The Amazing in the Everyday

My mind and reality haven't been jiving for several months with regard to Ms. D. In my mind she is still a 12-month-old, still not 20 pounds and just learning to walk.

Somewhere along the way she's become a real toddler, not only walking with confidence, but running to get to those important toddler destinations: the couch, the plastic food container drawer, the stairs when someone leaves the gate open. At nearly 19 months old she's still only 23 pounds but she's starting to outgrow her 18-month sized pants-not in the waist, but in the legs.

She said nearly nothing for months until yesterday we were looking at the ornaments on the tree and playing with the blocks for her Incrediblock. I put the block with the cow on top of the big block. Cow! the block declared. D smiled, clearly delighted with this game. I pointed out the cow ornament on the tree. We made mooing sounds together.

I found another block that had a horse in it. Horse! Horsie! I exclaimed and neighed for D's benefit. She broke into a wide grin and toddled away, leaving me confused why she left the game that she was enjoying so much.

Then I saw what she was doing. She strode confidently on those legs that used to be so wobbly straight to her wooden rocking horse. Ha! She informed me. Of course it is! Another horse!

She made connection after connection finding another thing just like an ornament or like the things in her blocks, amazing me with her ingenuity.

This wasn't the first time she'd amazed me this week or even this month. She's soaking in information, processing it, mulling things over just waiting for the right moment to demonstrate her abilities.

That same Incrediblock played a wordless rendition of The Wheels on the Bus, which prompted D to wave at me and say bye bye. It took me only a moment to realize why. At the end of her toddler class (ECFE) we sing "the hands in our class all wave goodbye, wave goodbye, wave goodbye..." to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. She's soaking it all in.

At that toddler class Monday, she tooted a couple of times and I thought she needed her diaper changed. I checked it and it was clean but D then took my hand and led me to the bathroom and pointed to the toilet. Joy to the World! Could I possibly have a child that will WANT to use the potty without driving me insane? I took her diaper off and got her on the potty but she immediately wanted down. I am hopeful though. One child who is easily trained would be wonderful.

Last weekend Craig was priming the walls in our master bedroom addition and took a break to turn on the bubble machine and watch the kids play and pop the bubbles. He was wearing his paint-splattered jeans and D took one look at him and headed to the kitchen. She returned to the living room momentarily, carrying a dish towel. She marched right over to her daddy and tried to clean the paint off of his jeans for him. Clearly she thought he'd spilled on himself and she was going to help him clean up his mess. The best part of that is that I was using the video camera to record the bubble action at the time so I have it on video.

All of my children have such beautiful hearts.