The Second Year

My baby girl is turning 2 today. I know for most parents it's hard to believe that their youngest child can turn into a miniature adult so quickly. Lady A. has definite likes and dislikes. Most of her sentences start with "I want" or "I no like". She's stubborn, affectionate, curious, loud, joyful, and sensitive. She is my lion-crab.

Two days before she was born, I started having very strong contractions every 3-5 minutes apart. Since, my cervix is a lemon (sorry, no one wants to know that!) I just had to bear with the pain at home minus the dilation until I finally had my C-section. When I had my son, I was filled with drugs so I don't remember much, but with my daughter, I was alert after the birth. I just remember staring and staring at her. The nurses would talk to me and wouldn't take my eyes off my girl. I had assumed I would have another son so the thought of having a daughter terrified and thrilled me at the same time.

I am not a girly person, but somehow my daughter is. She loves to try on shoes when we go shopping. She carries a purse. She loves to put her doll babies to bed. She often makes her own wardrobe choices and she loves matching hair clips. I always hope that I don't do her a disservice by not knowing much about being feminine.

Lady A. loves to sing, especially songs that have phrases that are easy for her to repeat. She likes songs like Poker Face, Single Ladies, and Boom Boom Pow. Probably not appropriate, but she doesn't seem to like my music yet. There is hope though, her brother loves my music now, but didn't at her age.

Her two great obsessions right now are Wall-e and The Little Mermaid. She has to watch YouTube clips of them or the actually movie everyday. We go to the Disney Store just so she can look at the toys for those movies.

She nicknamed herself May May at around a year old because she couldn't quite pronounce her own name. We found out from a friend that Mei Mei is Mandarin for little sister and the nickname has stuck. She calls her brother Na Na which is how she tried to say Ana; older brother in Kannada.

As she starts her second year, I wish my daughter happiness, magic, mermaids, and love. For as grown up as she seems, there is still some baby left to her and I plan to hold it tight for as long as I can.