I take a picture of my daughter every single day. Actually, that’s a lie. I take many many pictures of her every single day. And yet somehow, I don’t manage to capture the amazing truth of her. Sleepy eyes when she first opens them for the day, the sound of her giggle at bedtime, the look on her face when she wants to play in the pool. The way she bounces in her seat when she get excited for whatever snack. The way she sings. The way she relaxes into my arms when I pick her up from daycare. The way she scoots away because I’ve told her only one more song (she watches songs on my iPad before bed, while I do her hair) and she knows the song is almost over. The way she wiggles her hand in mine until she finds exactly the right spot. The myriad things that make up our every day together, and yet are so fleeting. When she was newborn, it was about the smell of the top of her head, the way she rested her head on my shoulder and preferred one side over the other. The way my arms ached when she wasn’t in them. So many things, fleeting and gone. Some of them are wisps of memory and some are lost to the ages (or the next baby, I wonder?). This afternoon I found myself wondering what I thought about before she came along. Work, ferrets, cooking, of course my husband. Going out, doing theatre, meeting up with friends. Gaming. It seems almost like it belongs to someone else, but as she’s gotten older and more independent, it is coming back, but it all seems a little bit less shiny. Besotted. That’s what I am.

Enough of the cheesy stuff for a paragraph or two! Last weekend in swimming class, she was evaluated. And she’s already being moved up from “super waterbabies” to “extreme waterbabies.” I had to ask what the difference was, because for me the biggest change has already happened; I don’t get in the water with her anymore. (I sit on the sidelines, and I have to say, that room is HOT and STICKY and GROSS when you aren’t in the water!) Well, the difference is that she will get to spend more of her time in the water, and more time using full breath control. Which is good. I’d started thinking about signing her up for 2 lessons per week just to give her a chance to get more time in the water. She’s never ready to leave by the time class is over.

She has started potty training! She wears panties to school every day, and usually comes home with only one pair in which she had an accident. Unfortunately, she remembers each one, so every time I try to offer her a choice of panties in the morning, she will choose a pair because “that one peepee!” Even when I explain to her that I’ve washed it, and there’s no peepee in them anymore, she will refuse to wear any pair of panties in which she’s had an accident. I think I might try showing her the washer full of her clothes and explain how it gets all the dirt and spills and peepee out of clothing. And I’d better do it soon because we’ve only got one or two more patterns left!

She’s also sprouting up so fast. I need to go through all her clothes and pull out everything 3T and smaller. It shouldn’t be hard, since that’s about 99% of her wardrobe. Guess she gets some new clothing!

Okay,  that’s all I have time for tonight.