Changes

Sometimes kids seem to grow up almost by stealth. For months, you go along thinking you have a toddler, and then one day you look over and realize that somewhere along the line your child morphed into a preschooler and come to think of it you can't think how long it's been since you had to have the "drawing is only on paper" talk or the "some words are bathroom words" talk or the "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH THIS SECOND" talk.

And then sometimes, it happens more quickly.

This morning when I first picked up Baby S to change her diaper, she felt at least three pounds heavier than yesterday. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true (and no, it's not just my muscles dying slowly of disuse - that's happening too, but too slowly to be the issue here).

By this evening, she had:

- Poured a bowl of cereal on the floor.

- Stood on a chair methodically taking all but two eggs out of the container of eggs Viggy had just brought home and breaking them (and when I came back in the room - this whole thing took, seriously, about a minute - her reaction was to point, smile proudly, and say "Bee-bee!").

- Crept up behind Adi and N as they were laying side-by-side on the couch reading (awww) and, grinning fiendishly, used one hand each to pull both of their ponytails at the same time. Repeatedly.

- Taken off her own diaper four times.

- Unraveled most of a spool of dental floss.


I think I officially have to stop calling her Baby S, and start calling her Toddler S or something.

In retrospect I maybe should have seen this day coming. She did draw on one of my library books last week (fortunately, it was by Neil Gaiman - if I have to be stuck buying a book off the library, I'm glad it's at least one I wouldn't have minded buying anyway), and she's been getting extremely picky about what clothes she wants to wear (she doesn't have the words yet to tell us which clothes she wants, but you can tell she wants the pink dress when you try to put on the yellow dress and she starts kicking it away while yelling "daidaidaidaidai").

And just in time for us all to spend a whole summer together, too. I'm not worried, though. Toddlers are fun, as long as you keep them away from the scissors and off the windowsill and away from the markers and from the bathtub, and remember to tape their diapers on. It's a lot of fun, really.

And the eggs. Keep them away from the eggs.