TWO

Not just yet, but soon, very soon, Claire will be two.  Her birthday is this coming Monday.  Tomorrow we are hosting a little party to celebrate the occasion.  All of her most favorite people (with a few exceptions for those quite far away) will be here with us and I'm looking forward to it.  Basically, I invited those who I consider to be "her people".  I determined who those special someones were by listening for a few days to find out who she talks about all on her own.  Neighbors, close family members, a handful of good friends.  Of course doing it that way left out some of our rather close grown up friends, but hey- this is about her.

Soup, cake, music, a fire, a wall of photos from the past year..... should be a good time.

And, just last night we heard from Nana up in New Jersey that she is driving down tomorrow to join in for the festivities.  That's nearly 700 miles of serious baby-lovin' right there!  Go, Nana, go!  Claire will be thrilled.  I am thrilled and very touched by what, to me, seems like a grand gesture, (and one for my baby!) though I know that that nana-love is strong stuff.

I know I'm supposed to say I can't believe she's two already.  Say that it seems like yesterday that I was pregnant, that I was laboring on a very blizzardy and very full moon night, that she was a newborn....  and sometimes, it truly does.  But taping up well over a hundred photos recapping our last year together, looking back at all that we've done since she turned one... well, looking at it like that it seems perfectly reasonable that we've experienced and enjoyed another whole year.

Yes, at times I want to hold onto her fading babyhood.  I hold up those ridiculously tiny onesies and pretend to cradle or burp them when I'm packing away her old things just like anyone else might.  (we all do that, right? how could you resist?)  But mostly I'm happy to be along for the ride and anticipating what's to come.