"two in july..."

Eliana likes to tell us that she'll be, "Two in July." Today is July 1st. And I thought up until now that I was all cool and mellow about her turning two. Especially after last year and all the internal upheaval I experienced with her turning one. I thought this mellowness relating to all things two was just an indicator of how much I've matured as a mother. How I just roll with it all. How it's all just a journey, man.

Until she woke up from her nap today. And it was like in a movie when the scene cuts and in the next scene the main character is all grown up. Except instead of a movie, it was my life and the main character was my girl. She looked so long. She was hot and grumpy and her curls were all sweaty and stuck to her head. She was rattling on about her wants and needs, all specific and articulate. Her leg and shoulder muscles looked defined and developed. And I just could barely stand it.

So here I am, savoring every minute of her, hanging out with her hard like she's some special visitor. She's changing so fast, the moments turning so quickly.

Today we sat side by side on the chairs under the apple tree and ate popsicles. Hers was coconut, mine lime. And we traded licks and bites.

"Mommy and Elie sharing! Bite? Switch?"

I mean, come on! Does it get much sweeter than that. Her sentence production is out of hand and we really can just sit and converse, albeit in fragments, albeit in the third person much of the time. She talks about her birthday.

"Elie two in Jeulie. Jeulie sixteen. Ice cream party? Taco party? Rice and beanies? Cake? Ice cream? Elie two! Moanie come? Baby Hayley come? JoJo? Bob? Jiah? Solan?"

And it goes on from there.
No joke.

Sixteen days 'til the big day.

A lifetime of savoring.