Adelai is Two!

Dear Adelai,

You are two years old.  I can barely write any further because that sentence alone makes me speechless.  My girl is growing up. And wow, have you grown up.  

This past year, you started to keep pace with your brothers.  In your first year, you were gentle and reserved.  You watched your brothers with a sense of almost pity and with moments of disdain.  They played in dirt, jumped off couches, crowded you with overly excited affection and built stuff.  You seemed perplexed by this.  This year, you jumped into the clan of Garland kids with both feet.  You love them and look for them all day long.  You can often be heard saying “Where’s Chaze? Where’s Jutin?” Your favorite thing to do with them is to run up and down the hallways yelling and screaming.  Your face is lit up with joy.  You also love sitting by them, lying in daddy and mommy’s bed with them, and you particularly follow Justin wherever he goes. 

But you are all girl.  I remember watching you lay eyes on a doll for the first time and your face lit up with glee.  You take care of your babies all day.  You are constantly wasting boxes of diaper wipes washing their faces over and over again.  You love to color and have recently fallen in love with princesses and Strawberry Shortcake.  You hardly ever willingly wear pants and repeatedly call yourself a princess throughout the day.  In short, you know who you are. 

 The first year of your life, you were gentle and unassuming.  You were hesitant to meet physical milestones, quiet and you cuddled a bunch.  You didn’t speak much and could easily be described as reserved.  And then you weren’t.  You are sassy, young lady.  Sassy.  I have no idea where you get that from.  (Your mommy is so passive!) You hold your own with your brothers.  You are a force to be reckoned with.

You have a tendency to attack people when they aren’t doing as you command.  This includes lifting your arm up with the intent to assault and running across the room to complete the crime.  And you don’t just hit once, you hit over and over again.  As you are being carried into time out, you continue your assault on your victim until you are placed in your room.  You then scream, stick out your tongue and slam the door.  You can then flip the switch, flash a dimple and ask nicely for your demand.  Usually you are asking for something completely insane, so when the answer is still “no”, you scream again, attempt a swat, end up in your room and slam the door again.  Then you come out happy and life moves on. 

Your favorite word and clearest word is “NO.”  You don’t yell it, you just state it firmly and frequently.  All the time, really.  You haven’t really gotten a hold of vocabulary yet, but Daddy and I understand you because we’ve learned the Adie language.  You are up to two word sentences, but they have to be the right words.  For example, you have “No, Mama” down pat.  Love that.  Right now I think I’m fine with your vocabulary, because based on your blossoming sassiness, I’m just fine with your inability to express yourself.  Heaven help us when you actually can say what you are thinking.   

You love water and over the past year, your heaven is in the bathtub.  That is, until you started pooping the tub a few weeks ago.  Now you don’t like it so much.  Whenever I ask you if you’d like to get in the tub, you instantly say “poop?”  You also are on the verge of potty training, but can’t quite get the order down.  Right now, you poop your diaper, secretly take it off and then sit on the potty.  You’ll understand that this is not a great moment for me when you’ve smeared feces on the toilet, the carpet, your clothes and then you are remarkably unhappy with the results. 

Your laugh is perfection.  Straight from heaven.

Sometimes (all the time) I want to beg God to freeze time when you are sitting on my lap, all cuddled up.  At bed time, you whisper “nigh, nigh, mama.  Luhyu.”  I think probably if I never had another moment on the planet, I could stand before God and be grateful just to have had that one moment with you.  You and your brothers are the delight of my heart. 

These words just seem stupid because I will ultimately fail to express how you light up a room.  I’ll fail to express how the very sight of your smile when I get home from a stressful day at work washes all the unimportant stuff away.  I won’t adequately be able to tell you that you motivate me to be an authentic woman of God because I want to live up to my own personal standard of who is worthy of  being the mommy of Adelai Makena.  I look at you and think about all that you deserve, and then I look back at myself and think “Wow.  I have work to do.”  Because I know from the depth of my soul that God gave me you with an intention to raise you up in righteousness.  And can I admit that I feel like I still need more “raising up”?

I get told over and over to “enjoy these years with her because woe to you when she’s a teenager.”  In reality, I think it’s more like a life long sentence of loving a creature so much that you simultaneously must have a goal of independence and self sufficiency, yet deeply desire a life long connection and an ultimate moment when I get to hold your hand within the gates of Heaven.  I don’t care if you ever speak clearly.  I don’t care if you ever hate me, if you struggle, if you succeed beyond all imagination.  What I do care about is your eternity.  Sometimes as I see you walking out into the world, my prayer is simply that God would grab ahold of your heart.  That you would love Him early and that He would be the delight of your life.  Because my Adelai, I’ll fight hell for you.  I will fail at many things (like turning your clothes pink or forgetting a bunch of stuff), but I am resolved to not fail at this.  And don’t hesitate to remember that you got your sassiness from somewhere.

My sweet baby girl....it’s an honor to be your mommy. You inspire me. You humble me.  You make me laugh and you show me yet another sign of God Almighty in a tender hearted, fiery little girl. 
Love you Adie-Mak. 

Love, Mommy