Two is pajama-on mornings
When you whisper 
From your favourite library nook
“Daddy, read book”
And in the quiet of the sleeping sun
We hear every story being flung 
Across your bedroom floor

Now an ocean of wonder
We dive into your world
With the great heffalumps 
Who ride unicorn tales
Alongside the tiniest snails
Who sit on thrones
Watching dinosaurs roam
As our imaginations unfold

We draw these stories onto our hearts
The half-broken crayons 
Help tear our apprehensions
And inhibitions apart

We colour your art book 
With lines that leave pages
So we will remember
Always recall
That when the adventures run out
When our worlds become small 
It was in these pajama-on mornings
That you and us
We had it all

Two is a bustling change table  
More nappies than nights
One, two, three, five 
We change them all 
With half-asleep delight
You’re all tummy and toes
When you wake from your sleep
When we kiss
Your puffed-up, slept-in cheeks
You command us to take your hands
Desperate for us
To understand 
That we must play more games 

And while the rules of play 
May change from day to day
Your eyes always stay the same
Two black spheres of forever
Bright like the sun
Looking at us
As if we were the Ones
The original Creators of fun

Here’s where time vanishes
Into your creases 
Where space is lost
Inside your curls
Here’s where each bottom wipe
Causes heaven’s secrets to unfurl

And when you say
“Funny mummy”
We say, who knew
That changing you
That wiping away your wees and your poos
Would part the clouds 
And return us to ourselves 

Two is a sticky, mucky breaky
All gluggy and yucky
More strawberries and kiwi
Some bananas?
“Yes please!”
You chew and we chat
Of this and of that
Both of us enamoured  
By the words that pour
Proud and fast
From your Weetbix-stained jaws

And then, after breaky
The pajamas come off
Eventually, they must come off
And make way for clothes
For shoes covering toes
For feet that walk 
Firm and sound on the ground
To the car
To the day
Towards the man 
Who we hope 
Will someday say

When I was two
Mummy and daddy 
Read book after book after book
In my favourite library nook
They met me in my world
Where I never felt rushed or reserved 
All my far-away stories
Would thrive in the glory 
Of an uninhibited mind

Mum and dad
They never left me behind
To draw circles and lines 
On my own
Instead
They drew fantastical creatures
With lifelike features
So the pages looked boundless 
And the floor felt groundless
On those pajama-on mornings 

When I was two
Their touch 
Was cotton wool for the soul
Every tickle, cuddle and body roll
On that change table
Grew a man who now stands tall
With solid skin
That’s managed to stay elastic 
And celebrates being lived in
I’m sure I filled those nappies
To get kisses from mummy and daddy
To watch in their eyes
How our love would collide
Every time I did a poo

Pajama-on mornings
Were puzzle mania and play
An expansion of space, time, and suns
A daily lightning bolt of fun
That can never be undone
In the man I’ve become 

It’s where poetry began
To write in me
And in my memory
Of those mornings
Of the days that have spun into an age
I’ll be forever two

I’m a man for a meandering breaky
Meals should never be rushed
Conversations will never be hushed
Because of you
Mum and dad 
Who were always glad 
To top up my bowl
Even though their days
Were unravelling in places to be
They stood still for me
So I could savour my fruit
And damn, breaky never tasted so good
As it did on pajama-on mornings

But the bib came off
And I no longer needed a cloth
To wipe the mess away

And to this day
I’ll never agree when they say 
That we don’t remember
That we cannot recall 
Our two-year-old selves
Their memories too small 
Because I can remember
And I can recall
Our pajama-on mornings
When you two
Gave me your all