New Mom: Gone Baby Gone

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow, nearly two years have passed since my daughter entered this world. She is almost officially a little girl. She drinks from a regular cup, can peel a Clementine, knows her middle name even though we never use it, and actually understands that no matter how good her gummy vitamins taste, medicine is not candy and she can only have it once a day. She orders me around “Mommy, sit in the big chair right now!” and adds a “please” when I ask her how she can say it more nicely. She has friends of her own to invite to parties and on play dates. She knows her letters and can sing entire songs on her own. She can see right through me when I try to trick her into drinking milk by offering it in a juice box and telling her it’s “special juice.” She warns me to “be careful Mommy” when I’m carrying too many bags or the sidewalk is covered in snow and ice. She has preferences for what clothes she wears and wildly protests unsolicited offers of help when putting on her coat, hat or mittens – or anything else. She tells us when she “needs space” or orders us to “walk away” in an effort to use her words when she’s angry or frustrated. She is growing up into a smart beautiful girl full of personality. She can do all of this and yet I still occasionally pine for the tiny little baby who never gave us a full night’s sleep, spit up all over me a dozen times a day, and gave me heartburn every time I had to bathe her alone. Everyone keeps telling me kindergarten, the prom, and college applications are right around the corner. Why can’t I just stay on this block?