Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A million magical little things and not much at all

Well, hello, all! It's been pretty quiet on our blog lately. I keep meaning to write a post but somehow I never get around to it. I think there are two main reasons for this.

Reason number one, which is obvious enough, is that I spend the vast majority of my time with a 20 month-old. She has a big personality and rather strong ideas about what she would like to do and how to do it, so even when she's asleep and I should have time to write, my brain is usually kind of fried.

Reason number two has been floating around in my head lately as a way of describing my current reality as mother of said small person: our days seem to be filled with a million magical little things and not much at all, both at the same time. Little A is in the midst of a language explosion, and it's amazing to witness her learning to express herself with so many new words and short phrases. I marvel at this learning on a daily basis, as well as at the new skills she's acquiring so rapidly. For instance, when exactly did she learn to pour water from one cup to another? And the other day, she walked up a kids' play structure, holding onto the railing, with one foot in front of the other for the very first time, but she looked like she'd been doing it forever. These are all special milestones for me to witness, but I feel like when I write them down, they come out as little snippets that simply don't capture the magic that happens every day as my girl grows and learns. And when I zoom out from the new words and skills, I see a blur of playgroups, park outings, errands and nap times that are hard for me to even remember come the end of the week, let alone find a way to write about that wouldn't put us all to sleep.

My life right now is mundane and magical all at once. I suppose the two balance each other out and keep me from being overwhelmed by either extreme.