what a 2 year old knows about love

we’re in a new phase of sleep patterns at our house. the “snuggle” phase. everyone of our kids is in snuggle phase, including sweet pea, who has always been our “good” sleeper…meaning, we could lay her down, sing her a few songs, kiss her and lights out. no problemos.

recently though, she’s wanted snuggled to sleep. so i cram my big pregnant body into her tiny toddler bed {think sardines, think tiny bed and big belly, think stuffed sausages, think squished} and i lay with her until she falls asleep. i’m doing my best to soak up this time in a you’re-going-to-miss-this sort of way because that’s truth. i will miss this. so i lay, curled around her until she falls asleep.

tonight before she drifted off to dream land, and she was nearly there, she turned and locked eyes with me in the dimness of her room and whispered,

“i love you, mama.”

i love you too sweetheart.

and as she sunk in closer to me and i tucked her little body around the bump of her future baby sibling resting in my belly, i wondered to myself…

“what does a 2 year old know about love?”

love is such an abstract concept. it’s hard to define. hard to describe. hard to label. and yet, here my 2 year old daughter appeared to have a confident grasp of such an indescribable concept.

so what is love when you’re 2? when you don’t have the words or the vocabulary or even the mastery of your own feelings…how could you possibly know what love is?

of course i’m guessing here because i’m not actually a 2 year old {this may come as a shock to some of you…} but here’s what i think love looks like when you’re 2 {written in sweet pea’s voice}:

love is:

• snuggles at bedtime
• the comfort of my blankie
• brothers that help me put on my shoes
• sharing my snacks, even when it’s hard and likewise, someone sharing their snacks with me
• someone laughing at my silliness
• brothers that let me play, even if i sometimes wreck whatever it is we’re playing with
• eye contact from the person i’m talking to, especially an adult, especially an adult that’s important to me
• tickle fights, wrestling and dancing with daddy
• brothers that move their seats to sit by me in the car
• patience from an adult when i just want to do it myself…or at least try  to do it myself
• hearing, “good job!” when i do something right or good
• getting hugs and kisses and being told, “i love you,” all at the same time
• when an adult stops everything in the middle of the day to sit on the couch and read with me
• plus a ba-jillion more i can think of but it all breaks down to this…..

…..love is an action. it’s indescribable because it’s so many things, wrapped into one great big, awesome thing called love. it’s in the things we do for each other. the little things in life. we hear it all the time, but tonight? tonight, i know this to be true, simply because my 2 year old showed me she has this love thing all figured out.

xoxo *