Two!

Our little Francie is TWO! 

Planting Francie's Mango Birthday Tree
Age 2

Oh, sweet little Frances.  Francie.  Frankie.  Fernie.  Fern.  Our last little baby has turned two.  You are a hilarious, spirited, bossy, very loved little girl.  

A review of you so far.  The first 5 months of your life, you were a breeze.  You were our first baby we could put down without you totally losing your mind.  Woody and Tohi needed to be held or moved around or rocked at.all.times. You were this refreshing breath of baby ease.  You worried us a little how you would lay in your pack-n-play, awake, and not scream at us to immediately pick you up NOW!  I had to explain to Conor, as his exposure to babies were limited to his own, that most babies do this and there is nothing wrong with you.  Then, you stopped this behavior at around 5 months and turned into a regular Gorham baby.  You were more demanding and less able to soothe yourself but still a fun loving, happy, and fairly easy baby.  The last year, from 1 year old to 2 years old, has not been your easiest transition.  Don't get me wrong, sweet girl, you are the love of our lives, but I would not describe you as easy.  Hilarious? Yes! A fabulous dancer? Yep! Bossy? Sure Enough! Lovable? Definitely! Loving? Absolutely! But Easy? Nope!

You sleep ok.  Some nights you go to bed pretty easy.  A little snuggle and a song and then to bed with your bottle of water.  Other nights it's a bit more of a fight.  You can climb out of your crib with a ninja like silence.  We only know you're out if we hear you playing with something on top of the cabinet or we see you coming down the steps.  We cleaned the dust off the old baby monitor and the big kids love to watch you and as soon as they see you start to climb out, they alert me and I yell up, "Lay Down, Frances! It's time to go to sleep!"  You are always startled that we can catch you in the act of escaping your crib and you lay back down in a state of defeated confusion.  Some nights you sleep in your bed until somewhere between 5:00-5:45 and other nights you climb out and come snuggle with me and Dad.  Some nights you peacefully tuck in and its all baby breath and sweet snuggles.  Other nights its tossing and turning and yelling out in your sleep.  It's almost as if your sleep patterns reflect your personality.  You are either the sweetest, funniest, most fun little girl or you are bossy and scream-y and need to only be held by me at all times.  There is not a lot of middle ground with you.  

You are a great little eater.  You are not terribly picky.  You haven't ever enjoyed the traditional baby favorites like bananas and carrots.  You like pancakes (especially with honey!), french toast, peanut butter, goldfish, raisins, granola, pretzels, popcorn, pasta, chicken, hot dogs, ketchup, and sour cream.  You'll eat up steamed broccoli if I offer it to you before the rest of your meal.  You eat a lot of your green veggies straight from the garden.  Some nights, I just tell all the kids to go into the garden and eat a salad before dinner instead of forcing everyone to take bites of a veg I know is not a kid favorite.  It works great! As I'm getting the dinner plated, you and Tohi and Woody are outside munching on all the edible greens from the garden.  I'll come get you and you'll have fist fulls of katuk and green drool on your chin.

You love to dance.  It started early.  Every time we put on music, your shoulders would start shaking and you would look up and smile so big! Your eyes would light up as if to say, "Yes! Finally somebody put on some tunes!  Let's relax and jam!"  Your dance moves have only gotten better and more enthusiastic as you've grown older.  You smile and grove around, arms flapping, legs stomping and your face is lit up with happiness.  Oh little girl, you have a beautiful, happy smile that lights up your whole face.  You have two "barely there" dimples on each cheek.  It's as if you have a a whisper of a dimple.  It's so sweet.  It's as if as you grow older only people that really know you will notice that you have dimples.  You also have this adorable, closed lip smile where you are smiling sweetly but your eyes are sparkling wildly.  You are such a special little girl. 

You are a fashion girl.  It cracks us up.  You are very particular about what you like to wear.  Nearly none of your pajamas are beautiful enough to wear and you change out of them immediately upon awakening.  Your normal outfit rotation consists of a few fabulous dress and two pink tutus.

You love to be outside.  We have an outside swing that you love! Whenever we leave the swing you give it a little pat and say "Bye Swing!" as if you are saying bye to a friend.  Tohi and Woody both like to push you on it and you are always happy to let them.  You love the water.  You are pretty tough when you get splashed or a wave knocks you over.  You like to go out deep and your little legs are pumping and kicking and your face is so happy as Dad or I help you "swim" around.  

You like to play with Tohi and Woody and by yourself.  You and Tohi will get lost in a world of make believe where no one knows what's happening besides the two of you.  You will say things to Tohi that are incomprehensible to me or Dad and Tohi will respond to you as if she understands exactly what you are saying.  Maybe she does completely understand or maybe another child can just let go of things they don't completely understand much easier than an adult can do.  You two fight as well, and it can get pretty physical, but most of the time Tohi really loves you and you really love her.  When things do get heated, both of you are tough little fighters.  The hitting and biting escalates quickly and there's a real tit-for-tat thing going on between you two. Your biting really peaked at about 18 months old, it's becoming less frequent now, thank goodness.  We usually intervene, instead of "letting you guys work it out" because, honestly, it looks a little dangerous.  Of course, I don't want any of my children to be "fighters."  I want all of my kids to be able to control their frustration and anger and talk out their problems.  However, I am glad that both of my girls have no problem sticking up for themselves and if someone hits them, neither one hesitates to hit back.  Conor had you at the park one afternoon and he was letting you crawl up on the equipment by yourself.  You were up on a platform near a slide just talking to yourself and enjoying the independence when some middle school aged local kids came up to the platform.  Conor held back and just watched to make sure you were safe.  You just kinda looked at them and then they started to act goofy.  Not in a cute, kid-friendly way but in a jack-ass middle school aged boy way and pretending to mess with you but not quite touching you.  Conor was about to step in and you furrowed your brow and kicked at them, saying in your little voice, "Git! Git!" (Get! Get!)  When they got close again, you kicked at them again and told them to "get." haha! The middle school punks turned and left you alone, saying to each other, "Vamos, ella esta brava,"  Which can translate to "Let's go, she is brave."  But "brava" is also translated as "fierce" and that you are, my dear.  You are brave and fierce.  Sweet being your nature, but completely able to fiercely defend yourself if needed.  And in our house, it is occasionally needed.  haha!

Woody just adores you.  He plays chase and peek-a-boo with you.  Whenever you are upset, he pretends to be a super silly dog and most times you stop crying and start laughing.  He loves to take care of you.  He loves it when he gets to hold you on the couch while you drink a bottle.  He sings to you and rubs your head or your arm.  You two have a super sweet and pretty even tempered relationship.  For example, you bite Woody sometimes but he never bites you back. Ha!  

Oh my sweet little girl, you love me so much.  You are truly an extremely loving and affectionate little girl to all the family members but you still love me fiercely. haha! You say things like "Mom! Mom! I neeeeed you."  You would be completely happy if I just carried you around the majority of our day.   Conor and I joke that you and I are one person.  You are just this bossy little extension of me.  I cannot go upstairs to change my clothes or take a shower or, heaven forbid, use the bathroom without you by my side.  Your feeling are deeply hurt if I try to run up the stairs real quick to just grab something.  "Mom! Moooooom! Waaaaaiiiittttt!"  you yell.  We are addressing this obsession with me.  At times we give in and I carry you about and I come back down the steps and we walk up together holding hands but other times we get what we need to get done and we tell you you are not allowed to just scream and scream because you weren't the big boss.  I am trying to figure out the balance between being kind to my sweet baby and not letting my two year be the boss of me.  Perhaps it's because I have two other kids and we are together all the time and we are home schooling and cooking meals and whatever else we are doing each day, but you seem to require more attention than the other two did.  And when you don't receive this attention, there is just so much screaming and crying it affects the whole energy of the house. Some days, you get a lot of bottles of almond milk just so we can get through the day.  On particularly draining days of lots of you crying, when you eventually nap, I remind the big kids that "Frances is tough sometimes, but we sure love her!"  And we do! We love you so much! But, we are ready for you to do more talking and less screaming. 

I teach yoga a few times a week and I love it and would teach it regardless of how you reacted to it.  However, you are pure joy and love and excitement every single time I come home.  You exclaim, with your sweet face lit up with joy, "Mom!!! Mom's home! Mom!" and you run your beautiful little chubby body over to me and jump into my arms.  You wrap your arms around my neck and give me sweet kisses on the lips.  You then tell me that you like my yoga pants and my bag and that they are both so cute.  It sounds like this, "I ike your oga ants! soo cute.  I ike your bag.  sooo cute." And then you rub me and my pants and give me some more hugs and kisses.  Honestly, I would just leave for an hour and do nothing just to come back to that much love.  

You are this fabulous comic relief in our house.  You are cute and silly and funny.  You sing and dance, with and without music on.  You like to wrestle and play hide and seek and chase.  You squeal with delight as we all run around and I try to catch all the kids.  Your "run" is getting more coordinated but it started as this adorable and hilarious waddle while you moved your arms fast.  When you "turn on the speed" walking up the hill in chalet it is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  You purse your lips and breath hard, you move your arms hard up and down and your little bum waddles back and forth to get your sweet body up that steep hill.  You don't want help, "I got it. I walk." you tell us.

Oh Frances, our love.  Our beautiful little girl.  You are fierce and sweet.  You are bossy and kind.  You are a dancer and a singer.  You are tough but like to talk about your boo boo's.  You are hilarious and empathetic.  You love the ocean.  You are incredibly loving and tremendously loved.       

Happy 2nd Birthday, our sweet little Fern.

we woke up to the full moon setting on your birthday! Which was incredibly fitting because you love to point out the moon whenever you see it! 

Your birthday was mellow and lovely.  We had pancakes and fresh maracuya juice for breakfast, we made cookies in the afternoon, we swung on the swing, and played in the front yard.  We finished the day with cookies and ice cream.  We showered you with love and kisses! My kind of day! 

festive birthday hat for the birthday girl

TWO!!

We rarely have ice cream so this was such a special treat.  When you finished your ice cream, you lifted up your empty bowl towards me, and sweetly asked "More birthday?" Everyone got another bowl of birthday after that two year old adorableness.