As a mother, I take pride in watching the girls learn new things and later be proud of themselves when they’ve used that new skill.
Peanut is doing new things everyday! She never ceases to amaze me at what little things she’s done. Just yesterday I had to giggle when she very happily sang along to the song “Witch Doctor”. Oh my. The little “ooo eee ooo ah ah” was adorable!
I can’t even begin to list all the words and phrases she knows now. Her vocabulary grows everyday. The physical things she is doing is fun too. She’s running, jumping and skipping (not the kind with the rope…let’s not be too overzealous). She plays leap frog with her sister. Oh, and she can climb in and out of her bed.
But she still needs me. And she’ll tell me that too…especially at 2:30am. I’ll hear “Mommy! I need you! Come here!” from her room down the hall.
Munchkin is needing me less. She does everything by herself. Unless she’s feeling needy and then, magically, she can’t do anything and she wants me to do it all.
I can see her confidence in herself is growing. School had a lot to do with that. She gets on the bus and rides away every morning. She gets to be her own person. (Tho I will have to post about peer pressure…who knew that that started in JK?!?).
Tuesday was interesting. It was her first swimming lesson with out me. In the car on the way there she was excited and ready to go. I couldn’t drive fast enough. We went in and she got changed. Tears started to well up in her eyes, “Mommy, why aren’t you getting your suit on?” I explained again that she got to go by herself and have all the fun without me this time. More tears and sobs.
The crying gradually stopped as she watched the kids in the class before her. The other kids left and the new instructor called out the kids names. I held her hand and walked to the teacher. We proceeded to sit down on the bench. She got in the water with her class very cautiously. The instructor was getting them to put different body parts in the water but she kept looking over at us. BIGDADDY left first and headed over to the parent chairs on the other side. Peanut and I watched for a few more minutes. When Munchkin was settled, I headed over to the chairs too.
Munchkin spent the next 20 minutes having the time of her life. She did everything so well and couldn’t have cared less if we were there or not. It was great!
Part of me was sad that my little girl didn’t need me. Part of me was really proud that she’s confident enough to not need me.
I know that as she grows older, she’s going to need me for different reasons, I hope she knows that to matter how far away we might be from eacht other, I’ll always be there for her.
I’m so proud of you Munchkin!
