This week, Maya has been doing and saying so many new things, I'm just in awe of this brilliant little person that is our daughter. I've even been getting a little teary-eyed on my way to work in the mornings, thinking of how far she's come and how accomplished she is at the teeny little age of 18 months.
Last night, for example, at the dinner table, Maya very matter-of-factly grasped her fork and started scooping up couscous with it and gracefully brought the couscous to her mouth as if she'd been doing that for years. I could not help but bust out a big grin and some praise for her, and she just looked at me like, "What? We're all civilized human beings here. We use utensils. Carry on, Mom. Your couscous is getting cold."
Secondly, this morning I walked into Maya's room to get her, and I had some diapers in my hands, and Maya clear as a bell announced, "Diapers! Diapers!" I was surprised and delighted because it's not as if we'd been trying to teach her the word "diaper." It's one she just absorbed and picked up on her own, apparently, and she said it back to me for the first time this morning.
Finally, as I was lifting her out of her crib this morning to change her diaper and generally get going with our day, Maya urgently said, "Doggie! Doggie!" So I grabbed her stuffed bulldog out of her crib and gave it to her, and she gave it a hug and kiss. Then, she returned it to me, saying "thank you!" And I realized, Wow, she just wanted to give her doggie a little love before leaving him for the day. That's a really human, sweet thing to do. It really floored me.
It's funny how we all have a general idea of how babies grow into children and how children grow into adults, but the thrill of watching that development in person, in your own home, is really unequalled, I think.
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