17 Months! Really?!

This was scheduled to be posted yesterday, but Blogger didn't do it.  STUPID technology!

Warning: cliche mom-like saying is about to be typed/read/said once again.  Squish your eyes closed and block your ears if you have to!

Time flies by.  I mean it really zooms on in the blink of an eye.  One second you have a newborn and the next you have an almost 1 1/2 year old "kid".  I never really noticed the passing of time before I had a little one.  My sweet baby is 17 months old today and I don't see the baby in her anymore.  My fellow moms out there will understand what I mean.  It makes me a little sad in a bittersweet sort of way.  I look at M now and I see a little person, not a chubby roly poly baby.  She's becoming more independent by the second and I have to steal my hugs and kisses before she runs off on her next adventure.

This girl has two speeds.  Stop and run.  She never walks anymore and the stop mode only happens when she's eating or sleeping.  Every day I'm amazed by her.  M is kind, gentle yet rough, loving, easy-going, determined, smart, and stubborn. (Hmm, I wonder where she gets that from?!  Dare I say, moi? Nah!)  Her best friend is our dog, Tomas, and her cousins (except her cousin, J- they fight constantly and my poor mother-in-law has to keep the two of them apart all day while they are in her daycare.  I bet they'll be best friends and he'll protect her when he's older, though!  J, you have my permission to drag her out of the club and scare any potential boyfriends off!).  M LOVES Barney and I often wonder if she thinks her stuffed Barney will come to life like the one on the television.  She dances.  All the time and everywhere.  If she doesn't like the song, she'll wait for the next one and dance to it.  My father-in-law writes and plays music on his Spanish guitar and M loves to watch and listen and dance with him.  It melts my heart and I'm sure his, too.  She is his only girl afterall. 

The girl also speaks both English and Spanish and understands it both which I find absolutely fascinating considering after two semesters of Spanish I barely know the basics and am still a little embarassed to try to speak what I know in front of my fluent in-laws.  You know, with my "American" accent and all... :)  She speaks too many words to count and can even do phrases like "I did it!", "I want that.", "Uh-oh, Mami" (never good to hear this one over the baby monitor), and "I peepee/caca". We retired her highchair and she now sits in a booster seat at the kitchen table with us.  She drinks from a cup and hates sippy cups now (we retired bottles at 14 months).  M also has her first potty, but she doesn't seem interested in it yet.  She likes to put things in my purse and the trash.  There was a vacuum cleaner attachment in my purse yesterday and I regularly find her toys and Tomas's ball in our kitchen trash.  M unrolls toilet paper and uses it to wipe her face or "blow" her nose.  And at long last she's discovered the toilet and how things disappear into that never ending abyss when you flush it.  How fascinating it must be for a little person to discover such things!

Everyday, I make sure I hold her close and tell her I love her and that she's special even as she's trying to wriggle out of my arms.  When she does let me hold her, oh how intoxicating her hugs and kisses are.  There is nothing like chubby toddler hands clenching you close in a tight squeeze.  I cherish the two nursing sessions we still have each day as I never know which one will be our last.  I remember rolling my eyes when my own mother used to (and still does) tell me I'll always be her baby.  Thanks, Mom, I get it now.  M, you will ALWAYS be my baby even as I watch you spread your wings and fly away.  Just please don't leave our little nest too soon.