Onward and Upward

Everyone will tell you that “kids grow up so fast – you’ll see it happen overnight”. I always thought they meant physically. And while Coco is growing like a weed physically, she is mentally doing hot laps. Last night, as I went to bed, I turned to my husband and said “Ryan, she just grew up in front of our eyes this weekend”.

Not grown up as in wearing-makeup-singing-hanna-montana-and-dating-boys grown up obviously. But she learned so many things in one weekend – without us even trying to ‘teach’ them to her that I was just amazed. Of course this is God’s plan, Darwinism, whatever you want to call it. Kids are “designed” to learn quickly. But I had never experienced it firsthand before. And from what I’m told even moms who have been through it before forget the details and are equally amazed the 5^th time around as the 1^st.

Just the highlights of what she accomplished this weekend:

• Learned to say “up” (which comes out "uf")
  
• Learned to say “more” (which comes out "muh")
  
• Learned to say “eye” (pretty darn spot on!)
  
• Learned to say “Elmo” (which comes out Eh-mo)
• Learned "what an owl says" (who who who)
• Learned to say "out" while pointing to the deck doors when she wants "recess"
  

• Learned where her head is and how to pat it when you ask her
• Same with her tummy although its still hit or miss
• Learned to take her finger and point to her temple when you ask her where her eye is
• Points to (ok *IN*) my eye and says “eye”
• Learned how to move the baby gate aside that leads upstairs to climb around it
• Learned to walk to the edge of each flagstone in the backyard path and then step over the space between to get to the next one
• Learned how to use a straw
• Learned how to “baby run” (she runs for a bit and then either comes to a dead stop or plops down)
• Started blowing on her dinner bites before eating them (after watching mommy do that)
• Decided it would be nice to climb on EVERYTHING
  
• Stopped taking her very last bottle – her bedtime bottle

I realize that mostly, these are by no means milestones. But to achieve so many accomplishments in three short days just rattles my brain. I’m lucky if I can remember what I wanted from the store by the time I get there. I can’t imagine learning new things hour after hour, all day, everyday.

Apart from being amazed, I’m a little saddened. The finality of no more bottles being the thing that hit the hardest. My baby is not a baby anymore. I have no baby. I now have an adorable toddler in her place. And while I’m enjoying everything she’s becoming and delighting in all her discoveries, I’m still a little sad that my baby is gone - we’ll never pass that way again. At least not with Cora. And of course that is the way it is supposed to be. Onward and Upward. Just let mom stop for a sigh and a tear every once in a while along the way.