…tomorrow you’ll be three!
It’s Izzy’s birthday tomorrow and I feel so proud of her but also a little sad to say goodbye to our two-year-old. I remember a year ago I asked my mum “How do you bottle ’two’?”. She was so delightful at two years of age, I just wanted her to stay that way. But of course, she has to grow up, and mum pointed out that three is lovely too, and four, and five…
But so I can remember ‘two’, and so I can tell her when she grows up what she was like, here are a few of my memories of Izzy at Two Years of Age. But first, a photo of her ladybug birthday cake…
(A bit messy, but it was a promise kept, that’s the main thing!)
We haven’t had “terrible twos” with Izzy, maybe just a few bumpy patches along the way, but really it’s been a smooth and oh-so-lovely ride. At two her language was already well developed, which I truly do think helps behaviour, because she was already so good at expressing herself. I’m also sure that those language skills came from her love of books. Two of her favourite books were “Princess Princess” and “The Tiger Who Came to Tea”. But her favourite favourite was The Gruffalo, which was also her daddy’s favourite (luckily, given how often he had to read it). She also loved her potty training books and memorised “My Potty Book for Girls” – every word of it. Of course, she enjoyed reading it more than she actually enjoyed potty training!
Despite her excellent language skills, she still has little grammatical quirks which persist because I can’t bring myself to correct her. For instance, she says “my’s” instead of “mine” – “you’ve got your gumboots, daddy, and I’ve got my’s!”. I’ll start correcting her soon, but really, it makes perfect logical sense.
Once she has read a book, and got the story, she loves to act it out. This has been how she has played during the last year. So she loves to be one of the three little pigs (and I have to be the Big Bad Wolf), and she loves to be characters from nursery rhymes – Little Bo Peep, looking for her sheep, or Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall (which reminds me, she has enormous empathy and will often burst into tears if she sees someone else hurt themselves).
Her play has developed during the year. A year ago she would pretend to be a dolphin swimming in the ocean by rolling around on the rug, or she’d pretend to be a foal stuck in the mud and need to be rescued. Now she is quite a confident young doctor who is adept at listening to heartbeats, and checking eardrums, and administering medicine. She also has an imaginary friend (who she calls a “magical friend”) called Humpah. Humpah is almost part of our family. He’s a lovely lad (although the PlayDough Daddy wants to give him a clip around the ear) and he often helps me pick up toys. His mummy always lets him come to Playgroup with us, or Gymbaroo. He’s no trouble, really.
Izzy knows more songs than I do, and she makes up some of her own sometimes. She once made up a song about “her friend daddy” which I should have written down because I’ve forgotten it now, but it was incredibly sweet. Sometimes we sing to each other during the day like an opera. I’ll sing “Izzy will we go to the library” and she’ll sing “yes, mummy we will” without hesitation, and in the same tune.
And who could forget the “Izzy Concerts” we’ve been treated to during the year. After going to a couple of Wiggles Concerts with her dad, Izzy decided she would like to put on Izzy Concerts, where I announce her and she runs onto the “stage” and sings every song she can remember (in a bit of a monotone, but really, who minds?). She then takes a bow and proudly departs the stage. A natural performer!
Our little girl’s character is already quite apparent. The word that people most often use when they describe her is “gentle”. She is also kind and generous and very loving. We’ve taught her to say “please” and “thank you”, but I don’t think we have taught her to be as lovely as she is – she just is.
We haven’t really had to teach her to share, because she just naturally wants to share. Today she opened a birthday present (Dora stickers) and said “Mummy, there’s lots of stickers here for you and Elsie and me!”. (I’m sure daddy would have been included but he was at work.)
Izzy loves other kids and craves playmates. We go to the park most days and I have taught her to go and talk to the other kids. She says “Hi, my name’s Izzy, do you want to play?”. Sometimes the kids are great and will play, but sometimes they are mean. A couple of weeks ago some children told her to go away and stop talking to them, and they wouldn’t share their chalk with her. I told her not to worry, they were just a bit grumpy and we’d remember to bring our own chalk next time. When we went back to the park with our chalk she said “Mummy, I hope those mean kids are there because they can play with my chalk!”. And true to her word, when we got to the park, she walked around to every child there and gave them a piece of chalk.
Izzy is also a lovely big sister and is beautifully loving to Elsie. There has been no sibling rivalry (at this stage, anyhow). She is always patient and waits until we’ve taken care of Elsie before we take care of her, without ever complaining. She comforts her when she cries, and tries to make her laugh. She especially loves to smell her bottom for ’poo poos’, much to her father’s disgust. Elsie adores her big sister.
I’m so sad to say goodbye to two, but so excited for three. Three means pre-school, and ballet lessons and swimming lessons. (And we’ll be re-visiting two soon enough anyhow, as Elsie takes over the reins).
My mum used to always write on my birthday cards “thank you for being you” which I thought was weird, but now I understand. So Izzy, thank you for being you, my darling girl. Sleep well. You’ve got a big year ahead!
