Waddling into the toddler years

It was bound to happen.

Darling daughter is officially walking. Friday was a turning point in this new and exciting milestone of hers. Although she was waddling around for most of the day on Friday, she really started to grasp the concept of walking. And all it took was a friend's living room and two dogs to jump start her walking abilities.

After getting the tire fixed on Friday afternoon, we hit the highway and drove out of town for a wedding of two close family friends. We spent most of the evening hanging out at the groom's parent's house. Since it was a beehive of activity outside, darling daughter and I sat inside the house, trying to out from under other people's feet. It was a perfect opportunity for darling daughter to practice her walking. Instead of using a remote control to entice her, a device we usually use to get her interested in walking, a little dog was all she needed to get walking.

She would toddle to dog, back to me, back to the dog, out to the back room, back to the dog, to the pickle and olive jars sitting on a box on the floor (she must have been fascinated by the lids) and back to the dog. When the groom's and bride's dog, a beagle, was let into the house, darling daughter had a heyday, walking between the two dogs. Having enough of a toddling, shrieking baby, the poor beagle slunk upstairs for some peace and quiet.

I don't consider a toddler as she seems so young. Borrowing a word used by my parenting guru, K, darling daughter is a waddler. Regardless of word I use, my baby is leaving babyhood and waddling into toddlerhood. Time will only tell if I am ready for the toddler years.

Baby steps

One of the joys of being a parent is watching your child master a skill. Although your heart swells with joy, you find yourself dealing with bittersweet emotions as it suddenly occurs to you that your child is growing up. This week’s milestone is waving. Darling daughter waves at breakfast, at naptime and at her Cabbage Patch Kids. Yep, she is a little waving machine these days.

It isn’t a huge milestone, but it is so cute to watch as she waves hello and goodbye to dear husband. And although I always thought that I would be one of those parents who wouldn’t obsess over milestones (other than sitting up), I am finding that I am obsessing when darling daughter will start walking. She is cruising along the furniture and I know once she becomes fully mobile I’ll be wishing that she was still at the crawling stage. These days I find myself reminiscing of the days where I could put darling daughter on the floor and she wouldn‘t move an inch as she didn‘t know how to roll over. Diaper changes were a dream in those days as there was no wiggly baby to wrestle with. Those days are long gone. Now I’ve got to strap her down with the safety belt attached to her change pad in hopes it will deter her from rolling over.

I think the reason I’m obsessing is that all little darling daughter’s friends are on the cusp of the walking stage. If they aren’t fully walking, they are taking steps. The look so grown up as they cruise about with no help from their mommas. But the question is, why am I so obsessed in seeing darling daughter grow up so quickly? In a couple of weeks she’ll turn one. It has been an exciting year that has come and gone in a blink of an eye. It has gone so fast that sometimes when I think hard about all the changes that have taken place over the last year, I’ll want to cry.

So what if she isn’t walking? I tell myself. She’ll walk in due time and when she does decide to, she’ll be getting into everything. Right now she is a handful, so maybe it is best I tone down the obsession, for now.