As the Baby Toddles

As I was catching up on a few of my favorite blogs last night, I came across a thoughtful post by a fellow Triangle Mama about how much she was looking forward to her son becoming a toddler. Of course, at first I scoffed. It had been a pretty whiny, rough day with Linus and I was worn out. However, as I kept reading, I did actually begin to think about all the things I am enjoying about the toddler stage. At the end of her post, there was a link to another post. Clicking over in my blog reader, I was unaware that it was a link to one of my old posts. Even as I read it newly aware of being the author, I could not even recall that day. I sure did sound frustrated and tired, but I really couldn't place it.

Reading my post unable to even recall the frustration or the day, lead me to a new realization about the toddler stage: For all the frustration, exhaustion, and loss of patience raising a toddler causes, it is not those things we recall. Instead, there are so many more memorable toddler moments that we have to remember.

What's great about a toddler? The annoyances are forgettable but the triumphs and lovable moments are oh so memorable.

Here are a few of my latest memorable moments and triumphs of Linus.

• He's very into kissing. He loves kissing his mommy. There are many meals during which I can get up to 4 sets of 3 kisses each. He loves to kiss other people too including his friend Eli (who was not so sure about it), but he loves to kiss me the most.
• He communicates so much although with very few vocalized words. He tells me to play with his hair by taking my hand, touching it to his head, and then signing 'please'. He loves to have his head stroked during his early morning nursing session and I oblige. He raises his arms up high, stands on his tippy toes, and grunts something vaguely similar to 'up' when he needs to be held. He names most every animal we see in books with a nearly perfect sound imitation and waves his hand wildly through the air when he hears an airplane. He'll get words eventually, I know, but right now, he's doing just fine.
• He's definitely very aware of his mommy's preference for having things put away. Before we could leave for storytime today, he insisted on putting all his toy cars into their basket and then slid it into the cabinet. He also helps with the nightly toy pick-up by gathering up toys and stowing them in their baskets.

I know sometimes I complain greatly about the challenges of having a toddler but I whole-heartedly know that even when the difficult moments outnumber the easy ones, they never outweigh them.

(Photo taken by Jennifer Haygood, a fantastic Triangle photographer.)