“What kind of Birthday party do you want this year, Lo?” I asked…totally not expecting an answer from my 1 year old.

“Snoopy Cake.”  She said, matter of factually.

“Are you sure you don’t want a Tinkerbell birthday?”thinking she had a temporary lapse in forgetting her favorite little fairy companion.

“Snoopy Cake.”  She repeated.

“What do you want for your birthday, Lo?”

“Snoopy Cake.”

So that was settled.  And I, in my overboard way of planning for my kid’s birthday parties, made sure it was a Snoopy Birthday we would all remember.  The day our little Lo turned 2.  Tear.  This one crept up on me the most so far.

My first reaction to Lauren when they handed her to me in the hospital was, “Her eyes are literally sparkling.”  My little Lo Lo.  My little baby is now the resident 2-year old in the house.  Look out.

There isn’t a child lock in the universe that could keep Lo Lo from getting into everything she’s not supposed to.  Pots and pans, kitty’s food, remote controls, toilet paper, big sister’s toys….there’s no stopping her.  And there’s no disciplining her for it either.  I do, but it eventually ends in laughter…every time.

Now, before you call me a softy…you need to realize that this kid can make me crack a smile on my worst day, in my worst mood, before I’ve had my morning coffee.  If I want to discipline her, I have to sternly look her in the eye, say what I need to say, and then run.  Because, the look on her face as she’s getting the ‘Lo-down’ is hilarious.  Bottom lip out, batting her eyelashes over those sparkly blue eyes, fighting a smile…it’s impossible.

Little Lo has been making me laugh every since the day she was born.  Even though she was a scheduled Cesarean, she decided she was going to be born a week early…on Father’s Day.  We nicknamed her #2… because of her order of birth in the family, sure, but more so because she refused to sleep those first three months like her older sister had.  #2.

Finally, at 3 months old, she found a way to soothe herself…by sticking her first two fingers in her mouth upside down and backwards.  We laughed, thinking, ‘no wonder it took her so long to figure out how to pacify herself.  She picked THE most complicated way!’

There’s been so many funny moments along the way, a lot of them I’ve written about here.  Like the morning my husband heard Lauren take something from her sister…then take off running.  Following close behind were big sisters footsteps.  They stopped.  Lauren screamed.  Brianne exclaimed, “Lo! That’s mine!”  Lauren, in her teary-eyed, toddler babble, came barreling down the hall to tattle on Brianne.  Instigator.

Or the time when, in Lauren’s unique way, she let us know she was ready for a big girl bed.  Not just a simple ‘climb out’ attempt.  But she climbed up on Brianne’s every chance she got, sending her sister into a meltdown as she made a hurricane out of the neatly lined up stuffed animals that ‘live’ on her bed.  And, she kicked the wall.  The wall that buts up against our family room…where the TV is.  Kicked the wall.  Jammed her crib up against the wall.   As parents, we learned to tune it out, much like the girls constant screaming at each other.  (well, I can tune it out…)  But when our relator came over one night after bedtime to have us sign some paperwork, the wall kicking, followed by terrified screaming, totally flipped him out.

Out of all the mischief she gets into, our cat seems to take the most abuse. Lauren chases her around with her high pitched screams, pulls fist fulls of hair out of her tail, tries to feed her soggy Apple Jacks, covers her with blankets, and smothers her with hugs while she’s trying to bake in the sun, kitty just rolls with it.  In fact, when Lo hugs her she starts to pur.  It’s as if they are two of the same kind of soul.  Easygoing, loveable, and just plain happy to be here.

Lo makes us laugh. She has a gift.  I feel when I look into her sparkling blue eyes, I get a glimpse of heaven’s sky.  I have to thank her in advance, for all the times she’s made me crack a smile when I sorely needed to.  She reminds me to ask myself, “is this really worth getting annoyed with in the grand scheme of things…or can I just laugh this one off.’

“She can’t grow up anymore,”  her Daddy says.

It’s a good age, 2.

I wish it could last forever, too.

Happy Birthday, Lo Lo 🙂

Mommy

Here’s some more Birthday Highlights…