My Baby Deuce

Dear Bubba,

Today you are two years old. Dos Anos. A baby deuce. This year has flown by so quickly and you have learned so much!

You learned how to eat with a fork and spoon and quickly became adept at shoveling oatmeal into your mouth. Now, the only thing you let me feed you is soup, which is why you have soup every day for lunch. Just so mama can still feed you and extend your babyhood just a little bit longer.

You learned how to count to thirteen. Not five. Not ten. But, thirteen. And at night, you count all the way up to thirteen, then you start again until you are lulled to sleep by those numbers that are bigger than you.

You learned to walk down the stairs by yourself but you have yet to teach me how to stop worrying each time you perform your new "trick."

You learned so many new words. More new words than I can count. And, you use them daily because in a house with three women, you learn to talk and you don't stop because if you do, the conversation will just run right over you.

You learned how to walk and how to say "no" and you use both in tandem. Usually, as I am trying to take your hand to lead you across the street. No, mama. Want to walk. Want to walk with mama. So, I let you. I let you walk with mama even though it feels as though you are walking further and further away from mama as each year passes.

You do eventually get tired of walking with mama and it is then that I pick you up and you lay your head on my shoulder and gently rub my back with your little chubby hand. And, it is then I know, you are not walking away from me. We're walking together and I hope we always will.

Love,
Mama