Breaking the Mold

How sweet are these little Roxy slippers that Ian bought Liv for her first Christmas?  They finally fit.

A funny thing happened last week.  Ian came on an early morning beach walk with Liv and I.  Generally, this is surf time for Daddy but that day, the waves didn't look good.  I've used an Ergo carrier as a fifth limb since Liv was born.  She's always mellow when she's snug up against my body and I appreciate the hands free aspect of the whole system.  You don't see much baby wearing here in Nicaragua.  In fact, I've only seen it once and I got very excited.  Well, of course Liv was in the Ergo this morning, as she always is, and we started to walk.  Then Ian said, "take her out."  Take her out?  This, of course, had never occurred to me before.

The tide was low and the sand was hard-packed.  Her little Roxy slippers hit the ground and for a second, she looked down at them like she was thinking, "Ready guys?  Let's do this." And then, she was off.  She walked all the way to Jack's house and back.  She pointed out rocks along the way.  She stopped to stare at the waves.  She laughed at the dogs playing with a giant stick.  She did human things.  Things that Ian and I do.

The lesson in this is simple.  Break the mold.  Welcome change.  Moms work so hard to establish a routine that they sometimes fail to recognize when it's time to alter it.  I underestimated my daughter.  I didn't think her little legs were ready to keep up with mom and dad on the beach.  Maybe, subconsciously, it was easier for me to keep carrying her because I wasn't ready to make the change yet.  I wasn't ready for my baby to be a full fledged walking humanoid.  I wasn't ready to shake up my predicatable mornings.

I'm learning that change occurs frequently in our little ones and just when you think you have it all figured out, some new thing comes into the picture and makes everything you've established, obsolete.  So, yes.  Welcome change.  Because having a baby means it's happening all the time.  Good thing for daddies or I may have been carrying Liv in the Ergo, up the stage, to receive her high school diploma.

When was the last time you underestimated your own child's abilities?