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 She says it doesn’t happen to her very much any more, but those connections that were originally made stay with her.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?
26 Responses
Little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems. Or so I hear, not being a parent myself.
I’m still in awe of all the creative things you did for them when they were younger! My mom did not do that kind of stuff at all.
I’m finally getting together with one friend for that birthday walk today. We’ve been dancing around the weather for a week!
I’ve never heard of your daughter’s “condition”. It certainly makes her unique! I agree — life is too short for black & gray! Although I hear teenage girls are particularly hard. Good luck!
That quote is 100% accurate. I would get mad though when someone would say it when my kids were little… I felt like those WERE big problems back then.. little did I know.
Aww. This was such a lovely post, Jenny. And I think you did a great job celebrating 2’s!!!
As you know I talk a lot about how the days are long but the years are short. Sometimes the days do feel (agonizingly) long right now with an almost-11-year-old and a 7-year-old that butt heads…a lot. But just last night my 11-year old (almost!) was looking at an old photobook and we were astonished at how young her little brother looked just 2 years ago. They really do change so fast, yet sometimes it’s imperceptible at the time.
I find synesthesia absolutely fascinating. I don’t know anyone that has it, but…very cool. And feels less intrusive than those people that remember every detail of every day they’ve ever lived etc.
If I skipped Valentine’s Day this year you can be darn tootin’ sure I’m skipping 2/22/22 (I completely forgot about this happening until you wrote about it; a podcast I listen to discussed it earlier in the month and then I promptly forgot because Christmas is my jam and just about everything else I let fade – though last year on April Fools I froze some breakfast cereal in milk, with a spoon overnight and then set it in front of the kids for breakfast. Their reaction was one of the funniest things I’ve seen since becoming a mother!).
Back to 2/22/22…maybe my kid’s school will come through and provide some fun event for the kiddos to mark this occasion? This afternoon I plan to take them to the library and make mini-pizzas with them for supper so hopefully that is enough engagement to counteract any damage to their psyche of my blowing past this whimsical (once in a lifetime event).
Ha ha… I’m pretty sure your kids will survive missing out on fun 2/22/22 activities (although I’ll bet they’ll do something with it in school.) April Fools Day is one that I don’t get into much- and I don’t know why. The frozen cereal trick would have been HILARIOUS when my kids were that age. I’ll have to think about it this year and see if I can come up with something.
Yes, the days are long but the years are short- I think it’s one of the biggest truths of parenting.
So I have two stepsons. Two cats. We have two cars. Two phones.
I am at NYS bar exam for two days this week (including two day.)
That’s all I got.
That’s a lot of twos! I was thinking that a lot of things really do come in pairs.
I really admire people who do things for minor holidays. I can barely make space in my brain for major ones.
We’re in the midst of an ice storm, so basically 2/22/22 has turned into a bit of stay-home holiday for us since it’s scary outside!
I guess, once again it’s hard to make a big deal out of a holiday that falls on a Tuesday (just like Valentine’s Day was on Monday this year.)
I’m glad you were able to stay inside yesterday! It’s gotten pretty hot here (80s by the afternoon) but I’ll take that over an ice storm.
I like the concept of the special holidays, even if we don’t quite have the bandwidth to take on some kind of celebration.
I am so torn because on the one hand I am DYING to see what the boys will do when they grow up and to get to know them as adults. But I also miss the little kids that I used to live with.
I guess we just have to appreciate each phase while we’re in it- easier said than done!
I usually am pretty “into” unique days like this Twos-Day…but this one was WAY off my radar until midday today. Don’t forget, I get a little “too into” my Pi Day birthday, LOL I have to agree with you about this phase of our kids’ adulthoods being tough. It’s exciting, but also quite “real” in that all the childhood stuff is but memories. Sigh…and our oldest daughter just sold her second house (OOOH, there’s something for Twos-Day!).
Yes, you have a “two for twosday” celebration right there. It’s funny, I’ve heard of some people going all-out for twos-day but most people didn’t get too excited about it.
You must be a fun mum, Jenny!
My dad was quite good with inventing adventurous games for us as kids, but my mum was less so.
Being 13 is tough – I was all about fitting in as well.
I did want to stay up until 22.22h yesterday and take a screenshot of the clock, but I fell asleep before that!
Ha, yes we couldn’t do that since we don’t go by the 24 hour clock. At 22.22 our clock would have said 10:22.
And… yes, I was REALLY difficult when I was 13. I guess it isn’t a great age for anyone.
That’s really interesting, about your daughter. I have never heard of that before.
My friend had her birthday yesterday, so she was pretty excited for Twos-Day.
Ha… I would be excited if my birthday were on a fun date too.
My husband celebrated his birthday yesterday on 2/22/22. It was also National Margarita Day. I couldn’t think of anything clever to post about Twosday (it wasn’t until yesterday morning that I heard it referred to that on the radio) so that part of the day went by without any acknowledgment. I did; however, spend the afternoon making my husband’s favorite dinner – his Italian grandmother’s beef braciola recipe. And I may have thrown in a margarita for good measure! 😉
Oh, I was hoping you would say you each had two margaritas!
My heart literally sank for a second when I read this quote in your post: “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.” My oldest is 13 1/2 and I am literally feeling some legit PANIC at how little time is left with him at home. He’s in 7th grade, but this year is flying by, so soon it will be 8th. And then we’re looking at a mere FIVE years until graduation. It is just insane. I was hoping the rest of your sentence would go something like, “I remember when my son was nine, thinking “it’s halfway over!” and then, crazily, time just completely stood still for another 20 years, and passed veeeeery slowly, until finally, when we were all completely ready, he graduated.” haha!! No??? I’m going to have to follow you along and see how exactly to handle all of this upcoming stuff, because I don’t feel anywhere near ready to have a high schooler. Or a son in college! Heck, I feel like I just graduated college!!! (I didn’t- it was a pretty long time ago now, but I swear sometimes it feels like it was pretty recent.)
Ha ha… I like your re-write of that sentence. No, I’m sorry to say it flew by. BUT! I will say this- the older he got, the more critical he became of us- like if we gave any tiny piece of advice he would argue against it, or he would ask us why we didn’t make the house nicer, or why I cooked a meal a certain way… in other words, he was kind of a pain! Overall we still got along well (but he really butted heads with my husband.) Someone with older kids told me that was him getting himself ready to be independent, while simultaneously getting us ready for him to be gone. So while it was so hard to see him go, it was also obvious that it was time… and that helped a little.
I have 2 children and each of them has 2 sons; 2 cats at home (the others are in the garden); 2 cars and … 2 pair of running shoes!
Our children (son 42 y.o. and daughter 37 y.o.) have grown too fast and, because of our jobs, we couldn’t spend all the time we wanted with them but now I am retired and I enjoy my grandsons full time! My wife will retire next year.
However we are lucky because we live in the same city.
You are VERY lucky! I fear my kids will carry out their threats to not live in Florida when they’re grown… I might have to move to be near my grandchildren!
Oh man, I’m feeling this one with you. Each time my daughter comes home from college (which is often!) she seems to remove more things out of her room here. It gets emptier each time, which is so heart breaking when I think about it. So I try not to think about it! It is great to have my daughter so close during college. I’m pretty sure my son will be attending college somewhere out of town, and maybe out of state. He tells me he’s going to go wherever he gets a full ride 🙂 I’m all for that plan. Especially if it’s somewhere cool like Colorado or Vancouver!
Ha ha, that’s a good plan and is actually how my son ended up at Baylor! I’m always envious about how much you see your daughter- but it’s hard no matter what. Sigh!!!
I don’t have kids but I’m seeing how quickly time passes with my nephews. My older nephew is 13 and it’s so crazy to see him as a teenager. Wasn’t he just a little baby???
I didn’t do anything special for 2/22/22 – I completely forgot about the day, oops!
Yes, my daughter is 13 and I feel the same way! And, somehow I can come up with fun things for every other day, but couldn’t think of anything for “Twos-day.” Oh well!