ToddlerTrail.com

Our camera has been missing in action for a couple of weeks now.  I genuinely have no idea what happened to it.  What’s odd about the loss is that the camera bag sits empty on my desk.  We never take the camera out without the bag to protect it, as a certain little someone is prone to wanting to carry it for us.  So, it must be in the house, but still – I can’t find it.  I’m surprised by how much I miss being able to take photographs of my little gal.  That silly camera has brought me so much happiness.

While I talking to the husband about it, Buttercup went to her room and was rummaging through her toy box, and I could hear the toys flying around.  Buttercup came in with her little pink camera held high, and she said in her sweetest voice, “Mommy, you can use my camera.”  It’s a nice camera for someone her age, a Vtech Kidizoom Digital Camera, and she’s gotten so much use out of it and been rather possessive of it in the past.  In this time of life with her where sharing and taking turns has become the biggest test, I was so moved by her generous act.

It’s times like that where the tug of war over a doll at a play-date or the stomping of a foot over impatience slip into the background and this bighearted and thoughtful character shines through.  The terrible twos are such a trip, but there it is – that enormous kindness we’ve been working on cultivating right in the forefront.

For her age, my girl has always been physically advanced as compared to the so-called milestones of childhood.  She’s always been a baby on a mission, and I’ll never ever forget how the first time I held her, a few hours after she’d been born, her little neck was strong.  She couldn’t quite hold it up on her own, but I could feel the strength in it.  I’ve held lots of babies, but she was born with this incredible vitality.

How things have changed - and now, she’s climbing, jumping, running, leaping through the world.  When we were last on the playground, she climbed to the top of the rock-wall on the big kid’s playground.  She’s such a sturdy confident little person.

My brother told me when he was here last; he’d been terrified she was going to fall when she was romping on her slide.  I told him, “She never falls, she never has.”  It’s true, too.  She might take a leap in a direction she shouldn’t, but she’s never been one to fall down, even as a wee little gal.  All her movements are intentional.

It’s because of this that I think raising her has always been what my father would likely call watchful waiting.  She’s always excelled, and I’ve tried to allow her the room to try things out on her own.  While my heart may be pounding in my chest while she’s conquering her latest mountain, I have to stand back and hold myself still to give her that freedom to try the world on for size.  She’s so relentlessly brave, bold, and audacious.  It’s so challenging to temper that without damaging it.  I want her to become that as a woman - that alive and fearless.

Buttercup is what you’d call an active toddler.  Maybe a spirited toddler.  She’s a wide open baby, and there’s no slowing her down.

When she wakes up at the crack of dawn, she’s ready to rumble.  There’s no cuddling her in my bed for half an hour to get an extra snooze in.  Oh, no:  she’s raring to go.  The hardest thing lately has been that she wants Daddy to wake up with her.  She’s insistent that he comes and plays with her in her room.  I can dig it, but he needs sleep.  He doesn’t function well without his solid night’s sleep.

She’s very hard to wear out.  One afternoon, at the park, she was running from play castle to play castle:  she was really moving.  I was chasing her back and forth, over and over again.  Laughing all the way, she kept looking over her shoulder and giggling at me.  She loves to play chase.  Anyway, another older gentleman who was there with his grandson struck up a conversation with me.  It was terribly sweet, and I seem to have more old men in my life than I know what to do with.
“She’s keeping you busy!”  He was all smiles.
“Oh yeah, she keeps me on my toes.”  I ran off chasing Buttercup across the playground again, but we returned shortly to complete her circuit.
“This one keeps me busy, too!”  He pointed to his grandson, who was climbing the monkey bars like a miniature athlete.  After careful study, it appears to be that all children are Olympians.  He went on to say, “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  It means they’re healthy and happy.”

It really is true.  The other week we met a mom who had a baby that had severe birth defects, and the mother was handling it beautifully well, but still:  I can’t imagine.  While Buttercup is enormously exhausting at times, she’s a healthy, happy, beautiful child.  The things that exhaust me are precious blessings.

All the percentiles and milestones for a two-year old are slightly overwhelming.  I keep updated with several books and a lot of email services.  There are so many different categories for these milestones including movement, fine motor skills, language and talking milestones, social development and on and on.  It can keep you jigged up, if you watch it too closely.

Surprisingly, the person who appears to be the most laid back about these toddler percentiles and milestones is our pediatrician.  We’ve been blessed to find a good pediatrician.  For the most part, he’s really supported us in all of our choices as parents.  I always use him as a checkpoint for the parent freak-out that’s always blazing across the news and internet.  He’s calm, knowledgeable, and actually open to hearing our concerns and not just spouting the party line.

So far, Buttercup has met all of her milestones without a problem.  We’re just always keeping a watch on it to keep ourselves informed.  It’s also a really good way to gauge what’s coming next for little Buttercup.  All the same, I try not to allow the raging panic people like to inspire in new mothers to distress me.  These toddler milestones are just the average percentiles, after all.  Unless there’s some gaping wide missing piece in the puzzle that is a little one, I tend to think it’ll all work out.  But, it’s always good to have a pediatrician to check it against.