My baby....what baby?

So, Riley turned two today. Or, if you ask him, five. Either way, he's anything but a baby anymore. Which is bittersweet. On the one hand, it seems like he was just a cuddly infant yesterday and on the other, it seems like he's been with us forever. So strange, that combination of perspectives.

With one already mobile and on the go, I feel like I spent a lot of his babyhood waiting for Riley to become more independent so he and Evie would be on the same page. And he caught up pretty fast. I didn't have the same ability to focus solely on him so his milestones snuck up on me most of the time. He crawled earlier than Evie, walked sooner, transitioned out of the highchair faster...I barely got to anticipate anything before he was doing it. And here we are, watching him turn two. And all that comes with that.

We've noticed over the last month the emergence of opinions, whining and stubbornness. I remember this with Evie and thinking it was isolated episodes for a while until it dawned on me, "This is it! The Terrible Twos have arrived!". Of course, this time, I know what it is. And I'm really not prepared for it. When Evie started becoming more challenging, I still had a sweet, agreeable toddler to balance things out. At the moment, I am fully outnumbered by obstinate children. Sometimes they work together to whine me out of the room and sometimes, they are working against each other, which can also serve to drive me out of the room.

I know it's all part of their development but it's still bittersweet. I miss my babies - the cuddling, the cooing, the napping on the fly. Then I also think about the crying, the spit-up, the sleep deprivation...and suddenly, I'm all good. Cause I really am.