Slices of Life

Every once in a while, I have a candid little moment with G that I’m not able to capture on my camera.  She’s at such a fun age and is busy, busy, busy.  I want to freeze frame this time, but mostly I want to remember.  So, I’m writing here to remember – Lord knows I’m woefully behind on anything resembling a scrapbook.

The changing table in her classroom is front & center in the room – basically the perfect vantage point to look out upon all the other babies.  So, as a well documented waver, she relishes in the opportunity to stand on this table and wave at her subjects classmates.  She loves her little friends and it makes me so happy to know how much she loves her school.

You know you have a toddler when: freshly swept floors stay clean for .02 seconds.  I had swept the kitchen floor the other night and then I heard something rustling.  Somehow, she had gotten ahold of a puffs container and was gleefully shaking them all. over. the. place.  And then picking them up and eating them off the floor…at least it was clean?

She’s been an old pro at blowing kisses for quite some time, but only recently has been given actual kisses.

But only to J.  She gives him the sweetest kisses on the cheek and, well, color me green with envy.

Then on Tuesday she brought me a book to read and crawled up on my lap and as I opened the book I said “G can I have a kiss?” SMOOCH.  I nearly died.  It was the sweetest ever.

She is really starting to put 2 & 2 together.  I mean, not mathematically.  But it seems like in the last week or so everything is clicking for her.  I can tell her to pick up something she got out and she does it.  She tries to put on her socks and shoes.  She took the nail clippers and held them to her fingers.  We’ve had to give her ear drops lately and she’ll pick that bottle up and hold it up to her ears. Essentially – monkey see, monkey do.  She is seeing and mimicking everything and I am loving watching her learn.

I bought her one of those big beach ball type balls that they keep in giant cages at the grocery store last week and she LOVES IT.  Carries it everywhere even though it’s about as big as her.  “Ba ba ba ba” is about all we hear around our house.  She bounces it and throws it and it’s probably soon that something will break but I’m just going with it for now because she has so much fun with it.

She has dance moves that leave me in stitches.  She pops and locks, you guys.  Just, it’s like she’s doing a very bad version of the robot.  She inherited my rhythm, poor child.  But oh man – she loves to boogie.  She wiggles and grooves any time she hears any music.  I cannot wait to get this girl in a dance class.

She is at that age where she is undecided at any given moment on whether to obey us, or do whatever she darn well pleases.  And every once in a while those feelings collide.  This happened the other day as I was trying to get her to follow me back out of the bathroom (no mother pees alone) and she wanted to hang out in there to gaze upon her bath toys.  She ended up walking in circles – not back and forth – circles. Like she was chasing her tail. I’d say “G, come here please, let’s go play!” and she’d turn to me. And then as if the tub had a magnetic pull she’d turn back to it.  Round and round she went until I finally just picked her up and rescued her from her self-inflicted merry-go-round.

She loves her puppy, Bop, and all of her other little stuffed animals.  At any given moment when she picks one up you can say “G, hug your baby/puppy/bear” and she will beam and give the doll the sweetest hug.  She also gives me the greatest hugs when we’re getting ready to get in the car after I pick her up from school – it’s become our ritual.  I open the car door and she wraps her arms around my neck and rests her head on my shoulder and gives me the sweetest squeeze. I’m sure it’s a stall tactic but I cannot even make myself care.  I hope that she never stops hugging me at the end of the day.

G at 16 months is smart and fun and spirited and funny and determined and so much more than I could have ever pictured. I’m endlessly fortunate to be her momma.

Posted by Kelly & filed under Motherhood. This post has 2 comments.