Barely Baby Berlin

Berlin is barely a baby anymore and today this makes me immensely sad. Yesterday Steve made a comment like, "Well, Berlin's just a baby," and I told him, "Yeah, but she's almost two." He was more than a little shocked about that realization. Berlin has been just that, a baby, for almost two years, not to mention the fact that she is the youngest member of our family. We all think of her and treat her as our baby. But the fact that she now knows that she loves "rockin', rockin'" (being rocked) and she is capable of asking for it before her nap or bedtime means that she is actually not a baby anymore. Yes, she still wears diapers, but the fact that she tells me every time she wets or dirties her diaper means that she is not a baby anymore. Yes, she is still hard to understand, but the fact that she can speak in complete sentences now means that she is not a baby anymore. Two year olds are not babies. Heck, they are hardly considered toddlers anymore. I, unfortunately, am not ready for Berlin to be done being a baby yet. Oh, of course, she will always be my baby, just as I still am to my parents and they still are to their parents. But when Berlin can walk around the house with her little hands palm up at her sides saying, "Trym? Trym? There she is!" means that she really is not a baby anymore. Berlin's favorite sentence right now is, "I do it," which also means she is not a baby. Oh, baby Berlin.

Yesterday we were driving in the car and I heard, "Me! Me!" from the backseat. I turned around to see Berlin with a teddy perched on top of her head. I affirmed her extra special balancing talents and turned my focus back to driving. Soon I heard, "Trym! Trym!" and looked to see Berlin showing Tryn how she could balance the teddy. This was the first time of many, many more times where she turned to get affirmation and acknowledgement from her older sister.