Grace, around.: Today, You're Two!

Dear Naisa,

My sweet treasure, my princess

a little booger

At this time two years ago I was at the birth center, pissed I had to sit still for my blood pressure, annoyed the birth tub was taking too long to be filled.

The waves kept coming, intentional, rhythmic, louder, then softer
I moaned, screamed, pushed

And then you slipped out, with troll hair
Big eyes, mouth wide with the first cries
Letting me know you're alive

IT'S A GIRL!
A surprise we "knew" when we couldn't think of a boy name

Naisa

He lifts up, and carries away

God forgives

You were my reminder of redemption, a God who took me back, though the mess I am

What a journey the beginning was.
Learning what was wrong,
not fixing it,
and figuring another way
Your stubborn mama could put the milky treasure into your sweet body

Determined, I was.

Even when you slept through the night, I didn't sitting with my "oxygen tank", hunched over reading real food blogs and birth stories on the internet for half an hour in the dark hallway, the lit bathroom, and eventually the living room of our third apartment in a year of marriage.

Your drooly smiles took away my fears of being inadequate to myself
I loved the way you took it all in with your anime eyes
Pondering, carrying, loving.

Then you started walking
Messes began
We learned how to eat..and how to drop food on the floor.

mommy and daddy blew out one candle for you
And you ate your coconut flour cupcake

teddy, belly button, baby, all pronounced "daddy"

playing with Lily. in and out of cabinets
and the diaper bag
in the racecar cart at food lion
giggling down the aisles
and playing in the pool

playing with McKenny
and his push car

watching Mommy's belly grow and trying to make yours bigger in your reflection on the oven.

requesting to do "dups" in the sink, pulling the chair over

eating yummy pizza made by mommy.
loving roast chicken and salmon.
becoming addicted to smoothies every day for breakfast.

learning what a mess was,
never letting Mommy forget.

bus, truck, car, flower, food "ion",

developing an identity and a temper
Positively benefiting from quiet time in your crib

Loving the time with TeeTee. Playing, Food Lion, running down the hall. Going on walks to EMU and up the Summit Ave hill!
(after Yonah was born, we went for a walk to water plants and we needed to go to Summit Ave (aka a very steep annoying hill). Marie (TeeTee) pushed the stroller and I carried Yonah. We made it to the road that was a block lower than Summit, but still had to climb the hill. But instead of walking on the road, we chose the shorter, steeper route (the kind where you will reach another cardio threshold afteward), and I hike up, arriving first because my load was lighter. We passed a house as we reached the road and there was a woman outside working. We had made eye contact so I told her, "We wanted to go the hard way! My sister is coming with the stroller!"
Confused, she replied, "How did you lose the stroller?"
I had forgotten to mention there was a little person in the stroller.
She had assumed we'd lost control of the stroller and it had careened down the steep hill.
Marie and I laughed hysterically about that afterward. )

Meeting "baby Onah" in the morning after Mommy and Daddy's "date night"

Dropping a cup on his head.

Watching Mommy "baby, mouth, breast, nana"
and also pump.
"Yonah bottle?"

Mommy being able to say, "Yonah doesn't need a bottle anymore."

Waiting until Mommy put Yonah down for a nap to ask to be "up".

patiently watching your "nap" get packed up and set up again and again
transitioning here

and two.

we love you Naisa Fern