Suddenly, She Can!

I wrote in my guest blog about being a mom, about how spending time with Elsie makes me forget the way things were a year or a month or even a week ago, and roots me to the present. What can she do today?

Today Elsie can climb up as many stairs as you put in front of her, but she can only get back down the very bottom one. That's one more than she could do before. Today she can bring me a book and tell me "Read it!" She can feed herself, messily. She answers "no" as though it meant, "I recognize that you just asked me a question!" Today Elsie may whine and cry and stomp her feet if she does not get her way, but when she's in a better mood, she'll bring me a flower and point out, "pretty colors." Today she will say, "I love you" unprompted, and give me many kisses, "Mwah muah muah!"

I don't remember exactly when she started doing all these recent things. Last night she did something that completely blew me away!

Hub put her to bed in her sleepsack, but he left it open, because it was so hot in her room. A few minutes later, she let out a scream, so I went up to check on her. I found her entangled in her sleep sack, hot and sweaty, so I removed it altogether and let her fall asleep in only a t-shirt. I planned to cover her with blankets before going to bed myself, as the temperature drops at night. I left a soft wool blanket hanging from the head of the crib.

Later, I returned to her room, cracking the door and listening to her quiet breath before sneaking in to cover her up. I found her snuggled up in her blanket already, warm and cozy.

I asked Hub, "Did you sneak in and cover her already?"

"No." He said, "I haven't been up there since I put her to bed."

So that's it. She got cold, found her blanket, knew what to do with it even though we almost never put her to sleep with a traditional blanket. She wrapped her little self up in it just like the little bear in her bedtime story, and fell sweetly asleep.