Another year
It’s hard to believe my daughters are three and nearly two. I look at them throughout the day in awe of the changes. New tricks and habits learned. Mastering new words, new phrases. I can become so consumed in the ‘here and now’ (which, granted, isn’t a bad thing!) it’s hard to imagine life any other way. Often, I like to sit alone watching videos and pictures of my pregnancy, their first moments and months. It’s sometimes hard to reconcile that my bright little toddlers were once these tiny balls of squish. I can’t even really remember what it was like to cradle my expanding belly. Back then I would try so hard to picture their faces and the changes that they would bring into our world. Much the same way that I couldn’t possibly comprehend the outline of the humans I would be raising at that time, today I can’t grasp what life was like before them. Nor can I picture them five years down the line. Unlike most everything else in my life, I can only be present in the ‘now’. Today is all there is.
Louella is potty trained, Sabine is growing her lexicon daily. The girls are truly beginning their adventure as sisters. Interacting, playing, laughing, and of course, tormenting each other. They play chase, make believe, hide and seek. Share their paints, furnish their dollhouse and form play dough people together. When one is being given a snack, she always makes sure to grab a bowl for her sister. When one is crying, the other always strokes her hair and head. When they are reading, they make sure the other is done with a page before they turn to the next. The bond that we are fostering is one that I imagine to strengthen well into their last chapter, long after I am gone.
Their natures are both directly opposing and truly complimentary. Naturally, I’m sure a lot of this has to age and their differing stages in development. But right now, it’s working! Where Sabine can be very stubborn, emotional and relentless, Louella is calm, accommodating and quick to compromise. Louella likes things done in a particular way, as she demand, and Sabine is flexible and open minded. Louella is independent while Sabine is in constant need of companionship. She has taken to stroking my hair, cheek and back while I hold her. She pulls me in for so many kisses and snuggles. Whenever I find myself getting frustrated by the hundredth time that morning that she has demanded “up! up!”, I try to remind myself that the day she stops asking to be held will come too soon.
Photos by Paige Owen Photo.