Don’t Mess with me When I am Doing “The Running.” I am Concentrating.

Even when it is very cold, I like to get outside to run around in the circle of our neighborhood. It is an entire mile when we go all the way around, and I make it every time. My Daddy says that I am strong, but I just like to run. Mama says, “I just felt like running” to me and says that I am like a miniature Forrest Gump. I don’t know who that is, but my Mama says that it is a compliment and that Forrest is a wonderful character. I just like to be like Mama and Daddy with their go-fast feet.

See? I have great form even, and I am keeping myself happy and active and healthy. My Daddy says that is important for little people and big people too, and I do feel good after going in the circle, although I admit that I might get a little tired by the end and that I do like to stop and read the numbers and play with the leaves and to climb on the snow that has not melted yet. Get me going, though, and I am like one of my wind-up toys, and I just keep going and going and going, that is, until I am ready to stop and say, “I so very tired.” I know my limits after all, and my legs are a lot shorter than Mama’s and Daddy’s.

I can “hit the trail” though any time that they ask if I want to go, and one day, when my legs are bigger, watch out. I will be good competition if I keep it up the way that I have so far. Run, Dorian, run!

I Wanna go Fast! My Little Bike Cart.

Mama and Daddy have bikes to go around faster than feet can take them. I have a little bike too, but I am not faster than my feet yet, so Mama and Daddy bought me a little bike cart that goes behind my Daddy’s bike. I get all bundled up because it is cold, put on my little kitty helmet, and get strapped in so that we can go.

At first Daddy thought I would be scared, but I am an “adventurer,” and all that I wanted to go was to go faster, faster, faster. Daddy went around and around and I got to go so fast, and I squealed and shouted to go faster to Daddy. Daddy says that I am made without fear, and it is true. One day I will go fast all on my own, but until then, my little bike cart can carry me around with my Daddy and my Mama, and I can keep up just fine. Go, Daddy, go.

Yes, Toddlers Can Take “Selfies” Too.

That’s me looking into Daddy’s camera and pushing the little click-and-take-a-picture button. When you push that button, it takes that one moment and freezes it in time. I like that– I am frozen there with funny faces and smiles. I see my big sister Addie and my big, big sister Lilli take pictures of themselves all the time, so why not me? Even Mama gets into it and takes pictures with me or my big sister or when she is somewhere that is really pretty.

These pictures are called “selfies”so I hear, and I am quickly becoming an expert. I already know, because everyone tells me, that I am “cute” and “beautiful.” Those sound like wonderful words, and by taking these freeze moments of myself, I am sharing that cuteness with my family and my future self when I get bigger. It is my cute, beautiful, silly, funny self frozen in time for all the world to see. “Selfies” aren’t bad, they are face art, and my art is gorgeous.

I am a Good Santa’s Helper

I am all ready for you, Santa. Everyone has told me all about you coming down the chimney and bringing presents to all the good little girls and boys around the world. I have been very, very good, and I have been a good little helper for my Mama and Daddy. Yes, I have my moments where I can get pretty frustrated when things don’t go my way, but after all, I am two, and I don’t really understand that things can’t always go my way and that everything is not mine for the taking.

I have your hat on, see Santa? I am ready to make you cookies and have them for you, and I will be waiting for you to get here, Santa. There are just a few days left, and I can hardly wait.

Fancy is a State of Mind

My Mama tells me that I “clean up really well.” I don’t really know what that means yet, but Mama tells me that I will understand one day when I am bigger. All that I know is that sometimes I just want to put on a fancy party dress  and I want to have cheerleader pom poms to jump up and down and yell and run through the house. I already know all about fancy, and fancy is what you want for it to be. A cheerleader princess? That can be a great definition of fancy. Fancy is a state of mind, and I am one of the fanciest that has ever been.

I am the Bird Whisperer and the Grand Maestro of the Sea Gull Orchestra.

Come to me, bird friends. I have handfuls of sand and I am calling to you in my best shoutsinging voice saying, “birdies, birdiiiieeeessss” with the wind in my hair. It is so peaceful out here, and my shoutsinging voice is helping you while you search for food I am sure, birds of the sea. I will be your conductor, just like the ones that I have seen on t.v., and I will wave my arms and you can go here and there and here and there with the waving of my arms. Good job, gully friends… keep it up, and we might just make it onto that PBS station one day. You just have to keep flying and practicing.

Traditions, Family, Love, and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Traditions are the best, and my Mama is really good at making them and keeping them. She is the one who helps me to create memories here on the blog after all, but she is also the person who records what all of us little people do and the one who creates the things that we do year after year. I am learning about those things, called “traditions,” and I am embracing them all because my Mama makes them fun. She says that memories, like the writing that I am doing here, are what will be looked back on when we are big, and it is very, very important to keep those things alive for us when we are little so that we will remember them and do our own traditions later with our own little ones.

My Mama’s and Daddy’s friends, Holly and James, live in part of a giant building that Holly sees over called Pohlig Box Factory that is in the city. Mama and Daddy used to live around the corner from there, and one day, on a “whim” she tells me (which is a really fast decision), Mama took little bitty Addie long before she was my big sister, to see the giant Casper the ghost during Halloween time. Addie hugged giant Casper, and Mama took a picture.

She said that sometimes traditions sneak up on you, and that was one of them. When the next year came around, Casper came out again to play, and Mama took slightly bigger Addie again to see him.

That year was the last year that Addie was the youngest because in 2013 I came along. I was really, really little and still sleeping all the time, but when Addie went to take her picture that year she wanted me in the picture, too.

There I am, teeny sleeping me. I couldn’t make my own choices then, but it was a good choice to put my little car basket there.

The next year I got bigger and was out of my car basket, but I wasn’t quite big enough to hug him yet. I just sat there and stared at him while Addie hugged onto him.

This year was the first year that I too was big enough to hug him myself, and Addie took a step back and let me be the one who hugged onto Casper.

We will keep getting bigger, and Casper will hopefully be right there every year to document how big we get. My Mama tells me that when we are big that she is going to make a collection of them to give to each of us to show how we have grown. She said that things like that are “priceless” and that when we look back on them. She says that they matter more than all of the things that you can buy in the world because things come and go, but memories, they last forever.

The Wonders of Princess Dresses and Candy…

I don’t always have to be Dorian, little toddler. I can be lots of things like a pirate or Supergirl, and last week, on the big day called Halloween when everyone dresses up like characters (even a lot of big people), I got to be a teeny Elsa. Aren’t I beautiful? I have the right hair for it after all, so I can pull it off really well, and people all night said the word “aww” as they saw me running down the street. I know that the word “aww” means adorable, so I was really proud walking around all night.

My sister Addie, even though she is normally bigger, became my little sister Ana, so we were sisters in real life and pretend too.

My sister Lilli was a vampire queen, but she wasn’t so scary, she was just really pretty like a real life queen.

My giant brother Jonah, because he is so, so old now, never could decide what he wanted to be… he just wanted candy. He dressed up in the blue creepy mask from his room and all black, and he was so scary that I had to make sure that it was him under there.

Once we got all fancy, we went over to our friends Jill and Stacie’s house to trick or treat. It was a huge place full of a lot of children all dressed up, so many that the streets were filled and no one could drive anywhere– we all had to walk.

There were kids of all sizes and a lot that were little like me, all getting so much candy that we still have boxes and bags full at home.

The neighborhood was all in lights and scary things all over, and it kept going and going so far that you couldn’t see the end of everything… candy in every house, like a Halloween wonderland. There were giant dragons…

And big kitty cats with glowing eyes…

And there was even a scary bear that was in our party with giant teeth, but I am not afraid of almost anything, so I loved him and his shiny teeth and kept trying to get back to him to see him smile at me again and again.

Jill and Stacie’s house had crawling zombies and creatures in mirrors that said “let me out of here!” over and over and a giant man in a mask that Daddy said was “Hannibal Lecter” whoever that was that talked to you when you got near him. I was supposed to be scared of those things I think, but I am very brave, and I also don’t really understand this “scary” and “not scary” business yet. I just look to make sure that my family is around me and that I am safe, and if I feel very scared, I find my Mommy and say “I got choo” and hold onto her. I didn’t ever get scared at all this time, though, because I was a brave and strong little snow queen.

I can’t wait until next year when we get to dress up and do it all over again. Mama says that I will understand even more about Halloween next year, but I already have the hang of it. I learned how to say trick or treat and how to hold a really heavy basket of candy, so I think I am now a Halloween professional. I’ll just be even bigger and better the next time around. That Hannibal guy better watch out because I will be talking more then, and I might scare him instead of him trying to scare me.

The Importance of Remembering Where We Came From: Historic Jamestown

Last weekend my Daddy went on a big, big run all the way from Richmond, Va. to Jamestown. He did that all on his two feet, one in front of the other, and it took him most of the day. My Mama’s job was to be his helper and to be waiting for him down in Jamestown where the Capital Trail ended to take him to rest. After all, running can take a lot out of you if you do it for long enough, and trust me I know because I am a running expert. Run hard, play hard, nap hard is my way of life. Daddy really needed that last part when he was done… that and a lot of water and food.

While we were waiting for Daddy, we went to a place called Jamestown that has a lot to do with how the people who came before us got to be here. There is a lot to do with that, and I really couldn’t understand it yet. All that I know is that we got to get on ships that were like the ones that took those people all the way across the ocean.

My Mama wanted a pretty picture of us on the ship, but I wouldn’t stop looking at the water. I am not really good at directions yet even though I understand them… I have an agenda to keep.

I aldo cried and made a bit of a scene when we had to leave the ship because I thought we were going to go sailing, but Mama said those ships are there to stay for everyone to climb onboard and enjoy. Ships that don’t go anywhere doesn’t make sense to me, but Mama says that it is part of that “history” thing.

It turned out to be okay, though, because I also got to climb into the middle of giant ropes bigger than me…

And go into Native American homes that I called “baby houses…”

And wear heavy metal armor like Colonial people long ago that was just my size.

And I even got to practice my walking backwards skills in a very fancy, huge hallway while we moved through time.

The whole time we were there my Daddy was still “the running,” as I like to call it, and he didn’t stop until after they had closed up Jamestown.

My Daddy is my hero, and he says that we can do anything of we put our mind in the right place. Over 40 miles, and Daddy had his mind in just the right spot. Good job, Daddy, we love you so much. Run, Daddy, run.

Now That I am a “Big Girl,” I Can Paint my Face Too.

See me? That’s my “beautification” going on. That is my Mama’s fluffy makeup brush. Mama uses it in the morning when she is getting ready for her day along with other things that paint her face a little and make it smoother looking. My Mama says that it makes her look less tired from running after me and more “alive.” You are always alive, Mama, so I don’t get that, but I know why you want to be fancy. I always want to be fancy with necklaces and bracelets and pretty clothes with my favorite characters, and I can even dress up like Supergirl sometimes and be really, really fancy. (Poor Mama, she doesn’t have a Supergirl costume, so she has to settle for regular clothes and be fancy with jewelry and makeup. She says she is not a fancy girl, though, so I guess she doesn’t mind.)

When my Mama gets ready, I get ready too. I brush my teeth with her, sometimes trying to steal her toothbrush instead of using my little Yoda one, and I brush my hair with her and get a little “scrunchie” in my hair so that I won’t look “like a sheepdog” as Mama says. I say, “out of the eyes” to let her know that I am ready to get my hair pretty so that I can go and get busy messing it up again and again.

The last thing Mama does is put on makeup. She says “not too much” because she says that you just want to put on enough to look a bit brighter like the stars in the sky, but you don’t want to shine like the big moon that’s up there. I want to be the moon though, so when I get hold of Mama’s lipstick, and I have, I put it on at least 3 times in a row just to make sure that I have it exactly right. I am not good at aim yet, though, so Mama has to clean up my face art a bit after I am done.

The brush thing is for your whole face, and she calls what she puts on bronzer. She says it is “just that little glow to make you shine.” Well I like shining, and I shine all of the time just by being me, but I want to be sparkly, too. Mama puts a teeny bit on the brush, and then I put it on just like my Mama. I want to do everything just like her since I am learning, but I want to do it myself. I dab and swirl and make face art, and then Mama tells me that I am “beautiful.” I love the sound of that word. I am beautiful, and so is Mama even without the skin stuff that she puts on. I like her best at night when I wake up and I am sad. She doesn’t have makeup on then, but when she snuggles me to sleep, she is at her most beautiful I think. Makeup isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be… snuggling is beauty.

That said, I still like the sparkly face stuff, and I will keep putting it on just like Mama, and I will be a sparkly, beautiful, happy me.