My Year of Meaningful (2011)

So I suppose it goes without saying that LJJ turning TWO (today) is surely classed as Meaningful. I mean, again my philosophy on celebrating these things is that until the child is old enough to know what the hell a birthday is, any partying to be done should be done by the parents, in celebration of the fact they successfully kept said youngling alive for two years! So, tonight we will have Doc & Mrs Doc over for The Mr.'s world-famous lamb vindaloo (hot hot), perhaps some cornhole or skip bo and some sort of cake with peanut butter frosting (myself & The Mr.'s favourite), open up the presents sent to LJJ by her grandparents, and throw her in bed and continue with the wine and revelry. Anyway, my commentary on the fact that the "meaningful" in this post is my kiddo entering her third year on planet earth is that I think she's turning into a pretty quality human being. Even though there are a number of "terribles" that are indeed already bubbling up to the surface with the onset of The Twos (which believe me, I am wrestling with - temper, contraryness, etc) there are a number of things that at this age you can also see coming through a kid's personality, which I know are a combination of nature and nurture and I like to think on account of what they are, specifically, a larger portion of which are simply the nurture she gets in our home environment over these past two years. To name a few: Love affair with the piano, cowboy songs, singing, dancing; Unmeasureable amount of love and affection for 4-legged animals (and even inscects now, whew!); Almost comically (for a toddler anyway) diverse pallet in terms of foodie-ness (mmmm, curry! mmm, herring! mmm, more green-olives-stuffed-with-jalapenos, please!); Good manners, please & thanks in both languages, etc.; Love of people, strangers/new acquaintences/old friends, social with everyone; Independant occupier of time; Laughing, joking, humor-filled personality Affection, affection, affection.... kisses & cuddles for one and all! Anyway, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything because you never really know where these things come from (plus horn tooting would take all the meaning out of the Meaningful) but am rather just mentioning the things that specifically mean something/are important to me, and give me the faith that the youngest member of the clan is turning into a special kind of person. One who makes you happy in some way or other, every day, even just a little. And I'm grateful for all the extra happiness available to me no matter where it comes from because... well, obviously it's just something to be thankful for.