Mama, I Did It!

My 2 1/4 year-old said this to me this morning, her longest sentence yet. She was playing with a Christmas toy that she's played with before, so I'm not sure the significance of what she did, but the sentence alone is resonating in my mind. I did it! What joy, what pleasure, to do something and then be able to tell others.

As a second-born, I don't always notice when Gabrielle hits a milestone, there are too many other things that distract me. Truthfully, its just not as exciting as with the first-born when you think 'wow, look what she did!' in amazement. With Gabrielle, I know she's going to do these things. However, she's not as verbal as her sister was, though she's much more mechanical. Actually, she's probably only a few months behind where her sister was verbally. Its nice to hear the sentences because I recall Suzanne telling me to 'stay inside' and 'sit on couch' when she was a bit younger and she wanted to go for an evening walk with her dad only and not with mom in tow.

I did it. It reminds me of the last line in Leo the Late Bloomer when Leo says triumphantly to his mother, "I made it." It makes me a bit sad because the culture not only seems not to value late bloomers, it seems driven to try to hasten their development. To me, this could be a recipe for disaster, but I am probably being overly dramatic. I just know that I hate being pushed and I can't imagine being 2 or 3 or 4 and being pushed to do something I didn't want to do or didn't feel ready to do.