Matt was out of town for a few days earlier this week and all of a sudden, Olivia started coming into my bed in the middle of the night and sleeping with me. She has NEVER done this before. Obviously, we have to break this little habit now that daddy is back in town, but I’d be lying if I said that having my sweet little girl snuggle up to me in the middle of the night wasn’t the cutest thing ever!
So, we woke up in bed together, around the same time and I told her happy birthday and sang to her. HUGE smiles! I asked what she wanted for breakfast. She, of course, responded “Laches!!” (kolaches). Much like her father, Olivia hates getting food to-go. For some reason, she (and her daddy) think it tastes better if you eat at the restaurant. We usually never eat at Kolache Factory since our house is practically across the street, but given that it was her half-day, I indulged and we ate there. She was thrilled! As I watched her eat, I couldn’t help get a little emotional thinking about how big she was getting. As if that wasn’t enough to make this mama teary, she stopped eating and gave me an unprompted “I love you mommy!” Oh…this girl!!
That night, we celebrated with a half-cake
Now, Matt likes to pretend like he's the "tough one" and he initially was skeptical of the whole "half-birthday" thing, pointing out that a half-birthday celebration may be #1 on the list of "Your Kid Might Be Spoiled If..." However, as I was rushing out of work today and heading to pick up Olivia, I got a text from dear ol' dad telling me that he was going to stop by the toy store on the way home from work. Yep. WRAPPED. AROUND. HER. FINGER. Needless to say, she was pretty happy with his pick.
What's that you say? We are ruining and spoiling our daughter? Yes. We would agree. We understand that admitting you have a problem is the first step ;)
And, even though it is just a silly milestone, I couldn't help but get emotional this morning when I dropped her off at school. She jumped out of the car, baby in hand. She then turned to give her daily greeting to her police-men buddies and she yelled to them (in her typical “Texas twang”): “Good morning! I have a baby. Her name is Carol!” And then she ran to the front door. She proudly told the Director of the school that she was “two and a half” and that mommy had gotten her a kolache this morning. Then she ran to her room (she does a lot of running in case you haven’t noticed!) and as I put away her lunch, I listened to her tell her teachers about the maracas she brought for Show & Tell. I then kissed her good-bye and left. She was waiting by the window, but was not facing me when I got to the parking lot. I knocked on the window and she turned around with a huge smile on her face. I screamed “Happy Birthday!” Another huge smile and “thank you!” I said “I love you and I will pick you up later!” She nodded, blew me a kiss and ran off to play.
As I walked away, I was thinking about the fact that almost 2 years ago to the day (March 23, 2012), Matt and I were driving to this school to drop off a 6-month old baby Olivia for her first day of school. I remember that pit in my stomach that I’m pretty sure formed the day she was born and I realized that I’d have to leave this little one at school one day. And as I thought about how different she is today than that little crying baby that we took to school 2 years ago, I also had to think about how different Matt and I are. Although it’s only been 2 ½ years, I feel like we have “grown up” too. For me, although I loved those snuggly baby days, I also found them to be incredibly unnerving because she couldn't talk and tell us what was going on. I felt so much guilt back then and spent countless hours worrying about her being sick, whether she liked school, whether she was mad at us for leaving her, etc. It is very reassuring for me now to be able to talk to her about her day, hear her say how much she loves her teachers and friends, and listen to her verbalize how she is feeling.
At two and a half, Olivia is brave and strong, but also sweet, silly and funny. She is social and out-going, but most comfortable with her family. She is smart and curious, confident and fearless. She has moments of “terrible” and can be dramatic, moody, and unreasonable. But, so can Matt and I!! And at the end of the day, I now have confidence that we can look each other in the eye, apologize for any missteps that happened during the day, smile about the silly and fun things that we did and know, without a doubt, that there is an incredible, unconditional bond between us that runs deeper than I could have ever imagined. This little girl has completely changed our lives and we were thrilled to celebrate her "half-day" and all that we have to be thankful for.
