Toward maturity

I was struck the other day by what a difference a year can make.

Last fall/winter, we were struggling with a couple of difficult toddler independence issues, mostly with getting into her car seat and putting on her coat. Eventually, it just became part of our normal routine; something we expected to happen, awful as it was.

Then I realized the other day that we haven’t had a battle for the car seat in a LONG time. She willfully climbs right in and can even almost strap herself in the entire way. Leaving daycare is a much more enjoyable experience now that it doesn’t involve her avoiding the car seat, me crying and pleading, and then me forcefully putting her in there. I open the door for her, she climbs in and does as much of the strapping in as she can, I finish the job for her, and the whole time we’re pleasantly talking about what kind of a day she had at school and how she can help when making dinner that night.

We finally solved the coat issues last year when we taught her how to put her coat on by herself, but I was a little afraid that once coat season arrived this year, she would begin to resist it again. But so far my fear has been unfounded, as she’s usually quite eager to put on her coat either before leaving the house or leaving daycare. And she even taught herself an additional way to put on her coat, putting the hood on her head and then putting her arms in the sleeves of the coat.

Both of those things got me thinking about how far we’ve come in just a year’s time as we’ve seen her mature. Of course, mature is a relative term when you use it in reference to a two-year-old and of course she’s not a perfect angel all the time, but the fact is there: she is maturing.

She’s maturing in how she deals with difficult situations.

She’s maturing in the kinds of questions she asks.

She’s maturing in how she processes information.

She’s maturing in the decisions she makes.

I love seeing the little girl she is becoming, right before my very eyes.