two

I cannot believe little rara will be two tomorrow. Rara fits into our family perfectly. She has enough feistiness to help her navigate life with two big siblings yet tons of sweetness to get her out of trouble.




I love watching her language blossom and don't take a single word for granted. After watching what a struggle speech can be, there is such joy when it is effortless. Plus she keeps me entertained. She calls big sis 'teddy' and herself 'mamo'. Rara keeps a running dialogue when we are out. Her favorite is the grocery store where she names the food and determines who likes what. Except her 'l' sounds like 'y' so she ends up with ; "Dada yike bananas. Mamo no yike bananas."




Rara would follow big sis to the ends of the earth. They love playing together and get along amazingly. Rara and my buddy have a funny relationship. They like to argue about everything. One will say, "shoes" and the other will say, "no shoes." Back and forth getting louder and louder all the time. The subject changes daily, but the nature of the argument never does. Yet they always hug and kiss each other goodnight at the end of the day. Rara learns funny expressions from the big kids like "oh man" and "no way" and "no fair". I seriously could watch them interact all day long.





My sweet girl loves to give hugs and kisses and snuggle. She melts my heart with one look. Which comes in handy because she can be quite the dickens. She loves to shout NO then run away. Rara starts a fight with one of the big kids by bopping them on the head. She loves to put shoes on all by herself, but puts them on the wrong feet then gets so mad if you try and tell her it's not right. She is not a fan of frilly clothes - she prefers jeans and a T-shirt with a Disney character on it. She loves her Daddy fiercely and has some killer cute dance moves.




Rara's best friend is the dog. (Don't let the picture fool you - it is not an accurate representation of the dog's energy level.)



I love all the time I get to spend with her. She is good company. There is a pretty even mix of self entertainment, kisses and neediness. It is such a fun age and I'm doing my best to enjoy and remember all the little details and just how cute they are at this age.

I may be a bit biased, but I think this is the cutest video ever. It is called, "jumping rope in bathing suit and pig tails".

040 from Elena Pendell on Vimeo.