Petra's 2!

Hard to believe my little baby is two already. How did that happen?

Petra is such a total delight. I mean, she’s two, so she throws fits and wastes food and messes with me. She’s still not-quite weaned and not-quite potty-trained. But she’s just so darling, so much of the time. She’s a great snuggler, and likes to pat people’s cheeks or hair. She’s always very concerned about others–I notice that she has high emotional intelligence for her age. She uses lots of words to describe feelings, and asks people about their feelings a lot: “Are you happy, Brother? Are you angry, Brother?” Even her diapers are “sad” or “happy.” I love that she pays attention to other people.

That said, she’s still two. She does NOT want to share her toys. She does NOT want to share Mama’s lap. She does NOT want anyone to get anything that might disrupt her routine. So she’s still a two-year-old sociopath, just like all of them. But one who at least knows the words for the feelings she’s not sure other people have.

She has a lot more knowledge of the world than Silas did at her age, and I believe she’s learned it mostly from him. She’s known all of the basic colors since last spring, and I didn’t teach her, so I figure she just has heard him talking about colors a lot. She can recite a counting sequence because she’s heard him counting, although I don’t think she can actually count number-of-objects past three or so. She even does fairly complex puzzles, copying his algorithms, not mine.

Petra is very interested in books. Right now, she loves anything that has a hidden object on each page, like the balloon in Goodnight, Gorilla, the inchworm in Little Green, or Goldbug in Cars, Trucks, and Things That Go. She likes to “write” with a pen on paper–both of my kids mostly eschew crayons, preferring pen or marker. Mostly, they are circular scribbles. She’s starting to recognize some letter/sound pairs, as I think Silas did around this age. She seems to understand–although maybe this is a fluke–that words say things. She’ll point to one word on a page and say, “What’s it say?” and then she’ll point to the next word, with the same question. It’s not random, either. Once she picks a starting place, it’s in order, word by word, left to right, across the page. Her print awareness is surprisingly accurate for her age. She is pretty much completely not interested in movies, though she will occasionally watch an episode of Daniel Tiger.

Her favorite toys are her baby dolls, and also anything that rolls (balls, trucks, etc). Her favorite birthday present, unsurprisingly, was a doll stroller. Her Sunday school teachers gave her a new baby doll for her birthday, and she keeps saying, “I love it. I love my new baby. My Sunday school teacher give it me. I love it.” Her very favorite lovey remains Perdita, now mostly called “Dita Baby.”

Which reminds me, she goes to Sunday school. And loves it. Hard to believe that she goes to a class and does a craft and follows directions and has a snack with seven other two-year-olds and it’s not total chaos. She even taught me the song they sing before snack time–she remembered it enough to sing it the next day.

She also spends lots of time with the dress-up box and the play kitchen. Imagination is in high gear around here.

She loves going to the playground, the library, the grocery store (aka “the muffin store”) and the bank. Yesterday, she said, “Mama, we go bank today? Mister Derek give me chocolate kisses?” So … it’s not about money, so much.

Petra has an amazing memory. She can point to every place she’s had a bandaid, basically ever, and she’ll say, “I have a booboo here, but it heeeeawed. My body make it better. It makes new skins.” She remembers some particular tiny thing that someone says and repeats it over and over. The latest is a passing remark one of JC’s friends made when he caught her defacing a book: “Mr. Jacob not okay draw on books! Not okay draw on books, Mr. Jacob say.” She also remembers who gave her a particular thing, and she’ll mention it each time she uses that thing. Like, Gary got her a new straw for her sippy cup, and she always says, “Monkey Grandpa get me yellow straw. I love it.” We borrowed a friend’s van over a month ago for a trip, and she still talks about it. “I love Mr. David’s van, Mama. I miss it. I miss the white van.”

Petra’s still clearly an introvert. She gets overwhelmed with people quickly, especially if they’re right in her face. She’s friendly, though, and she loves to smile at people and have them wave at her. I’ve seen her melt the prickliest people with her smile. It’s quite an amazing thing to see.

I am just so in love with this child. There aren’t even words to describe how blessed I feel to have the two of them, and to watch them grow. As Petra is talking more and more, I’m learning about what she notices and wonders and hopes for. This year, I know she’ll share so much more of that with me, and I’m eager for every word.