It’s Twos-day!
It’s 2/22/22! How exciting… well, to be honest it’s not really that exciting. I’m not doing anything special to commemorate “twos-day.” Usually I can rally for minor holidays, but this time I’ve got nothing. I wish I could run 22 miles, but that’s not happening right now, and running two miles wouldn’t be very special. I was better at this when my kids were little- green dinners on St Patrick’s Day, half cakes on their half-birthdays, pumpkin pancakes on the first day of fall- but now my son is in college and I’m pretty sure if I tried to do anything “two-ish” for 2/22/22 my thirteen-year-old daughter would roll her eyes vigorously. However, hoping to get some inspiration, I did ask my daughter what the number two reminds her of. When she was younger we believe she had synesthesia, which this article describes as “a neurological condition that causes certain stimuli to trigger more than one sense.” If someone with synesthesia sees a yellow rubber duck, the visual part of their brain may say “yellow’”while simultaneously the taste part of their brain could say “chocolate cake.” There doesn’t have to be any logical connection between the two, but for them, yellow and chocolate will always be linked. “Macaroni” makes my daughter think of the number twelve, a clock makes her think of the color silver, and on and on. She says it doesn’t happen to her very much any more, but those connections that were originally made stay with her. Sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t synesthesia at all, but rather a very active imagination. Or maybe all kids have some synesthesia, and eventually grow out of it. Or, maybe she still has it, but just doesn’t say any of it out loud because “normal people don’t talk like that.” It breaks my heart that my exuberant little girl, who wanted to wear her Halloween costume 365 days a year, covered everything in glitter, and insisted on going to preschool dressed as a flower… now wears plain black and gray t-shirts and is intent on blending in with her surroundings. I know thirteen is a hard age- but why does growing up have to mean abandoning everything that made her unique? I hope it’s a phase, and she’ll emerge with her own, strong personality again when she gets a little older. Oh, and her response when I asked her what the number two reminds her of? “A very light, white-ish blue.” Okay! In her blog post today, Janae of Hungry Runner Girl mentioned that they’re more than halfway through their time of having the older kids living at home. I remember when my son was nine, thinking “it’s halfway over!” and then, mere moments later, it was 100% over and he was off to college. It was so hard for me to see him go, but we’ve all adjusted and are enjoying this new situation. He was home for Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and then in two weeks he’ll be home AGAIN for spring break. I was telling a friend how excited I am to see him again and she said “Yes, you really see them a lot in this phase- it’s a good transition.” Wait. What? Then I understood that this is the transition between him living at home all the time, and eventually having a home and family of his own. It made me sad all over again, but also determined to appreciate this time. I don’t want to waste any time being sad that he’s in college, because someday I’ll look back and long for this phase, when he still comes home to our home. Kids! Why doesn’t anyone tell you it’s going to be this hard? I thought the toddler phase was hard, but that was nothing compared to all this. Look at that- I ended up writing about my two kids for “twos-day.” I also have two cats and two guinea pigs- but we’ll save that for another post. In the meantime, put on your favorite light white-ish blue attire and celebrate the day! Do you celebrate minor holidays? Are you doing anything special for 2/22/22?