missing my baby...

my daughter is very stubborn...i am still not sure where she gets that.... and she does everything in her own time and her own way. she did not start walking until well after the "normal age for walking" our pediatrician at the time said they wanted to test her for developmental delays...which was a total joke, because she could carry on conversations, knew and appropriately used about 15 words in sign language, and had excellent motor skills. she just didn't want to walk. she could crawl anywhere she wanted to go, and i guess that was fine with her. i spent weeks worrying and pushing her to walk....and finally, one day, she just did it...and never crawled again...

same thing with potty training. her first preschool had a rule that you had to be completely potty trained by your third birthday...hailey wasn't. she would use the bathroom at home and refuse at school. then she stopped going all together. then, she started holding it while at school and having accidents as soon as she got in the car. then, she went completely back to using her pull-ups. thankfully, the daycare didn't kick her out, but i got fussed at a lot....i begged hailey, i put her in time out, i gave her stickers for using the bathroom, i spanked her, i took aways her dresses (ok, i was getting beyond desperate at this point) i even bribed her to by saying we could go to chuckie cheese if she would use the potty. nothing worked. hailey would just say, no thanks, i don't want to go to the potty. finally, i called mom, in tears, for advice. mom said don't say a word to her about it. let it go. change her and act like you don't care. i did this for about a month. finally, the week before school started (two weeks before she turned four!) hailey said, "mom, put panties on me". i did...and she hasn't had an accident since!!!

anyhow, all this to say, i feel like i (and probably other moms, too) spend a lot of time waiting for their kids to reach the next milestone. eating food, getting teeth, talking, crawling, walking, potty training.....and now, hailey's done all that, and she's a "big girl" and i would love to just rock my baby again. i was holding her saturday evening while we were watching mickey mouse club house (blah) and i started rubbing her back and she said, "mom, you can't do that. i am not a baby anymore."