Interrupted Wanderlust: Happy 2nd Birthday, Luci and Nicholas

Happy 2nd Birthday, Luci and Nicholas

7 Comments posted by Kristi on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 2:02 PM

Luci and Nicholas,

Today you are two.

At 3:09pm and 3:10pm on October 15th, 2008, first you, Luci, and then you, Nicholas, made your way into the world. From those moments on, nothing about our lives has been ordinary.

This past year has been easier in some ways. Both of you are sleeping through the night. You can tell us what you want (most of the time) instead of crying without words. You can walk instead of being carried (although I think both of you would prefer being carried 24/7), and you're able to play with Isabella for short periods of time, which is so much fun to watch and a day I thought would never come.

You are both high-energy, curious, and not concerned in the slightest for your own personal safety. You streak through the house causing chaos, upending chairs, dumping over toys, and climbing onto everything. You were Thing 1 and Thing 2 last year for Halloween, and at the time, I thought dressing you as the "Things" and your big sister as "The Cat in the Hat" was a cute idea. I had no idea the costumes would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

While you share a penchant for trouble, top-tier lung capacity, and a love of Italian food, you are also very different.

Luci, you are my tiny firecracker. Small in stature, with a huge presence, you are fiesty, bossy, tough, and often the instigator in fights with your brother. You whack him, and then smile at me and laugh while he cries. And yet you are so cuddly and love being held and hugged for long periods of time. When I rock you toward sleep for your nap and at night, your eyes are closed, and yet you always lift your head to give my cheek a sleepy kiss before settling down. You tell your Daddy or me to "Sing!" as we're rocking with you, because Daddy has long soothed you toward dreamland with your special song that he picked for you before you were born: "My Girl."

You are Daddy's little girl, for sure, in a way that your older sister is not. While your brother prefers me, you prefer him, and that makes both of you happy. You love your great-great aunt too, and she dotes on you in a very special way. There is no shortage of people who love you in our family.

Eating is not your favorite activity (how is that possible in our family?), but you do love your Cheerios, yogurt, and strawberries. You love pointing out new or unusual things and sharing them with me ("Look, Mommy! Look!") and you are a big helper around the house, picking up toys, bringing me things I need, volunteering ("I get it!") to pitch in when we need you. You are the "Goose" (what Nicholas calls you) to your brother's "Dude" (what you call him), and while your bond is still on the thin side, given that the two of you are at war a lot of the time, I watch you growing closer to him by the day, and it's so much fun to watch.

Nicholas, you are my strong-willed, "spirited," destruction-prone Mama's Boy. I didn't know the degree to which girls and boys were different until you arrived. You are into everything, and if it isn't locked down, placed out of reach, or super-glued shut, you will break it, try to break it, or in some other way make it unusable. It's hard to stay 15 steps ahead of you at all times, which is what I have to do in order to ensure that our house is left standing.

You have a vocabulary that's similar to your older sister's when she was your age. You talk in complete sentences of four-to-five words ("Nicky scared of choo-choo train" being one of my favorites) and let's just say we have no problems getting you to eat most anything. In fact, you greet me each morning and after each nap with "Breakfast Time!" or "Snack Time!" and a huge smile on your face.

Binkies are your bedtime buddies, and I am not looking forward to the day (which is coming soon), when we are going to strip you of your four (yes, four) binkies you sleep with. It is my fault you love them so, since we eagerly handed them over to you when you were a tiny baby to quiet your sound-barrier-breaking screams in the middle of the night.

You are incredibly attached to me, and you always tell me "Mommy rock Nicky" before nap and bedtime. On the rare occasion I'm not around at bedtime, it does not go well for you.

You can count to 20, and can sing the Alphabet Song. You love to sing and you ask for specific songs "Honey, Honey" from the Mamma Mia soundtrack and your favorite kids' music when we're in the car. You've just started giving me huge, suprise kisses on both of my cheeks, like an old Frenchman, and I couldn't possibly love that more.

Happy birthday, babies. Thank you for sticking by your mama this past year and not revolting (too much) when she just wants to bury her head in the sand and emerge when you're 10. Fortunately, you're growing up in a family that values humor almost above all else, so I hope when you're grown, you will look back and see the hilarity of our lives when you were young, instead of the chaos.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Luci and Nicholas

7 Responses to “Happy 2nd Birthday, Luci and Nicholas”

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