is it just that so many of us cling desperately to those too-few years of innocence?  I wonder if our children will be buying Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob toys for our grandchildren.  Dora I can live with.  Sponge Bob, not so much.

I guess thinking about all of the reasons why I love being a parent makes the bad days okay.  When it seems all I hear is whining and "I don't want to anymore!" (anymore is a favorite word right now), all I really have to do is look into that bright, hopefully-not-too-dirty face, and I remember why I do it.