The Face of Confidence

Okay, I will admit that I am a very inconsistent blogger. Raising a toddler is consuming all my resources. (Yes, that means a tiny, 16 pound, one year old is whipping my rear-end and I am too exhausted at the end of each day to think of how to type, much less what to type.) But before you nay-sayers say, “I told you so,” hush, I love this little tyke immensely and am totally content.) It is hard to blog, though, since she is insanely jealous of my laptop and whines to get in my lap if I even look at it. And there are so many other things that keep us busy each day. There are lunches with friends, trips to the vet, trips out of town, shopping to be done, playing at the park, stomach viruses (nasty), and all those day to day things that aren’t getting done, either. And then before you know it, looming on the horizon is my inevitable return to work. I have to make the most of my time off work doing bonding activities and fun stuff.

I’m having a little trouble with the concept of work and my new status as mommy to a toddler. Not that I have a choice about returning to work, since my income is half of the family’s support and that toddler has to eat. But I sure will miss our leisurely mornings of bottles and coffee, daytime excursions, and rocking her to sleep for her afternoon naps. I know that weekends at the end of a workweek will be full of errands and chores that will rob of us of our one on one time. Basically, I’m not ready to leave her yet.

The important question is whether she is ready for me to leave her. As the experts advise, we’ve worked on meeting her needs immediately so that she can feel secure. I’ve guided her gently and slowly through accepting her new world. She has made great strides in the short time she has been home. Just look at her face; it is a face that shows confidence. Confidence that her smallest whimper will bring us running, that the hugs and kisses will keep coming, and that all the ice cream belongs to her. She now holds up her arms for her Daddy to pick her up and will snuggle her little body next to his for comfort. She chants, “Da Da, Da Dee,” when he gets home from work. Big change from not wanting him to touch her. She has climbed into her big sister’s lap of her own accord and no longer cries when sister tries to hold her. She’s warming up to her niece, Hopers, and calls her, “Op.” She still follows me from room to room but doesn’t panic when I leave her to put away laundry. Today she stayed in the nursery at church. I was apprehensive and kept waiting to be summoned to comfort a sobbing child but they said she played the entire time. Huh. She could have at least looked sad for a minute but I guess this is testimony to her feeling secure. She was happy to see me when the service was over and I was happy to see her! I think she is going to do just fine; I don’t know about me.

Doc T Delivers Another Nephew for Tabitha

Sorry about the dearth of posts but I have a toddler now which means I am lucky to put together a complete sentence verbally, much less write it down. Those of you with toddlers know that the law of physics for toddlerhood is: For every action completed by an adult there is an extremely unequal and opposite reaction completed by the toddler. For example, you, the adult, see a cheerio on the floor that must have fallen there sometime in the last week and you, being the tidy person that you are, deposit it in the trash. This action means that sometime in the next 10 minutes your toddler will dump an entire box of cheerios on the floor (or eggs, or laundry detergent, or flour, or anything else that you absent mindedly put down as you rushed to get your toddler out of the trash that she has just removed from the can).

The big news this month is: Doc T delivers and baby Nicky made his debut, weighing in at 8 pounds and 10 ounces, 21 inches long. Big brother Natey, by all accounts, was not as thrilled as the rest of the family, telling them to not talk about the baby anymore. But hey, from a two-year-old’s point of view, a newborn is pretty under- whelming. Except when baby brother cried, Natey lamented that he couldn’t understand what the baby was saying. We don’t know either, Nate, but I can guess from my experience with boys, that he’s saying, “More food!” So, Tabitha, I have another grandson and you have another nephew. I hope that doesn’t make you feel too old. Of course, she doesn’t know enough English to fully express what it must feel like as those nieces and nephews keep coming. Wasn’t it just yesterday her sisters were babies?

She is adding to her vocabulary with rapid pace, however. She can say, “hush” to the dogs, “up” to be picked up, “bye” and “shoes” for the obvious, along with “Mama” and “Daddy” and some things I’m not sure about. I’ve heard her say, “diaper,” “bottle,” and “baby.“ She understands what we say to her as much as any typical 19 month old would. She is also learning other many useful skills like how to recycle. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know what to recycle, so you never know what you might find in the recycling bin (like her shoes).

Tabitha has finally begun to allow her daddy to pick her up and to hold her. Not only does she allow it--she demands it when he has a bowl of ice cream. I think he knows now to dip two bowls of ice cream if he expects to eat any.

She’s also making great strides in getting comfortable with the dogs. She helped me bathe one of the weenies and later felt of his soft ears and bopped him on the head with her toy. He might not have appreciated the progress but he does love kids and will tolerate tough love from them.