Toddlerhood

People get so excited about a child taking his or her first steps.  Everytime I go shopping and get to talking with strangers about Aiden (which happens all the time thanks to his friendly waves to everyone he sees) they inevitably ask, “Is he walking yet?”  To which I must answer, “You better believe it.”  They smile and comment on how cute it is to see a little one toddling around.

Cute?  Yes.  Amazing?  Yes, that’s my infant motoring around on his two widdle feetsies.  Just a few months ago he couldn’t even hold his own head up!  I remember being so excited for each milestone.  I couldn’t wait for him to crawl.  I looked forward to his first steps.  I was proud when he learned to do things so quickly.

Now?  I’m wishing that he had just slowed down a little.  Because what I have now is an 11 month old (OMG first birthday coming up-  hold me!) who has an 11 month old’s cognitive skills and understanding, but a 1.5 year old’s mobility and sense of adventure.  That doesn’t mesh well.

I’m serious.  The kid is walking everywhere.  He doesn’t even crawl anymore, unless he needs to get over something he can’t step over.  If he trips, he gets right back up and keeps on running.  This past weekend I sang at a reunion of my high school jazz band, and we made the mistake of taking Aiden with us to the concert.  Jason and my mom spent the whole time with Aiden in the back of the theatre and out in the school hallway, because all he wanted to do was motor around.  Making him sit on Daddy’s lap in the theatre?  To you I say haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. 

Yesterday I could have throttled the kid.  I went to the library to get some books for us.  First I let Aiden play in the kids area while I selected a couple of board books for him.  He was loving it.  Then I picked him up and settled him on my hip to go pick out books for Mommy.  You’d have thought I was branding him with hot coals or pricking him with needles.  The child did NOT want to be held; he wanted to run around.  And even when I sat him on the floor he wouldn’t stay close by so I could browse the books.  Standing next to me while I held his hand? Nooo.  Standing next to me while I shoved some cheerios in his pie hole?  Noooo.  Standing next to me while I threw random toys to placate him?  Noooo.  He wanted to move, and I was seriously cramping his style. 

Again, being just 11 months, he either didn’t understand that I needed to hold him or just plain didn’t like it.  So he screamed.  Loud, quaking ”I am the most miserable baby in the world” screams that echoed around the (formerly) peaceful library.  I finally gave up, grabbed him, and left without any books.  I wasn’t just going to let him run wild.  And I have to admit that I was pissed off.  But he doesn’t understand, and I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer, until he’s able to know what “behaving” means, before I can expect him to be good.

I’m gonna wrap this up.  A certain TODDLER with an ATTITUDE just sidled up next to my chair, wrapped his arms around me in a loving embrace, and nipped my damn hip.  Lovely.  He’s lucky he’s so damn cute.  It’ll probably be his saving grace for the next couple of years.