We canceled naptime for the past two days and bedtime has been a dream.

However, there are a couple of hours midday that are nightmarish.

She has her moments when she steals your heart. And, then you can’t remember why she made you so mad before.

It’s the magic of being two and adorable. Puppies have that same magic.

Sunday afternoon we left the last paci at my aunt’s house and we could find a spare in our black hole of vanishing pacis. We came home with a sleepy two year old who took a nap without much protest about the lack of it. I was hopeful that we might be able to rid ourselves of it before the infamous 3 year mark that’s typical in our household.

That night, I had to rock her to sleep, but she slept all night without asking for it. My hope grew.

(This pink paci will surface in a few days and probably blow my plan to pieces. She had this one and another pink one last Friday. They both mysteriously disappeared.)

Monday I had to rock her at nap time and she was very fussy. But I didn’t give in. Even when we found a rogue paci in a drawer.

(Yes, the paci addiction is probably more mine than hers.)

Then today, her nap time got pushed back. She was super, super cranky and, I gave in. I slipped a paci in her mouth to stop the fit and it worked. She went right to sleep. Before I totally blew it, I crept in her room and popped that sucker out of her mouth while she slept and hid it again.

(Warning: Paci withdrawal may make you turn green.)

I’m not promising I won’t have a relapse again.

Those addictions are hard to break.

This was a day of the most amazing bed head!

My husband said he never dreamed when he taught them to play one evening that they’d fall in love with the game.

Now they beg him every evening when he gets home to play football.

I sit on the porch and play Words With Friends on my phone. Or, take pictures. I never learned to like football, but occasionally I catch some of his enthusiasm for the game.

They come inside when it grows dark, proud with their bleeding battle scars and triumphant scores. Or tears of defeat.

Yes, the girls still cry when daddy makes a sneaky play.

It makes them tough.

She took her orange juice squeeze bottle Monday morning and slung it willy nilly from the kitchen all the way down the hallway to the girls’ room. There was a trail of sticky three feet wide from here to there. It took three moppings, one on hands and knees to get it all up.

When anyone offers her a cookie, candy or gum, she always says thank you and then, “Milo does,” which means, Milo would like one too.

When she sees a bird in the yard she says, “I catch it.” And I think she really believes she can.

When we’re out of something or she’s just eaten the last cookie or had the last bit of juice she says, “Gonna go buy again?”

She just started thinking in sentences and replacing me with you. Instead of, “Hold you,” she says, “hold me.” This makes me sad.

Here hair is wispy, somewhere between curly and straight and it’s finally growing so it doesn’t look so much like a mullet anymore. She loves for me to scratch her back and she doesn’t mind modeling for pictures one bit.