Three days before Christmas Astrid turned two and a half.  Two and a half doesn’t sound so young but that is only 30 months…….. when you count it in months it really does go by so quickly! Everyone knows how quickly they grow in their first year. The changes from squishy newborn, to chubby, chatty one year old are amazing.  I didn’t realise how much they grow up in the second and third years too.  If it weren’t for the photographic evidence I would struggle to believe (or remember) how much she has changed.

I think my favourite ‘parenting’ saying is ‘the days are long but the years are short’.  That saying has gotten me through more than a few very long days!  Anyone with small children knows how long a day can feel when are just hanging out for bedtime to roll around.  It’s worse when they are tiny babies and there isn’t really a bedtime and you are feeding around the clock. At least as they get older you can (sometimes) count on a couple of hours peace at night before you climb into bed yourself. Even if there is no guarantee you’ll get to stay there.  Lately, with a very emotional and tantrumy 2.5 year old and a newborn some days (and nights) have felt damn long.  But the years have flown by.  How can they change so much day to day, and month to month without us realising it?

Since I didn’t do a 2.5 year update post for Astrid I decided I should do something fun and post a timeline of pictures of her from 2013.  At the start of the year she was just 18 months and seeming very much the toddler, but looking like a baby still. By the end of the year, at 2.5, she is well and truly in full toddler (meltdown) mode but turning into a little girl before our very eyes.

In choosing these photos I went through and picked the first (half decent) photo of Astrid from each month. Look at how she grew!