I'm always a little slow on realizations. A couple of weeks ago, I just realized that one of my good friends won't be just stopping by my house anymore. Yeah, she moved nine months ago. Hell, I didn't realize I was in labor and having a baby until the little bundle was sitting in my arms. And even then, it seemed too surreal. Well, that little bundle of love & screams is now 15 months old. And she isn't a baby anymore.
Yes, that is my realization. She isn't a baby anymore. She is proving the fact more and more every day. While I am truly excited about the next stage that we are entering into, I am also very nostalgic for a little over a year ago. There are no more need for sleepers during the day, breastfeeding sessions, baby-wearing. Hell, there really isn't anymore daily snuggling & rocking for naps (except on the weekends). But as they say, one new beginning is some other beginnings end. And we are beginning a wonderful new stage in which she amazes me everyday.
Her little brain is working overtime to figure this crazy world around her out. And teaching her something and seeing her learn has to be one of the most amazing things any mother ever gets to experience. I do realize that she has been learning a vast amount of information over the past 15 months. But now the learning is occurring so quickly and you can see the results within minutes. And as the proud mama and writer of this blog, here is a little horn-tooting for my little girl:
- Sister loves books and knows the word for books. If E & I are sitting in our bedroom and we ask her if she wants to read a book, she will walk into her room, pick up a book and bring it back to us in our bedroom.
- In one 20 minute session, I almost got her to say a new word "bird". I say almost because she said it once and unprompted. But I can't certify that she would say it again if she saw a bird. We sat on our patio and watched the birds at the bird feeder and each time a bird would land on the feeder, I would point and say "bird". By the end, she was pointing when the birds landed and I would say "bird". Then when Daddy got home, she pointed to the bird feeder and said "bird" (okay I think she probably said "birr", but it's a syllable that she doesn't normally say, so it totally counts).
- She also now recognizes animals in books that we haven't read before with and can point them out throughout the book. We have a ton of old library books from a book sale that we have never read. As we opened the "Go, Go Gorilla" book, I saw there was a mouse in the story. We have a book that we read ALL the time during bedtime about the rhyme "Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?" She can point out the mouse in that story. So I asked her if she could find the mouse on that page before I showed it to her. I didn't think that she would find it as this mouse had a yellow helmet on. But she found it on her own! She didn't find the mouse on each page, but on the low-chaos pages, she found that darn mouse immediately!
- She also has a large grasp on most of what you talk to her about. She understands a lot of what I say to her, although most times she doesn't agree with what I'm saying. She does know what the word "no" means, although a lot of times she doesn't want to listen right away.
She is growing so quickly. I'm sure in two years, I'm going to be typing about how I can't believe that she is a little kid and not a toddler. I have been unable to relinquish the title of baby. I think it's time. I think that it's finally time to begin to embrace these toddler-years. These will be gone in the blink of an eye as well, I'm sure.
I also have to throw in a color photo at the end. The photo is quintessential "Morning Finorah". But her eyes are such a stunning blue in the photo that when I turned it black & white -- it didn't seem to work (although all the others did). So I'm posting a single color photo unprocessed and straight out of the camera. The eyes say it all....
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