Sonja is 2!

Sonja turned 2 a few weeks ago!  I'm not great at keeping up with these blog posts anymore. In my defense, we went to Whistler, BC on a ski trip and she turned 2 the day after we got back.

Sonja is a great kid. You always hear about the "terrible twos," but I have found her (so far) more and more delightful. For one thing, she's starting to get really great at communicating, for another she's learning to control her temper.

I've never seen a kid reset themselves the way that Sonja does after she's gotten out of control angry.

She will get mad, sometimes she hits me or sprawls out on the floor like an extra from the Exorcist. When she hits me, I get pretty mad, but I try to stay calm. I usually say "No, we do not hit in this house," or something to that extent and then let her sit by herself without looking at her (because eye contact makes it worse every single time) while I stand far enough away that the temptation to hit me is lessened. But what happens after that is so crazy. She usually takes less than a minute to gather herself and say one of a two things: "Hi" is her favorite, and "cheek," as she points to her own cheek.

I'm not sure why, but these are her "resets." She says them, I usually laugh, and everything is fine again. It's a beautiful thing. I love that she has the ability to reset herself. Sometimes she even prevents an outburst by saying "cheek" when she is mad. Oh it makes me laugh.

Sonja is also developing a keen sense of how I am doing emotionally. The other day I got hurt really bad. I stubbed the two middle toes of my foot on a wooden step stool and (most likely) broke them. I was crying on the floor in pain. Sonja came up to me and said "Hi" in her reset voice lol, and asked to sit in my lap. It was the sweetest thing.

Sonja is truly a sweet child. She loves animals, she is always trying to snuggle with Puppy. She makes these cooing noises and nuzzles into him. He's learning to deal with it. She's recently also started coming up to me at night and saying, "Snuggle?"  That request completes my life. Like.. never in my life have I felt happier than having that sweet angelic toddler ask me to snuggle, and then sit in my lap and just snuggle right up to me. Oh man. It's a beautiful thing for me.

Sonja is talking more and more and of course still loves music. Her teacher was telling me she's never taught a child who was so into music to the degree Sonja is. She said none of the other kids hum and do the hand motions like Sonja does, they just do it when it's music time.. Sonja never seems to stop. lol. She's a musical girl! Her current favorite song is "Getting Jiggy With It" by Will Smith. She calls it "Nananana."

Sonja also loves adrenaline rushes. She loves being thrown, running, being held while I run, shoulder rides, and doing front rolls on my bed. She's gotten a lot better with people, especially "new" people.

We had her birthday party last weekend. My Dad, step-Mom, sister Meghan and sister Valerie came with her girlfriend. Meghan stayed at my apartment, the others got hotels. The best part was that Sonja immediately opened up to them better than she ever has. I think because she got so much face time with so many people while in Canada (we went with Jeff's mom and step-dad and his teenage daughters and nephews). She just was a lot more comfortable with my family and finally willing to interact without getting too scared or nervous that we would leave her. It was really great. For me, it is so important that Sonja have strong bonds with her family, and my family, because I want her to feel the love that I feel for them. I want her to also feel well loved, because she is.

The party went really well. We had it at Gymboree. We had around 15-16 children and over 30 adults there. My friend Sherri and I made mini cupcakes and Susan (Nana) made the most delicious vanilla cake. Everyone brought really awesome gifts for Sonja, and it seems like all the kids had a really fun time. I know Sonja did. She was totally shocked when everyone sang "happy birthday" to her. She seemed stunned that all eyes were on her.. then she started jumping around happily and spent the whole time playing and jumping and enjoying her little friends. I even let her have a real cupcake this time, frosting and all. She pretty much ate the frosting and ignored the cupcake. But it could not have gone better in my opinion.

I don't have many photos from the party but my Dad is supposed to send me some, and my sister texted me hers.. so I'll post photos later.

Life before Sonja is hard to remember. Our lives got harder, but gained so much more meaning when she arrived. Life is more beautiful through the eyes of your children. I love being able to let go of the seriousness of life and just ENJOY it with my sweet, awesome Sonja.

Happy Birthday to the light of my life!