Hearing my daughter’s first words, was truly wonderful. Her first word was “bye”, shortly followed by “Daddy” and “Mummy”. We are slowly expanding on her vocabulary and it’s a cuteness overload.
All the anxiety that I had over her not speaking or even trying, has faded. The nervous thoughts of her first word being a profanity, are happily behind me. It’s another deep cleansing breath of relief, as another milestone has been reached.
Milestones in a child’s life, are a great measure, of where you are at and where you are heading. I’m a control freak, so the milestone map, of what should happen and when was invaluable.
It’s also a massive stick, that I beat myself with regularly and still do. The rolling and crawling estimations, were broad but my girl still managed to miss them by a mile. Weaning was slightly off target, as was the leap to solid foods. Behind, behind, behind. That said, walking very fast became running and babbling very quickly became talking. The sympathetic ‘awwww don’t worry, she’ll get there” has been replaced by ‘Wow, she is doing amazingly for her age’.
She is fast. She is chatty. She is getting very frustrated. Her words, are not coming to her, as fast as she would like so there are tantrums aplenty. Riding the toddler roller coaster is fun and beyond annoying, in equal measure. From the beautiful sound of her calling my name in the morning, to the massive rage-filled hissy fit at lunch time. It’s all go, all day, everyday.
In short, she does alot of pointing and I do a lot of guessing. Her word library is expanding, where mine has been reduced to a single question.
This?
This?…this?…this? We walk around the house and she is practicing her words and pointing. I’m desperate to know what she wants. I get there eventually but not before my daughter is thoroughly pissed off at her incompetent mother.
I am given on average, three chances by my girl, to get what she needs. Each failure is met with a firm but adorable…no! This is also accompanied by a little chubby hand thrust in my face.
Needless to say, it’s frustrating for both of us. I am amazed at what I will do to keep the peace. When she would rather play with toilet roll than teddy bears or tampons instead of stacking rings – I just let it go. I’m picking my battles on a day to day basis. As her frustration peaks and her tantrums become more frequent, I’m not going to stress over things that ultimately won’t harm her.
Once again, I find myself, wishing for the next stage. A time when she can make herself understood. The time where communication is easy and tantrums are less. I need to be careful here, as we are all too quick to wish for better. All too eager to press fast forward on an irritating time.
The days are so long but the years are so short.
I have read this many times. My baby will never have another first word. Before long, she will be chatting confidently, with free abandon. I need to learn how to wade through my anxiety and embrace today. Each little new milestone is important. It’s not a tick sheet, it’s life.