It's hard to even put into words now much I love my Ana Uku, how fantastic it is to love her and hold her as she grows, and how conflicting the slight tinge I feel as I say goodbye to each little Ana Uku and welcome with kisses each new and slightly more complex Ana Uku that greets me.
I love it every time she snuggles in and seems to completely enjoy me holding her. I get mushy every time we are lying down and she rests a hand on my beard and plays with it or wraps both of her arms around one of mine.
In a recent conversation with a teacher friend, while talking about the grey that is taking a stand in my beard and also how much I adore my kids, I told him that I would gladly sacrifice years of my life to prevent these kids from horrible pains, not the little falls but all of the great and unnecessary pains that may occur in life. He laughed, having previously made the connection of grey hair acceleration after having a second child himself and said, "that's what we are already doing, isn't it?" Which made me laugh and maybe the grey is accelerated but I think my laugh lines have accelerated as well so a good balance.
Ana is talking regularly. She so often reminds me of Enzo at this stage that it helps me to recognize just how much Enzo has grown and matured in the 16 months since he was the same age. Her words still have the annunciation of a new 2 year old and often require a close listen to discern if you weren't familiar. But being familiar, I recognize new words nearly every day listening to Ana. And her questions! "What's that?" "That Papi’s?" - which for her means- not for kids, right?, like when she is pointing at my razor when I shave in the morning. She knows the answer to some things and reinforces that knowledge and then goes further to a new "What's that?" And once she has asked I can often expect the reinforcement questions in the coming days.
Ana loves to play outside and to name things she recognizes. She likes to open doors to follow me and especially to let our dog Monte in or out. She lately likes to throw her weight into opening the fridge door and declaring what she wants for about five seconds before she attempts to climb the shelves to go after what she wants. She likes to do things herself, just about everything, and with adorable smiles, and adorable declarations, and she does NOT like to do what she does not like to do. Her favorite way of expressing the later is to simply lie down where ever she is and make a good deal of noise about it. Even this she does adorably, amusingly at the very least.
Ana Uku is now two. And she knows it. If you say "two" or "birthday party" she will generally reply with the rest. I might tell Enzo "Yes, Ana gets ositos vitaminos (gummy bear vitamins) now that she is two years old." Ana will run up and say "Me two birthday party."
I love my Ana Uku.
Here are pics from Ana's 2nd birthday party.
Tami baked the cakes and I decorated. The theme was under the ocean. This is a fish.
And here is the shark cake.
My parents made a fishing game. Thank goodness because we somehow didn't think of games.
Which was good for Nathan because he then had finger puppets to play with.
In keeping with tradition, our string pulling pinata did not work as planned. In the end I opened it up and shook the prizes out. But isn't this a beautiful pinata my parents got for Ana? It is art.
Tami made frozen banana sharks which were a delicious hit.
Another big deal? Now that Ana is two she is old enough to go to school! Ana the scholar.
These are from her first day of school.
Here is Ana leaving the house for her first day of school.
Going into class.
With her amigos. Ana brought her classmates flower head decorations to wear and frozen sharks to eat to celebrate her birthday.