A Mommy Story

All this birthday talk has spurred her to think about her future as a big girl, too. She spins stories of how she will someday go to work, and she’ll drive a PINK car to get there. She can’t even say PINK yet – due to her speech apraxia, it sounds more like HINK. However, I can understand her so much better than I could even half a year ago, thanks to all of the hard work she’s put in trying to be understood.

This younger daughter of ours is more than just a little girl – she’s a force of nature. Her impish spirit is obvious to everyone she meets, and her direct and sometimes forceful personality ensures she gets her way. She’s just now three years old, but she has already mastered manipulation, charm, and knowing just how to bat her eyes to get one more cookie. Where Cordy falters socially, Mira shines.

Today my little girl is three, and I’m mourning the baby that’s being traded in for this child. She longs to explore her world and make her place in it, going further from my reach each day, and I’m not ready to let her go yet.

But when bedtime is near, and she climbs onto my lap to cuddle for “jus too moh minuwtes” she nestles her head against my shoulder and reminds me that, “I noh ah baybee, I ah big girl. Buh I m stiw mahmee’s baybee.”