My Mara

Just over 2 years ago, we were a family of 3. Mo was 2 and 2 months when Mara was born, and I wrote this post to commemorate our short time as just the three of us before we became the four of us in September. 

Now here we are, and Mara is about the same age that Mo was when she was born. Well, almost 1 month older, but close enough. Since I've had 2 kids, I feel like I just naturally post less and less on this blog and on social media in general. Maybe Instagram, but not much elsewhere. So many people do not have the privilege of knowing much about little Miss Mara, my perfectly adorable rascally baby girl. This is me attempting to describe her as she is now.  It is difficult to capture anyone's personality well in writing, but I will try.

Mara is a rascal in the best possible way. She is such a good kid, she does listen and behave well, yet she has this impish side that is at time hilarious and frustrating at times. Sometimes the most frustrating thing is trying not to laugh while disciplining her. It's interesting having a second child, to try and figure out how much of her behavior is learned and how much is innate. Mo has always been a bit more dramatic, reacting emotionally, with tears, to small scrapes or bruises (of which she has plenty). Mara is a bit tougher skinned, but still melts into tears at the smallest pain, except as soon as I say to her "Are you okay?" those tears magically disappear. Which leads me to believe this particular behavior is learned from her older sister. 

This is marker

But on her own, Mara is hilarious. Even as a baby, Mara has loved to be funny. She likes when we laugh at her crazy antics. Currently, she is obsessed with changing her clothes. She knows how to dress and undress herself, which is at times great and annoying. It's nice when she can get herself ready to leave the house, but when she is on her fifth dress of the day and the dirty clothes are piling up, I get a bit annoyed. But I pick my battles, and her changing clothes constantly is not hurting anyone or really leading her to do anything she shouldn't. She and Mo are particularly obsessed with their Halloween costumes, where they were both Cinderella, or as Mara says "Cinderelly."

Two Cinderellas, a baby, and Harry Potter

Mara also loves to give and receive compliments. She'll put on a new dress and immediately throw her arms out like "taa daa!" but say, "It's pretty! you like it?" which we of course assure her we do. But she'll also compliment me on random things, like "Mom, I like your booty, it's so pretty." which just makes me laugh. 

She loves to be a princess, and the other day when we found some headbands with crowns attached at the Beehive Bazaar in Provo I bought them for the girls. In the car on the ride home I hear Mo say, "Mara! You don't have to keep your arms up the whole time!" and I turned around to see this:

How else are you supposed to sit when you're fabulous?

Mo and Mara are best friends and it makes my heart so happy. They play so well together, and are mostly great at sharing and taking turns. Of course they fight sometimes, but they are so cute and funny. Mara has never laughed at anything as hard as she laughs at Mo. I'm so grateful that I have both of them.

The best way to explain how Mara talks is that she is earnest about anything and everything. Like right now she's sweeping my kitchen, and she has to come update me and Gramma, "I'll be one minute. I'm sweeping and it's really hard."

She is so smart. I confess I haven't been as dedicated to sitting down with her and working on her letters and numbers as I was with Mo, but she has picked up so much knowledge on her own. She sings all the nursery songs all the time, and can count to about 12 unassisted, although once she hits 12 she starts to repeat 8 9 10 11 over and over. 

She is ridiculously loud. She plays loud and sings loud and even dances loud. She hasn't started dance classes herself yet, but she sees Mo in her dance classes and therefore loves to pretend that she is going to dance class all the time. I'm sure once she starts her own dance class, probably next year, she'll love it. 

Her little voice is so cute. I wish I could record her and Mo talking and laughing all day long. There are hard things. I mean, she is 2. So she is testing boundaries often, and we are both learning how to better deal with the overflow of emotions that come with growing up. But she is one of the best surprises I've ever had, and I am so so blessed to have her and her sister. I love you my Mara.