Things that Freak Me Out

As Annie grows and becomes more of a person (as opposed to a baby) I am discovering there are things that sort of freak me out about that.  Having a child who is old enough and developed enough to be considered a toddler is kind of blowing my mind.  As ill-prepared as I felt to feed and change a newborn and as overwhelmed as I felt by the concept of swaddling (seriously, how do nurses do it so fast and perfectly?) and bathing a baby, there’s a whole different level of freaked-out-ness that comes from having a walking, talking KID in your house.  Here are just a few of the things that freak me out about having a toddler (and you will notice, fear of her doing anything actually related to walking don’t even make the list).

I don't recall giving my o.k. to this whole growing up business.

Talking – To this point, Annie’s vocabulary is still pretty limited.  She says “dada,” “mama” (with, of course, much less regularity), “bye bye,” “na na” (for banana) and various other repeated syllables, the newest of which is “la la.”  But as for actual words, she still isn’t saying many.  As I’ve mentioned before, she utters syllables that sound to this mama an awful lot like “Jackson” and “thank you,” and has “uh oh” completely mastered.  And recently she has started speaking French, mumbling “D’accord” (French for “okay”) as she motors down the hallway.  But where are the other words going to come from?  Am I supposed to be teaching her words?  I try to sit down with her flash cards or the giant books of “Baby’s First 100 Words” that she was given for her birthday, but her attention span is good for about five words and pictures before she is reaching for something more interesting to her.  She doesn’t watch television yet and won’t sit still for many books, so what does all this mean for her language development?  We talk to her and sing to her CONSTANTLY (so much so that her first sentence will probably be, “Enough with the songs already!”), so I hope that means we are doing our part.  But are we?

Someone really likes her own reflection these days.

Eating - When Annie's diet was exclusively liquid, I had a good handle on how much she was eating. She had five bottles of roughly the same amount of formula per day and I could pretty much rest assured that she was full.  Now, she won't even eat baby food and insists on eating "big people food" instead.  She drinks whole milk and water and does pretty well with all of that...or at least I think she does.  We will eat dinner and it will appear that she is eating a good amount of the chicken or sweet potato or whatever else I put on her high chair tray.  She will throw a few bites to the dog every now and then, but it appears that a lot of it goes in her mouth.  But then I lift her from her high chair when dinner is over and enough food drops off of her lap or rests in the chair itself to feed her all over again.  Let's just say I feel less than sure that she is getting three balanced meals per day.  Can a kid make it on Yogurt Melts alone?

Annie's Tricks - Okay, so where do kids pick up the things they pick up?  How does she know how to give a kiss?  Who taught her where her nose is?  Why does she feel that she must close the door to her Cozy Coupe every time she gets in it?  How does she know that's just what you do with a car door - plastic or not? I know she learns this stuff from watching us - and the others around her - but it is crazy how much she secretly knows how to do!  She's like a little sponge...and that's just wacky.   And causes me the tiniest bit of anxiety.  It's great that she's picking up cute and useful tricks, but how long will it be before I catch her in the pantry with a tub of frosting because she saw me do it?  (Not that I would ever do that...that's just a for instance).

A nice look, isn't it?

That's just a start to the list.  I'm sure I will check back in later with many more reasons toddlerhood feels a little like a map-less journey.  But for all the uncharted territory that I know is ahead, this age is so much fun.