Oooooval

I think one of the silliest things we do as parents is underestimate our kids. We don't do it in a mean way. It's more of a protective thing. Almost daily I hear a story about "I was so surprised when my baby did X..." The truth is, they're not really babies anymore. Truitt and his friends are barely holding on to the toddler phase at this point. Of course, realizing this doesn't make it any easier. It still doesn't allow the MamaBrain to process how much her now child (not baby) is actually capable of.

I remember when I realized this was happening with me. I remember so clearly being at the park with Truitt and he wanted to climb the jungle-gym and come down the slide. I was so apprehensive about it. I thought "But he is just a baby. He can't go down the slide alone!" So, I let him go down the small slide while I held him around the waist. He was unimpressed by the whole event and didn't show any real drive to slide again.

It was only a couple days later that I was walking the dog while Truitt was at the park with Magda, the nanny. I could see them playing on the jungle-gym and was excited to surprise Tru with a visit. As I got closer, I saw what I didn't think he could do: He was climbing the ladder and going down the slide. The big slide. Alone. Magda was at the bottom to catch him, but she didn't need to. He would slow at the bottom and hop off, then run back to the ladder to go again. Wow, my boy! Why did I think he couldn't do that? He can run, jump and throw one hell of a tantrum. Of course he can slide! And he was having a BLAST doing it! I felt a weird guilt. I hadn't given him enough credit. Really, though, I was just not admitting how big my boy was getting (and continues to get). I really learned my lesson that day. He has to be allowed to try things and now I let him. More often than not, he accomplishes what he set out to do. Sometimes not, but I am there as a safety net, but not as a restraint.

Of course, I am not the only parent guilty of this skill denial. Dada is routinely amazed by what the boy can do. In his defense, he is not with Tru all day, everyday, all week (well, neither am I- for both our sanity, but you know what I mean). On our recent trip to Corpus, Nana busted out a toy that all kiddos love: The Tupperware Sorting Ball! Truitt was instantly in to it and would ask Dada again and again to play with him and the sorting ball.

I was watching them play and noticed that Ray was not talking about the toy much. I said "You should tell him what all the pieces are" and he looked at me as if to say "Yeah, because a baby is going to know 'pentagon.'" BUT Dada took the suggestion and GUESS WHAT! No, Tru didn't "know" what the more complicated pieces were by looking at them, but he did try to say the words and some he picked up on and retained- like Oval. He now knows an oval when he sees one. No, he can't identify an pentagon, but he can say it if you ask him to. I guaranty you, Dada will try to push the boundaries of language from now on.... Lesson learned. Again.