what a difference a year and six months can make.

a year and a half and looking for trouble

The term “parenting” is really a misnomer, a ridiculous attempt to place a myriad of evolving behaviors  into a single category. I spend alot of my time “parenting,” and by that I mean I spend alot of my time realizing that everything I know about my kid is no longer useful as she is an entirely different being than she was a few months back.  This baby doesn’t need to burp, can already latch and nurse, can use a spoon, is eating solid food…can crawl….can WALK. Damn.

But at the same time, each new phase gives way to a growing being, a being that futher understands how to interact with her world, her parents, the dog, her grandparents. A being that can move, can make decisions, can express desires. A being that is, frankly, no longer a being, but a person!

I talked about the changes in “parenting” that occurred when my daughter was 6 months old, and indeed, a year later, at about 18 months, the changes are again incredible and beautiful. SO what is it that kids do at 18 months you may ask???

• They talk alot: My daughter’s use of language has indeed been one of the most entertaining part of her current age. She ‘knows’ a few languages… but gets them mixed up. Hence, last time we took her to church and the congregation started singing “Hosanna in the highest,” my daughter happily joined in, unleashing a full volumed ode to her favorite amphibian (OH RANA OH RANA OH RANA!!!). The audience was rolling.

• They move alot: My daughter and her grandparents love to skype, but my fam in Texas, not familiar with where my partner and I keep, say, my daughter’s monkey costume of Dora the Explorer books, love to ask her about these items. Of course, my daughter is just dying to show the books, costumes, etc,  to my parents on the camera, and thus runs up the stairs, digs through her stuff, and emerges 5 minutes later with a story of Benny the Bull wishing on Las Estrellas. Then with her monkey shoes. Then with her monkey hat. This goes on for hours, or until I get tired of following my daughter up the stairs and end up yelling at my folks to only ask her about the stuff directly in arm’s reach.

• 

  hiding the spoils of her successful request for "TWO!" juiceboxes (it worked multiple times)

  They make connections: Sure, you understand that you can sing a song two times or have two apples, but think about what a complicated concept that really is. Songs are clearly intangible, where as apples are tangible and juicy. So to ask for two apples makes sense to a kid, dude, give me two apples, but to ask for two songs, what you are really requesting is that the mama sing Rubber Ducky You’re the One a second time. When my daughter made this connection it was just awesome. She smiled from ear to ear in a way that just screamed, wow, intangible things can be numbered and counted too!

• 

  Parenting FAIL.

  They understand…. This one is a double edged sword. One day you say whatever you want around your kid and watch what you used to watch pre-parenting, the next day, your daughter is highly interested in the way the doctors treat the MMA fighters after 3 brutal rounds of fighting. Yeah, one day its MMA, the next day you are sreaming “back pack” and “Use the map!”, knowing that Dora will get there eventually, but still being oddly nervous…

• They communicate: One thing is for sure, “communicating” is fundamentally different than “talking.” Communication does not always involve spoken words, though our culture relies on them heavily. Kids, well, they dont always rely on spoken words. They throw fits, throw food, throw themselves on the floor… They communicate with looks of need, with gestures of desire, with faces of fear. And sometimes, they communicate through imitation. My daughter just loves to do this, I think part of it is her early relieance on Sign Language, but she is not afraid at all to use gestures and imitation to relay ideas. In fact, she has given to retelling entire stories by acting them out. My favorite instance of this: after seeing the doctor treat the aforementioned MMA fighter in between rounds, she proceeded to tell my mom the story, acting out the doctor looking into the mouth of the fighter to check his teeth, then, to all our surprise, acting out the role of the fighter, into whose mouth the doctor was looking. If you think that sentence was confusing, imagine how long it took us to figure out that she was alternating between characters in the story to tell us what happened! That little devil is gonna be a kick-ass charades player one day….