Truly Grateful 2.0

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted a Truly Grateful Tuesday  - to be honest with you I was a little disenchanted with how it was going.

I didn’t like the listing. The listing of random things. The listing of random things in weirdly formatted sentences.

Well…you get the idea.

And it felt way too forced, on my part. (I don’t know if it felt that way to you?)

Don’t get me wrong, I was absolutely grateful for all that I typed about but I just couldn’t feel it in what I spoke.

My life is so full & rich right now; I want to share that with everyone. That was my point of the truly grateful Tuesday. (And also to force myself to enjoy so much more in life, and notice the little things.) I have completely accomplished that, now I just wish to express it a little better.

So now I give you a moment of Truly Grateful-ness….

G has started this phase of wanting to feed herself, it happened way too soon. I enjoy shoving heaping spoonfuls of baby food into her mouth. I’m a mom, and that’s what mom’s do. It seems to help in confirming I am…indeed…a mom. Tonight I finally decided to go with it. Instead of spooning in tastes of peaches & cottage cheese – I cut up the peaches and put them on her tray. Watching her happily scoop up handfuls and shoving them in her mouth. She has great form. Even employing the ‘tilt head sideways to get the piece that’s hanging off the back of my hand’ technique.

Then I took a deep breath as I placed the bowl of cottage cheese in front of her. I even put a spoon in the bowl. (Which I am pretty sure it was more for my need of having it there, than her need of well…needing it.) You could tell this is something I haven’t done very often, as G looked at me inquisitively when I set the bowl down. I encouraged her: ‘Go ahead, dig in. I gave you a spoon.’ (Again, the spoon was for me, not her.) She gingerly took the spoon (okay okay I admit it; I put TWO spoons in the bowl. One short one for her use and one regular baby spoon…just in case she needed me to feed her.)

Ahem…

She gingerly took the SPOONS out of the bowl, and licked one. That was it…game over…she dropped the spoonS and both hands went diving into her bowl. I am quite certain this entertained her for 20 minutes, though I did not time it. Tyson kept hearing me giggle and would catch me smiling, at first asking why I was smiling, and after the third response of ‘just watching her’, he finally stopped asking. I was completely amazed by this little girl. (Not a baby…a little girl…) And then it just became amusing as she would hold the bowl in one arm (tilted like you might hold a bowl while trying to stir a thick doughy substance) while eating with the other hand. Then finally…the bowl licking.

All of this fun led to a very strong need for a bath.

I decided to throw all caution to the wind – tonight would be her first night taking a bath in the big tub. No baby bath tub, no constrains of any kind. Just G and the tub (and about 8 rubber duckies that Tyson insisted on throwing in).

As G played in the bath, splashing, enjoying the freedom of movement and playing in the running water, I again just sat there, enjoying the chance to watch this little person grow up right in front of my eyes. Thinking about her first bath, and how it’s right there in my brain, like it happened yesterday – but also happened a lifetime ago. All the reminiscing and amazement was starting to bring a tear to my eye….and that’s when it happened…..

…….

She pooped in the tub.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I grabbed her out of the tub to save her clean body from needing ANOTHER bath. And as I dressed her for bed and combed her hair, thinking of how big my baby girl is…I told her…this will DEFINITELY be a story I share with her prom date.

I am grateful for having been blessed by having her in my life.

I am grateful for new experiences.

I am grateful for stories to tell prom dates.