Martha at 2 years

There's much progress to report since our last post. Martha is a full-fledged toddler now, and loves to run about the place. She is ever more speedy, tricky, talkative, and joyful. Increasingly, she knows what she wants, she is able to express it, and she more often gives than accepts 'no' for an answer.

One of Martha's favorite pasttimes is the walk around the block. There is a certain sameness to this routine, which usually involves a stop at the steps, often entailing "Marta hiiiding"...

Followed by a rapid scurry along, interruped by a visit to the "laybug tree" (where Grandma Martin discovered a colony of ladybugs/birds) and a stop or two to pick "lions" and blow them...

and invariably including a stop at several favorite sets of "teps" as well as a nearby tunnel.



Among the other highlights of our time with Martha are

reading, book after book, every night before bed;

seeing Martha's curiosity about other kids, including her playmate Leah;


listening to Martha sing, and singing with her;

and savoring many different kinds of food with her.

We continue to receive regular visits from Martha's doting grandparents on both sides. Here, we are pictured on a trip we took up the coast of California with Grandma and Grandad, during their annual springtime visit.



Grammy Phylsie and Walter, now retired, come up as often as they can to visit with their (current) favorite grandchild. We had a rare opportunity to share Martha with all four grandparents at the end of March.


As most of our friends know, we are expecting a sibling for Martha in July. It will be strange to have such a tiny, incapable thing around again, because we are now accustomed to our competent little girl. We don't think that Martha is any more amazing than any other two-year-old (okay, well, maybe we do, but we don't admit that in polite company); we DO feel constantly amazed by her. Seeing so much development--such profound changes--is truly wonderful. I was thinking the other day that this is more intense than loving another adult because once you meet someone, get to know that person, and grow to love him or her, he or she doesn't really change that much--in fact, if he or she did that might be a bad thing.

But growing to love Martha, we're growing to love someone who is growing more and more into a loveable person, a separate individual with her own loveable traits, all the time. We've spoken to other parents about this and they agree. Just when we think we can't be more impressed by Martha, we are. Her ability to communicate is the most dramatic and, at this time, the most strongly rewarding of the areas in which she is growing (she says so many words now, and puts together two and three of them in phrases, and she is very expressive), but what this ability is part of--her developing cognition--is even more impressive. It is entrancing to watch her puzzle over the way that her boxes fit into each other, or remember something from days ago, or "read" a book to herself.