The First, But Definitely Not the Last

It happened. The day came. I don't know if I thought I'd be ready, but I wasn't.

Nealie had one of those days, the school told me. She was falling a lot and I noticed a small bump on her head. Nothing serious, just my die-hard, rough little girl. What's more, her nap today was about an hour and fifteen minutes long. Compared to the four hours she usually endures, I should have known we were in trouble.

We got home, had dinner and started getting ready for bed. Nealie started getting silly, running around the house crab-style. I was reading her books. She runs into the kitchen and WHAM! She does a face-plant on the linoleum. She's crying, there's blood, Dad starts freaking out, frantically searching for the tooth.

No, my daughter didn't knock any teeth out of her mouth. Yes, my household just endured our first fat lip. It's pretty difficult holding a cold washcloth to the face of your own screaming child. A lot of Tylenol and smack-down style icing was all I could do. I gave her a bottle filled with cold milk and she went right to sleep.

I think we're gonna try to keep it simple tomorrow...

This is What Trouble Looks Like

So I figured it was inevitable that Nealie would have pretty expressive feelings. I mean, seriously, look at her source(s). To this day, my mom still tells me, "Danica, your emotions are beautiful." So when Nealie throws a full-blown temper tantrum because I won't let her walk down the center of the street (oh, it's happened) or thrown herself onto the ground because I won't let her walk in some places without holding my hand, I just sigh and try to stay calm. It's hard. REALLY HARD.

What can you do? This tiny person that has all these emotions and such an undefined vocabulary -- it just seems unfair. Although at this point, I'm not sure I'd want to hear what she's calling me, because it definitely doesn't sound like Mama. I've been struggling with what to do during these blowouts, other than hold her so she doesn't hurt herself or just let her thrash it out. The fact is that regardless of what I do, we are dealing with two emotional people here.

And what's worse, Nealie can be a bit of a bully. Being the smallest kid in her school (she recently started daycare at UCCS Family Development Center) has not at all phased her. Usually, the other kids call the "littler kids" baby. But Nealie is fearless and perhaps fearable, so no one considers her "little." At school, I figure it's the teacher's job to keep the peace. But away from school, she's all mine.

So Nealie has a lovely friend, Lily, that we have spent a lot of time with since they were both very small. Nealie started her bully tactics with Lily from early on, growling in her face and sending her crying to her mom. I was hoping that time would fix her intensity, but once again, look at her source(s). Today, we visited our friend to find that Nealie's growling had morphed to shrieking and she still held the ability to send her friend crying to her mom.

Perhaps this is just the nature of children. But I am just as sensitive as Nealie's seemingly grown-up feelings portray. I hate to just sit there and apologize to a crying one-year old. What do you say? "Nealie, I know you probably don't understand but you need to be kind to your friend." Often, I just approach Nealie and remind her to be "gentle" and reinforce with soft touch.

I think that this is my journey as a mommy: to figure out how to deal with Nealie's feelings and energy without stifling it . I don't ever want to teach her that it is not appropriate or okay for her to express herself, but I don't want a kid so off the wall that we're the family that isn't invited to events lest Nealie takes all her clothes off and cusses out the party!!! :)

You'll Never Guess What Happened Next!

About a week before we made the trek to Durango for Nealie's wickedly pre-planned birthday weekend, Nealie took her first steps. Of course, she did it while her daddy was at work. She did it with such nonchalance, I almost didn't notice it. Luckily for Daddy, she was nice enough to take a few steps especially for him that evening. Her "baby steps" continued that week, but mostly with her attached to a devoted parental finger in one of her grasping hands.

Her birthday weekend was lovely, filled with AMAZING food from our gracious host, Nana Laurie. The presents ranged from INCREDIBLE to EXTRAVAGANT to RIDICULOUSLY GENEROUS -- Nealie is stoked on her blinging earrings, can't wait to play with her new kitchen, and is overwhelmingly excited every time she plays in her overstuffed red leather rocker with matching ottoman (seriously, it's nicer than OUR furniture!). And when we thought she was the luckiest little lovebug in the world, her Nana came through with the cherry on top -- a beautiful Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat! Seriously, this baby has it GOOD! :)

Monday rolled around and the family from California and Portland and Colorado Springs all rolled up their sleepsacks and scurried on back home (sorry, we hit the Bar-D Chuckwagon, which warrants some goofy cowboy talk). We love our families but it was hardest for us to say goodbye to Daddy, who had to return to the Springs ahead of us for work. We missed him like crazy.

Then it happened. My Mom, Doug, Nealie and I were all hanging out on Wednesday night and Nealie just stood up and started walking! She continued walking from face to smiling face for the rest of the night. It was awesome. But I wasn't sure how to tell her Daddy.

When I told him I could hear the disappointment in his voice. We'd been missing each other like crazy. That's when Mom gave me MY gift. "Tell Curtis I can't drive you home, but I'll help you with gas." That's right, Daddy came BACK to Durango for the holiday weekend. And it's been wonderful, between him riding the amazing trails and the nostalgia of watching the fireworks from Town Plaza with Uncle Ian... It's been incredible.

But we're just about ready to restart our NORMAL lives. We head back to the Springs on Sunday and look forward to our own bed, our seemingly abandoned cat, and our wonderful friends. But, oh, what a vacation.