She speaks in sentences now

You can't see the forest for the trees.

Someone used to say that to me all the time (a teacher? can't remember, I'm only 33 and I have the memory of an 80 yr old)... because I'm a "detail-oriented person". It also means that I get easily caught up in the details of anything, and find it harder to see the "big picture".

That big picture these days is Maddie, becoming less and less a little baby and more and more a little kidlet.

I worry about whether she's had enough milk that particular day. Or if it's a bad thing that her poop is green (GREEN?!!). And whether a 3rd round of Elmo is really going to give her lasting brain-damage.

But it takes a visit from family, who haven't seen in her in over a month, to realize that um... she's speaking in full sentences now.

6 months ago I was worried she wasn't talking enough. That the words she used were great, but a bit repetitive (everything was "dat!"), and would the Average Joe actually understand her? You know - detailed stuff.

Now, she's not even 2 years old and she's practically giving dissertations on The Unbearable Lightness of Being. OR telling us, "Maddie go Mommy's car-car now." You know - po-tay-to, po-tah-to...

So yes, it was lovely to have it pointed out (by the always unbiased Grandparents) that our Miss M is a pure, unadulterated genius child.

But at the same time, disconcerting, because.... really? Am I that busy and distracted? How can I not notice that she has passed one of those great "developmental milestones" and is now speaking and conversing like a small little human being?

Is it a working mother thing? Bad mother thing? Normal mother thing?

Regardless, it motivated me to step back, and try to see that forest. Because, as she so eloquently put it this morning, "Maddie no baby Mommy! Maddie big girl."

Holy shit sugar pop. I guess you are.

xxoo.S

PS - I may be proud, but I don't have to like it. How can a 22 month old not be a baby anymore? Isn't the whole point that you're still COUNTING THEIR AGE IN MONTHS? Isn't that the litmus test of whether or not they are still, indeed, a baby? Dammit. I've become a cliché...