The new normal.

Babies grow so fast. I recently purged Kira’s toys from all the baby items and replaced them with toys that encourage imaginative play and creative expression.

She likes to pretend she’s a mama, pushing the stroller, putting her baby to bed with a blanket, feeding us, cooking for us, and of course bossing us all around with that finger and babble we cannot understand. If we could understand it she would probably be in trouble.

She orders Lucy around. She does it with the same authority I use when I give her a command, and it confuses Lucy, who looks to me for guidance. Kira is usually correct in what she’s asking lucy to do, so I reinforce it and the sweet dog obeys the two year old.

When it is time to go to bed Kira has to wear a silk cap over her crazy curls. She rejected wearing it until I put one on too, and said, this is what ladies wear to bed. So when it’s my turn to put her to bed, I put on the hot pink silk cap with a burgandy bow, and she willingly asks for her night night hat. It’s not a pretty sight when I wear it, but for her in her little footed jammies, and her puffy pink hat, it’s the most adorable sight of the day. (the hat keeps her hair from matting up with the rubbing against the sheets all night. Trust me I can use all the help I can get in keeping her hair from matting.)

Getting dressed is so much fun for Kira. Her closet feels like I have a princess to dress. It’s one of my greatest pleasures dressing her up so cute. The best part is she approves of the clothes. She stands tall showing me she feels pretty. She does her own accessorizing with glasses, headbands, and necklaces and then runs to the mirror to observe. No one has to teach a girl how to admire herself in the mirror. And the shoes, she really likes her shoes. Sometimes she will pick out her own “pretty” and it is usually any item of clothing or foot wear that has something sparkly on it.

In the kitchen she is industrious. She is either climbing the pantry to pretend to put away her things, or pulling cooking utensils out of my cabinets. She uses my rice cooker as a toy to cook up something delicious for me to eat. She likes the button that makes the top pop up. Recently she began helping us unload the dishwasher. She’s a serious little helper, and it makes her so puffed up when we thank her for her good help. She really is learning where everything goes. She’s paying attention to the details in our lives.

Like my makeup. When I’m getting all girly before going out for my day, she’s by my side, sifting through my things. She knows the one lip gloss she is allowed to put on her self. She finds it, applies it, returns it, and closes the drawer. Then she repeats that process a dozen times. She always tips her face up for me to run my brush across her cheeks and eyelids. Then she runs to the mirror in our closet that is hung exactly for her to find herself, she inspects, smiles and hugs me.

At the stables she knows what to do. She knows where I keep my tack, and she has her own bucket there for us to fill with hay. So we walk around and she holds her bucket up for the horses to have a snack. She’s so serious that we reach every horse.

When it’s time for Jack to have his lesson she plays with the cats, or sits with her helmet on and waits for her turn to ride, which has not yet come.

Am I having fun with a girl? YEAH! And so is everyone else in our family. Especially  Daddy who covets the opportunity to put her to bed whenever possible, which means they nap together on the sofa in her room. I don’t dare share the photos I have of that. I would get in trouble. But they are funny.

As much fun as she is, at the end of a day with her, I feel like a limp noodle. My brains are drained, my body is tired, and I don’t want to think or solve another problem. I just want to go to sleep. She’s a BIG presence in our lives. Huge. Intense. It takes all of us to fulfill her demands. We scratch our heads in wonder at this. Yet no one can remember life in our house or family without her. It is just the new normal.

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