We are at 2 years and 3 months old with Miss Priss, and so far so good.
It's been pretty nice, actually. Although she still prefers to play with us, she'll happily occupy herself if we are unavailable. She's big enough to do many things herself (like put her dish in the sink or climb up onto a chair), but not too to big curl up on your lap with a book or play horsie. She has just started thinking for herself, and will tell us so, with her own adorable comments ("Come play tea pah-ty!" she just demanded) but is not so vocal as to go on and on and on in those endless diatribes that 5 and 6 year olds are known for.
But there is one thing that I really miss about Priss's younger year.... Morning Bed Time.
Once upon a time, when we heard our little cuddle-bug awake in the morning, one of us would, in a half-comatose state, go retrieve the little youngster and toss her in bed with us. On the rare occasion, she would actually go back to sleep. More commonly, she'd lay there perfectly still, lulling us into a false sense of sleepiness, before springing up and jumping all around the bed. Either way, she enjoyed being with us on those occasional mornings that she was welcomed to hang with Mommy and Daddy.
But that was my adorable one year old. Now we are the proud owners of a precocious two year old. And she doesn't want to hang with Mommy and Daddy anymore. She's got two things that she treasures more than bedtime with us.
Milk and Cartoons.
Or, rather, Cah-tooons!
Still, we try to relive those Grand Old Days. Hubster will grab our bouncing little Tigger-wannabe and gently lay her in bed next to me before climbing back under the covers himself. No dice.
"Get. Up. Mommy!"
"No. Go to sleep."
"Milk! Cah-tooons!!!"
"Come on. Lay down for just a minute."
"Caaaaah-toohoohooohhhns!"
And before I can even try to reason with her, she's off the bed and out the door.
I know, I know, she'll one day relish hanging out in bed with us again.
But by then she'll be OLD. You know, five or six. She'll be cute and cuddly in new, five and six-year-old ways, but not the way she is now. At two years and three months. A little angel who thinks "helping mommy" is the coolest thing in the world and will come running up to her Daddy with a toy cake, proclaiming "Happy Birthday!" just about every day.
<sigh> But I'm sure five and six are cute, too.
